Original subtitles

(wind howling)

(inspiring music)

(upbeat music)

(playful music)

- [Narrator] Our journey starts

on the north coast of East Anglia,

at the resort town of Cromer,

before heading along the shoreline

towards the old fishing harbor of Blakeney.

Heading inland past a series of magnificent country houses,

we take a look at the current Queen's

royal residence at Sandringham.

At King's Lynn, we discover warehouses

going back to the 15th century,

when it was one of the main ports on the East Coast.

On the far side of the low-lying Fens

is the city of Peterborough

and its great medieval cathedral.

To the north, on a road first built by the Romans,

is the market town of Stamford.

Our journey ends at two spectacular houses,

Harlaxton Manor, built in the 19th century,

and Belvoir Castle, which has a history

stretching back to the Norman Invasion of 1066.

(triumphant music)

This is Cromer, on the north coast of East Anglia,

and it was the Victorians

who made it the popular place it is today.

Wealthy merchants and financiers from the city of Norwich

got into the habit of using this town as a summer retreat,

making it an early seaside resort.

Expansion was helped by the arrival of the railway

in 1877, which linked the town to Norwich,

as well as London, Manchester, and Birmingham.

The Victorians stamped their mark finally

with the construction of the town's pier,

complete with a theater on the end.

Before the 19th century, this was a simple fishing port,

and famous for its Cromer crab.

(peaceful music)

Two miles inland is Felbrigg Hall,

a good example of 17th century architecture.

This was once one of the largest country estates in Norfolk,

though today, it only extends to roughly 1,700 acres.

The house is a real mixture of architectural styles.

The front of the house is pure Jacobian

from the early 17th century.

Move around to the north and we find a perfect

restoration style red brick wing of the 1680's,

and at the rear, a small 18th century Georgian bay,

which was to house the owner's picture collection.

This mixture of styles can be seen

in many houses across the country

and may well reflect the owner's wish

to retain the old house

rather than put it down and build a new one.

Today, the house is in the care

of the National Trust and open to visitors.

Further around the coast in the county of Norfolk

is one of the finest garden parks in the region.

The man behind the design of Sheringham Hall and Park

was Humphry Repton.

He was the last of the great English

landscape gardeners and architects

that span the 18th century.

He often worked alongside other designers

on some of England's finest houses,

but Sheringham is largely his own creation,

and he described it as a favorite

and darling child in Norfolk.

The house is still in private hands,

but the park is in the care

of the National Trust and open to the public.

The only addition to the grounds

is the small garden temple,

which had been planned in Repton's day, but never realized.

He designed the park in 1812, and since then,

successive generations of the Upshur family,

who own the estate, have continued to develop the garden.

In the early 20th century,

the family obtained rare rhododendron seeds of various types

and the plants can still be seen flourishing

amongst the woodlands.

Various walks have been designed for visitors,

including a Repton walk, which takes in coastal views

through the trees planted by Repton back in 1811,

and only now, in full maturity.

And one of the best ways of seeing the woods and plants

are from a series of viewing towers around the park,

giving visitors a chance to climb above the canopy

and look out across the woods to the North Norfolk Coast.

(gentle music)

The coastline is one of the great

unspoiled habits of Britain.

It's incredibly diverse and includes broad sandy beaches,

mud flats, and salt marshes.

It's a very popular place for bird watchers

as well as walkers, who can use the Norfolk Coast Path.

This is a long distance foot path of roughly 72 kilometers,

which was opened in 1986.

There are also a number of circular trails,

designed for an afternoon walk.

Much of the coastline has been designated

an area of outstanding natural beauty

and conservations bodies, like the National Trust,

own much of the land to protect it

from any sort of development.

And right at the heart of the protected area of coast

is the village of Blakeney.

Just a hundred years ago, this was a commercial sea port,

but now the harbor is silted up

and only the smallest of craft

are able to pass out along the channel to the open water.

The history of the town goes back to the 10th century,

when it was called Snitterley.

The name Blakeney first appears in a document of 1340.

For several hundred years,

the town had a reputation for acts of piracy,

as foreign ships seeking shelter during bad weather

were often stripped of their cargo.

Today, the harbor and the surrounding marshes

are all controlled by the National Trust.

The next harbor is Wells-next-the-Sea,

which was once a haven for smugglers,

as well as being a successful port

in the 19th century, when the railway was built.

Today, the railway is gone and the town,

which is known locally as Wells,

is alive with tourists in the summer,

who come for the sailing at the popular regatta,

and in the winter, birdwatchers come

to watch the bitterns, turns, oystercatchers,

avocets, and marsh harriers.

The town is now nearly a mile inland,

and constant dredging is needed

to keep the approach channel open.

At the entrance to the harbor

is the present lifeboat station,

which houses an all-weather seagoing lifeboat

and an in-shore rescue inflatable.

It is not only the bird life that visitors come to see.

Numerous motorboats leave harbors with passengers,

going out to the sandbars to watch

the colonies of gray seals.

These are some of the most charismatic mammals in Britain,

and can be seen basking on sand banks

during the seal watching season between April and October.

There are two species in Britain,

the common and the gray.

The main difference between the two

is that the common seal has a shorter muzzle

and a V-shaped nostril, while the gray seals

have longer muzzles and parallel nostrils.

(peaceful music)

Each colony will comprise roughly 500 seals.

They are by nature curious animals

and will often swim around the tourist boats,

popping their heads up to have a look.

The seals can also be seen on Holkham Beach,

which is one of the most unspoiled in the country.

(seagulls honking)

The beach is also part of one of the largest nature reserves

which is managed by Natural England,

in conjunction with the Holkham Estate,

and lying a mile or so inland

is one of the top 10 treasure houses of England,

Holkham Hall. (regal music)

Holkham Hall is one of the finest country houses

in the country, built in the mid-1700's

for the first Earl of Lester.

The main building took 30 years to complete.

In fact, the earl died five years before this happened,

leaving his successors in such a cash-strapped state

that they couldn't afford

to make any adjustments to his original plans.

Holkham therefore remains a magnificent example

of what is known as the Palladian style,

which was derived from the ancient Roman age

and reinterpreted by the Italian architect,

Andrea Palladio, in the 16th century.

Quite apart from the Roman-looking main entrance,

with its classical columns,

there are four large wings, each with their own role.

One was a chapel, another was a library,

the third wing was the private quarters for the family,

and the fourth a guest wing.

The whole center of the house

was designed for entertaining and to impress.

(regal music)

A thick bank of mist means,

to get to our next location 10 miles away,

we need to go over the top of it

and then drop down when it's cleared.

This is Houghton Hall, a Palladian mansion like Holkham,

built by Sir Robert Walpole, who is generally recognized

as the country's first prime minister,

although the job title didn't

officially exist in those days.

He was also the first politician

to live at 10 Downing Street in London,

which was a personal gift to him

from King George the Second.

It's only because Walpole insisted on

returning the property when he left power

that Downing Street remains the official residence

of serving prime ministers,

but Houghton Hall was where he wanted to be,

and here in Norfolk, he created a very grand house indeed.

Today, his descendants are still in residence

and the estate is open to the public.

The Palladian style often dictated

that the most important floor of the house,

or the piano nobile, should be on the first floor,

with all the domestic offices,

such as the kitchen, pantries, laundry,

and servants' rooms at ground level.

At Houghton, a grand flight of steps

led up to the main hall.

Economizing costs could be made,

as the stable block was built of bricks,

which were cheaper and easily available locally,

rather than the York stone

used to build the main house,

which had to come by sea to Wells

and then be hauled on wagons to Houghton.

Houghton's classical style was even used

when creating the estate village

at the main gate to the house, where Walpole's staff lived.

Close by is the village of Castle Acre,

named after the castle which dominates it.

(dramatic music)

It was built soon after the Norman Invasion of England

in 1066 for the Earl of Surrey,

and designed to intimidate the local population.

It is a motte and bailey construction,

the motte being the round mound

where the main stone tower was

and the large defensive bailey,

which once surrounded Castle Acre Priory, built by the Earl.

(religious music) But within a short time,

this proved too small, and a new priory

was built within the castle grounds, a kilometer also away.

This was one of England's first Cluniac priories,

which was directly administered by

the Abbot of Cluny in France.

In 1537, King Henry the Eighth,

following his fight with the pope in Rome

over his divorce from his first wife,

ordered the destruction

of all the monastic houses in England

and took all the treasure for himself.

It was called the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

He then gave Castle Acre Priory and all the land it owned

to one of his nobles, which eventually passed

to the Earl of Lester, who's descendants own

the Holkham Estate we saw earlier.

In 1862, Queen Victoria bought the Sandringham Estate

for her elder son, the future Edward the Seventh,

and his Danish wife, Alexandria.

Three years later, he decided he needed

a much larger house for entertaining

and built the one we see today.

Unlike Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle,

which effectively belong to the state,

Sandringham is privately owned by the reigning monarch

and a retreat for the royal family

at certain times of the year,

particularly during the winter months.

In 1908, Edward the Seventh opened the gardens

to the public on certain days,

and George the Fifth opened a museum in 1930.

But it was in 1977 that the present queen

opened the house to the public for the first time

during the summer months, when she is not in residence.

It has proved very popular ever since.

Close to the Sandringham Estate

is one of the finest examples of a Norman castle

to be found in the country, Castle Rising.

(dramatic music)

Today, it still looks very much as it was

when it was built in 1140 for Baron William d'Aubigny.

30 years later, the surrounding earthworks

were enlarged, probably due to rebellion

against the king in the 1170's.

They are some of the largest

and best preserved examples in the country.

The castle's most famous residence

was perhaps Queen Isabella, daughter of the king of France,

who was exiled here by her son,

King Edward the Third, for her part in the gruesome murder

of his father and her husband, Edward the Second, in 1327.

She was said to be a beautiful

but cruel, manipulative figure,

and she has become known as the She-Wolf of France.

Centuries ago, many of the East Coast ports

were right on the coastline,

but sediment deposits have forced them some way inland.

The best example of this is King's Lynn,

now a good four kilometers

from the mouth of the Great Ouse.

(gentle music)

In medieval times, the wide river helped the town

become the third largest port in the country.

It was as important to Britain then

as the great city of Liverpool was

during the industrial age of the 19th century.

A few years ago, King's Lynn became

Great Britain's first member of The Hanse,

the modern day equivalent

of the medieval Hanseatic League.

The original league was an alliance of commercial guilds

that maintained a trading monopoly

over the Baltic Sea and Northern Europe

between the 13th and 17th centuries.

It was a sort of forerunner of the European Union today.

A number of the long warehouses on the quay

go back to this period of history.

The flat landscape of what is known as The Fens

offer some bizarre sights

of ships appearing to cruise across the fields.

This Russian freighter is traveling up the river Nene

on its way to The Wash and the North Sea.

But first, it has to navigate through

the swing bridge at the aptly named

village of Sutton Bridge.

In the 1930's, a series of locks were built on the river

to control water levels and potential flooding.

One result of this was that small ships,

like this freighter, could use the river again,

which they had not been able to do

for some considerable time.

It had come from Wisbech, which like King's Lynn,

was much nearer to the sea,

and is now 15 kilometers inland.

During the 18th century,

sea trade began to move to the West Coast,

at ports like Bristol and Liverpool.

This meant that places like Wisbech

almost stood still in time, and as a result,

it still has the feeling of a Georgian town

with fine houses fronting the river Nene.

Peckover House, built in 1722,

is a good example of a successful merchant's house,

and shows just how prosperous Wisbech once was.

Flying west across the flat landscape of The Fens,

railway lines leads us to

the cathedral city of Peterborough,

which has a history stretching back to the Romans.

By far the most imposing building is the cathedral,

which is one of the most important

12th century buildings in England.

The architecture is mainly Norman,

and building began after the first cathedral

burnt down in 1116.

The Norman tower in the center

was rebuilt about 200 years later,

though it still retains its original look.

An enormous amount of stone

was needed to build the cathedral, and luckily,

there was a limestone quarry on church lands nearby,

which had been in operation since Roman times.

But the glory of Peterborough Cathedral

is the west front, which was added in the 14th century.

This was built at a time when the architectural style

was changing to the Gothic.

The three arches are the defining image

of this great building,

and are unrivaled in medieval architecture.

10 miles to the north is Stamford,

one of the finest medieval towns in Europe.

Five old churches still stand, from an original 14,

which gives a clue as to Stamford's importance,

but as the wool trade, which brought wealth, declined,

so too did the town.

However, during the late 17th and 18th centuries,

Stamford revived its fortunes,

as it was on what was known as the Great North Road,

which was the main route to

the north of England and on to Scotland.

It had been first been built by the Romans,

during their occupation of England.

The town was a useful stopping place for travelers,

who would stay in the George Hotel,

a coaching inn which still has

its 250 year old sign across the road

that once welcomed the carriages.

The horses would have been changed in the courtyard,

where there is now an outside restaurant.

(birds chirping) (regal music)

At the end of this long avenue, just outside Stamford,

is a house that was built by William Cecil,

Queen Elizabeth's first minister.

It is perhaps the largest and grandest

Tudor residence in the country

and took over 40 years to complete, Burghley House.

It is so large that it seems more like

a vast royal palace than a private house.

This was just as well,

because when Queen Elizabeth came to stay,

she arrived with 150 officials in attendance,

all of whom who had to sleep,

eat, and be entertained in the house.

A lot of room and a lot of money was needed

whenever the queen dropped by.

On the roof, the same style of turrets

seen on smaller Tudor brick houses

can also be seen here at Burghley,

but on a much grander scale.

These turrets, which look like a bit like pepper pots,

had rooms in them, so that more intimate meals

could be taken with views over the park.

This really was a grand palace fit to entertain a queen.

During the medieval period, it had been the great cathedrals

that would dominate the landscape

and built for the glory of God.

The Tudor period, on the other hand,

is best remembered for its great houses,

which were built not for the glory of God

but for the glory of the people who lived in them,

like William Cecil, who Queen Elizabeth made Lord Burghley.

To the north lies the village of Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth

and in the small manor house,

one of the world's greatest scientists,

Sir Isaac Newton, was born and raised.

(gentle music)

In 1665, when he was at Cambridge,

the university closed as a precaution against the plague,

and Newton returned home.

It is said that the apple tree in the garden today

is a descendant of the original,

under which Newton is supposed to have slept

when an apple dropped on his head, initiating his thoughts

about his groundbreaking theory of gravity.

Not far away is a really impressive house,

which has a similar look to Burghley,

Harlaxton Manor. (regal music)

But looks can be deceptive,

as it was in fact built in the early Victorian age

during the 1840's, 300 years later.

The Victorians never really had

an architectural style of their own,

but rather copied and adapted from earlier periods.

It was built for Mr. Gregory, who owned nearby estates,

but over a period of time, he spent a fortune on it,

a sum which would be measured in millions today.

The style is mainly Elizabethan, and in the 1840's,

it represented a Victorian image

of the Merry rural England of the Tudor age,

which had perhaps never really even existed.

The house took an army of servants to run,

and to the side is a covered viaduct,

which runs from a hill into the top two floors.

This was a small railway to bring in

wood and coal for all the fireplaces.

When Mr. Gregory died,

the furniture in the house parted company,

and Harlaxton went through several owners

until an American university bought it in 1971.

With its imposing position on the top of a hill,

Belvoir Castle looks as though

it has stood here for centuries.

(triumphant music)

In fact, the present castle

was built for the wife of the Duke of Rutland

from the early 1800's onwards in the Gothic style,

which was very fashionable at the time.

This was an age of reinvented

medieval chivalry and romance,

with authors such as Walter Scott

and his novel of the heroic deeds of the knight Ivanhoe.

Perhaps constructing an impressive castle

gave the Duke a connection back to the Norman knight

who had built the first castle on the site.

He had been a bearer to William the Conqueror

at the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

He was French and had named his castle Belvoir,

meaning beautiful view, and a thousand years later,

the views are still beautiful,

and a great place to end this journey.

(peaceful music)

(logo whooshing)