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BBC Radio 4 FM

BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

BBC Radio 4

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Factual: Science & Nature: Nature & Environment

Countryside magazine featuring the people and wildlife that shape the landscape of Britain

Countryside magazine featuring the people and wildlife that shape the landscape of the British Isles

BBC Radio 4 LW

Open Country: The Maelor

The Maelor

BBC Radio 4 - Open Country, The Maelor

Mike Parker takes us on a tour of the Maelor, a part of Wales that juts forcibly east

Mike Parker, author of All the Wide Border, takes Miles Warde round an unusual area once marked on maps as Flintshire (detached).

"When I was a kid, a little junior baby map addict, it always worried me enormously - Flintshire (detached). Why is it detached? What's wrong with it?"

Mike Parker is obsessed by an area of Flintshire called the Maelor. On the map he says it looks like a calloused big toe sticking into the plump ribs of England. Situated slightly south of a line between Wrexham and Whitchurch, it follows few of the expected border rules. And to prove his point, he's taking Miles Warde on a tour, from the Wychbrook to Hanmer and the border post on the strange Fenn's mosses. You'll also hear from a local Welsh language teacher called Dr Cymraeg - aka Stephen Rule - and visit the vicarage where author Lorna Sage grew up. Her most famous book is called Bad Blood.

Mike Parker is the author of All The Wide Border: Wales, England and the Places Between

The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde

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