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S5 E6 · St Bees
Villages by the Sea is a documentary TV series that premiered on BBC Two on December 16, 2019. It has 5 seasons and 37 episodes so far and is still airing new episodes. The latest episode, Season 5 Episode 6 "St Bees", aired on December 16, 2024.
Series looking at British coastal villages, that have often been on the front line of history.
Last updated
37 episodes · 5 seasons
2019 · 5 episodes · Last episode: 6 years ago
Series looking at coastal villages that have often been on the front line of history. The first series was simulcast in five UK regions on December 16, 2019: BBC North West (Sunderland Point ), Cambridgeshire (Walberswick), Channel Islands (Clovelly), Yorks and Lincs (Robin Hood's Bay) and North East (Lindisfarne AKA Holy Island). For consistency, I changed the Episode Numbers to match TVDB and the BBC (although the BBC Episode Guide and iPlayer Series One's entries differ, I chose the iPlayer order, as this is the order that the Episodes would be viewed by a watcher if they sequentially viewed the entire series.) Note that Series 2's entries on iPlayer and Episode Guide concur. Thereafter, however, there are a number of juxtaposed episodes between the two sites (iPlayer and Episode Guide) at which point, I defer to the BBC's implied chaos preference.....
Villages by the Sea Season 1 release dates →Ben Robinson reveals the story of this Devon coastal gem’s transformation from fishing village to romantic Victorian seaside resort. Thanks to a powerful and pioneering woman, Clovelly found itself at the forefront of the Victorian seaside holiday revolution. Even today cars are banned and the village is privately owned, helping to preserve it as a reminder of a bygone age.
Ben Robinson discovers the story of the monks and villagers of the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, off the Northumberland coast. Our coastal villages are often seen as remote places for retreat and relaxation. However, they have often been on the front line of history - from the arrival of Christianity to battles with neighbours and nature; from slave trading to the birth of modern tourism. From Holy Island, monks spread Christianity to the rest of Northern England and created one of Britain’s finest treasures – the Lindisfarne Gospels.
Archaeologist Ben Robinson reveals the story of smuggling intrigue and bravery on the Yorkshire coast.
Archaeologist Ben Robinson discovers the surprising story of this former medieval port on the Suffolk coast. Today Walberswick is a favourite coastal retreat for writers, artists and day trippers. But for centuries the village lurched from prosperity to poverty. In medieval times it fought a bitter battle for supremacy against the neighbouring port of Dunwich and finally fell victim to politics, fire and the might of the sea.
Ben Robinson reveals the story of the village of Sunderland Point on the north west coast of England. Our coastal villages are often seen as remote places for retreat and relaxation. However, they have often been on the front line of history - from the arrival of Christianity to battles with neighbours and nature; from slave trading to the birth of modern tourism.
2021 · 6 episodes · Last episode: 5 years ago
Archaeologist Ben Robinson returns to the English coast in this six-part series as he uncovers how the past has shaped some of our best-loved coastal village communities.
Villages by the Sea Series 2 release dates →Archaeologist Ben Robinson visits the picturesque Georgian village of Charlestown on the south west coast of Cornwall and learns how it was shaped by the vision of one man.
Archaeologist Ben Robinson discovers how traditional boat building shaped the beautifully preserved village of Arnside on the banks of the River Kent in Cumbria.
Archaeologist Ben Robinson visits the village of Staithes in North Yorkshire and unearths its role in kickstarting the chemical industry in the north east of England.
Archaeologist Ben Robinson visits Alnmouth on England’s north east coast and discovers the village’s historical role in feeding the nation.
Archaeologist Ben Robinson uncovers the secrets of the Edwardian village of Thorpeness in Suffolk, the first purpose-built seaside village in the UK.
Archaeologist Ben Robinson uncovers how the health and fortune of the village was shaped by those in charge of Bamburgh’s famous castle.
2022 · 10 episodes · Last episode: 4 years ago
How the past has shaped some of our best-loved coastal village communities.
Villages by the Sea Series 3 release dates →
E10
Situated on the eastern coast of the Isle of Man, the village of Laxey is known today as a tourist destination, but as archaeologist Ben Robinson finds out, it wasn’t the beaches and the mountains that attracted Victorian tourists, but an engineering marvel - the biggest waterwheel in the world. Ben meets local resident Matthew Boyd who is repairing and restoring the 22-metre-wide great wheel and finds out how it transformed this small mining community to one of the most successful in the British Isles. He meets mining historian Peter Geddes who takes Ben deep underground to experience first-hand some of the conditions the miners faced.
E9
Archaeologist Ben Robinson explores Parkgate, on the estuary of the River Dee in Cheshire. Today the village is landlocked, cut off from the Dee and the Irish Sea due to the estuary’s shifting silt. But 250 years ago, it was a bustling harbour and as Ben finds out from Dr Gillian O’Brian, Parkgate was a gateway for thousands of Irish immigrants from the 1620s onwards. Local resident Anthony Annakin-Smith, who has been researching Parkgate’s past, explains to Ben it was the estuary’s ever-shifting silt that first established the village as an important trading port in the 18th century. Up to then, the Port of Chester had handled most of the trade along the Dee, but by the 1600s, its harbour was starting to silt up, allowing Parkgate to expand.
E8
Lying off the North Sea is the unassuming Suffolk village of Orford. It’s behind a large shingle spit called Orford Ness. But as archaeologist Ben Robinson unearths, it’s been at the forefront of defending the British Isles for over 800 years. Today, its imposing castle built by Henry II is being conserved by English Heritage. Curator Dr Shelley Garland explains the process to Ben and how they’ve devised the best way to preserve its crumbling stonework.
E7
Archaeologist Ben Robinson visits a small village in Northumberland to find out how the family and village who both share the name Craster have had their lives and fortunes intertwined for over 800 years. The village sits on a unique seam of rock called the Whin Sill and next to the North Sea. Ben learns how, through the generations, the Crasters have used local resources to make their fortunes and in turn have changed the face and the fortunes of the village and the villagers.
E6
Archaeologist Ben Robinson uncovers the secrets of Cornwall’s Tintagel, famed as the legendary birthplace of King Arthur. Ben discovers Tintagel was potentially more important than London a thousand years ago, based on recent evidence unearthed at an archaeological dig overseen by English Heritage. It was found that over 2,000 people were living here which, at the time, which would have made it the largest settlement anywhere of its kind in Britain. In a 14th century house, Ben discovers the origins of a saying that’s still in use today with the help of Joanne McGillivray of the National Trust. Joanne explains unmarried woman would sleep on a platform accessed by a ladder, which would be drawn up at night to keep the woman away from men. But if they stayed up there and never married, they would be ‘left on the shelf’.
E5
Archaeologist Ben Robinson visits the Norfolk village of Cley next the Sea and discovers that due to Dutch settlers in the Elizabethan era, it's not as ‘next the sea’ as it once was. Ben finds a village green that was once a thriving port with big ships and surrounded by a thriving village. He visits the church and meets Matt Champion, an expert in medieval graffiti who has found some incredible links to past villagers. A fire in the 1600s destroyed most of the original village, and Ben uses some detective work to try and date a house believed to be one of the only survivors. An exploration of the village reveals architecture that shows the influence of Flemish immigrants, but it's not only the buildings that were influenced by the so called ‘Elizabethan strangers’.
E4
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. As 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.
E3
Sitting on the east coast of Jersey, and about 14 miles from the coast of Normandy, the small village of Gorey was, for hundreds of years the frontline of defence between the British Isles and its enemy, the French. Archaeologist Ben Robinson follows the story of this small village’s history as an important military location, from the castle built in the 1200s to the experiences of the village in the second world war when occupied by Hitler’s army.
E2
Archaeologist Ben Robinson takes us to the quiet village of Ravenglass, tucked away on the edge of the Lake District’s National Park, where he finds out about its strategic importance to the Roman empire. Ben explores the village and its surrounding area to uncover the remarkable evidence of its Roman past: unearthing Roman pottery, locating the earthworks of its fort and marvelling at one the best surviving examples of a Roman military bathhouse anywhere in Britain.
E1
The small hamlet of Botallack was once at the centre of the Cornish tin and copper mining industry as archaeologist Ben Robinson discovers. By 1861, Botallack’s mine was one of the biggest in the whole of Cornwall. Ben explores the village’s mining past with archaeologist Adam Sharpe.
2023 · 10 episodes · Last episode: 2 years ago
E10
Ben Robinson travels to Johnshaven, a once-important Scottish fishing village that diversified into the flax and jute trade when its skilled sailors were press-ganged into the Royal Navy.
E9
Ben Robinson unearths the ancient history of Greyabbey on beautiful Strangford Loch.
E8
Ben Robinson unearths the past of Porthgain, Pembrokeshire, built for its industry exporting slate, then brickwork, then finally stone used for the nation’s roads.
E7
Ben Robinson travels to Seaton Sluice, home to the notorious Delaval family and the site of a past bottle works that shaped the village.
E6
Ben Robinson heads to Beer, Devon, home to beer stone, which has been quarried since Roman times and used in many of England's cathedrals and iconic buildings.
E5
Ben Robinson discovers some of the impressive and well-preserved lime kilns in Solva, Wales, and learns how this industry helped feed a growing nation.
E4
Ben Robinson makes an amazing discovery at Norfolk’s Holkham estate – its lost medieval village, seen for the first time since its disappearance 200 years ago.
E3
Ben Robinson travels to Cushendall in Northern Ireland to explore the Curfew Tower and schoolhouse, built by its forward-thinking 19th-century merchant landlord.
E2
Ben Robinson explores the remains of a lost harbour in Port Carlisle, a once-thriving port that hoped to rival Liverpool.
E1
Ben Robinson visits Culross, a stunning 17th-century village that was a major centre for Scottish coal mining and the first underwater sea coal shaft in the world.
2024 · 6 episodes · Last episode: 1 year ago
In Cumbria, on the edge of the Lake District, Ben Robinson finds signs of early Christian pilgrims, while a 500-year-old house turns out to be the birthplace of an Elizabethan VIP.
E5
Archaeologist Ben Robinson visits the tiny Hampshire village that had a huge role in building ships for Nelson's victorious fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar.
E4
Archaeologist Ben Robinson investigates how a Cornish gem of a village became a world-famous centre of tin mining where people made and lost huge fortunes.
E3
On a visit to the white cliffs of the Kent coast, Ben Robinson learns how an exclusive retreat for the rich and famous suddenly became 'Hellfire Corner' during World War II.
E2
Archaeologist Ben Robinson casts his eye over the village of Seahouses in Northumberland, where he discovers how the lethal rocks offshore have been both a blessing and a curse.
E1
Archaeologist Ben Robinson is in North Yorkshire, exploring how idyllic Runswick Bay was once a place of great danger, despite attracting tourists and inspiring artists.
A date for the next episode of Villages by the Sea hasn't been announced yet. Follow Villages by the Sea in the Streambay app and you'll be notified as soon as a new episode airs.
The most recent episode of Villages by the Sea, Season 5 Episode 6 "St Bees", aired on December 16, 2024.
Villages by the Sea has 5 seasons with 37 episodes in total.
Villages by the Sea first aired on BBC Two on December 16, 2019.
Download the Streambay app, follow Villages by the Sea, and you'll get a push notification the moment each new episode is released.
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S1 · E552 4 months ago
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S18 · E260 4 years ago
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