Catch up TV

Series 3: Flamborough

Archaeologist, Ben Robinson visits the east coast village of Flamborough which sits on a rugged headland sticking out into the North Sea. A largely unassuming village today, it was once effectively cut off from the rest of the country by a five-metre-deep, two-and-a-half-mile long man-made dyke, re-enforced and fortified with local chalk. \n\nAs Ben discovers when he visits two of the village's most prominent structures, chalk plays a large part in the history of Flamborough. Built from chalk in the 1350s, Flamborough castle is now in ruins, but once belonged to an influential local family called the Constables. Using modern technology, Ben will build up a picture of what their vast, fortified estate might once have looked like. \n\nLocal historian and archaeologist Andrew Jones shows Ben around the village’s most imposing surviving chalk building. Constructed\nin 1674 and standing 87 feet tall, Flamborough Tower was built with the purpose of improving ship to shore navigation but would ultimately be used by local law enforcers in a bid to prevent smuggling. \n\nBen also takes to the North Sea with local fisherman Richard Emmerson to see for himself some of the secret nooks and crannies that smugglers would have used to hide their valuable contraband in days gone by.

Source: BBC 2