The Plodcast

This week we're stuck in the greenhouse. We came up to check on the winter salad leaves, and the skies darkened. It’ll only be a short shower, the edges of the cloud are visible through the veil of raindrops on the roof. So, we’ll wait here for a bit, breathing in the rich smell of the earth and listening to the irregular rhythm of the drips off the guttering.BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be.Recorded and introduced by Hannah Tribe. Image by Getty.Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Between the villages of Purton and Sharpness on the River Severn, dozens of barges and ships lie on the riverbank, slowly decomposing into the landscape. But the reason why they're here will surprise you. Plodcast host Fergus takes a walk among the river with countryside writer Simon Heptinstall to learn the story of the Purton Hulks.Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com.If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team.Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Deep in the Cambrian Mountains, just outside Wales' remotest chapel, a small stream flows out of the barren hills. Now, in the depths of winter, a skin of ice has formed but the water still runs beneath, a soft voice in an empty landscape.BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be.Recorded by Fergus Collins, introduced by Hannah Tribe.Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Join Plodcast host Fergus and countryside writer Professor Fiona Stafford in the curious hilltop village of Brill to learn how to find hidden history in the landscape around you. Fiona's new book, Time and Tide (John Murray) is a series of fascinating adventures looking at how our countryside is transformed over time - and how quickly things are forgotten.Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com.If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team.Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're walking an old tram road in an abandoned quarry in the Welsh hills. It's been deadly cold for weeks and water that normally cascades off the high ground has frozen into dramatic icicles as it runs down rock faces and over cave mouths. But this morning's warm sun has started a thaw and there is a gentle music of water released.BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be.Recorded by Fergus Collins, introduced by Hannah Tribe.Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week, Plodcast regular Kevin Parr explores a lost church in Dorset. St Luke's Chapel was built to serve the village of Sterte near Abbotsbury, in the 1240s. The chapel remained in use until the mid 16th Century when it was abandoned following the Act of Supremacy (1534) that gave Henry VIII the power to disband religious buildings.All that remains of the chapel (and the village) is a single wall and arch, which stands deep in the woodland of Ashley Chase, although a more recently constructed altar carries votive offerings and painted stones left by the handful of visitors who pick through the trees to pay homage. Kevin samples the atmosphere of this eerie place and looks for ghosts.Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com.If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team.Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's an icy cold morning and you're walking through a once-waterlogged meadow now made crisp by frost. Low winter sun slants across the surrounding hills, picking out shadows and contours, silhouetting lone trees. As you descend into a shallow valley, distant rooks call from an ancient woodland.BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be. Recorded by Fergus Collins, introduced by Hannah Tribe. Image by Getty.Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hidden in a peaceful corner of the Monmouthshire countryside is a site steeped in blood, treachery and revenge. Plodcast host Fergus and his son Owen set out one cold January morning to uncover the secret of medieval Castell Arnallt (Castle Arnold) - and track down what remains of this ill-fated and now forgotten Welsh castle.Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com.If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team.Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are on high country farm road in the Hakataramea Valley in deepest South Canterbury, New Zealand. Skylark song pours from the heavens, cascading over paddocks of ewes with noisy lambs at foot.BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be.Recorded by Nick Allen. Image by Getty.Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: editor@countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We're beachcombing on Orkney this week. Plodcast regular Annabel Ross meets Martin Gray who has been finding curiosities on the seashore here for several decades. What will they find today? And what are the greatest treasures Martin has ever found? Listen on for more tales from the landscape.Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com.If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team.Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices