Open Country

When Andy Murray steps out onto Centre Court to defend his 2016 title at the All England Lawn and Tennis Club in Wimbledon it will be the culmination of a year's work by a team of people who dedicate their lives to this iconic sporting landscape. Alison Mitchell takes a break from the commentary box to go behind the scenes of this iconic sporting venue. Starting on the roof of the broadcast centre she speaks to Ashley Jones from Wimbledon Museum about how the grounds have moved twice since the club was founded in 1868, and explains how a broken piece of garden equipment led to the inception of the Championships. Alison describes the Centre Court commentary box as an 'Alice in Wonderland' moment, and squeezes through its narrow doors, ducking under its low ceilings to speak to John Barrett about his life-long relationship with the Championships from visiting as a boy, to later playing there, and then his many years commentating for the BBC including that epic 1980 men's final between John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg. She goes court-side with Head Groundsman Neil Stubley to talk about the upkeep of the playing surface, before joining Johnny Perkins on 'Henman Hill' to find out how this patch of spare ground has become an integral part of the Championship experience. For podcast subscribers there's also an interview with Ronald McIntosh about how his first assignment at Wimbledon turned into the longest-running match in tennis history with John Isner triumphing over Nicholas Mahut 70-68 in the final set, an encounter now marked by a plaque at Court 18.Producer: Toby Field.

Helen Mark asks whether time creatively spent in Stonehenge's prehistoric landscapes can help Wiltshire residents with long term mental health problems. It's called the Human Henge project, and for one day a week for ten weeks the participants have been given the opportunity to get an insight into the lives of ancestors lived long ago. Helen accompanies the group on the final day when they're able to enter the inner circle of Stonehenge, the culmination of their work together. Helen hears how the idea for the project began with the Restoration Trust, a charity that links heritage sites with mental health in what it describes as 'culture therapy'. English Heritage who operate Stonehenge have supported the project, as has a leading expert on Stonehenge, the archaeologist Professor Tim Darvill of Bournemouth University. Tim argues that the site may well have had a healing function in the past as a focus for rituals and ceremonies, and is glad to explore that aspect of it today. The participants themselves describe how they've benefitted from being out of doors, from getting to know each other and having a focus besides indoor drop-in support groups. More than one participant says what's helped her is being treated as someone with a brain, glad to learn something new about her locality and its ancient past. Producer: Mark Smalley.

Lough Neagh is the largest lake by area in the British Isles. It supplies 40% of Northern Ireland's water and today it is home to the Lough Neagh wild eel fishery. The Lough Neagh Fishermen's Co-operative sell most of the eels they catch here to markets in Holland or London but they also try to encourage local people to enjoy this delicacy. Helen Mark joins the crew onboard for the first fishing trip of the season and discovers the history and folklore which surround this stunning but sometimes treacherous piece of water.

Terry Abraham could be likened to Alfred Wainwright in his love of the Lakeland fells. Blencathra was known by Wainwright as the 'mountaineers mountain' and he devoted more pages to this fell than any other in his pictorial guides. However, since the proposed sale of the mountain in 2014 it has become known as the 'Peoples Mountain'. The owner, the 8th Earl of Lonsdale, put the mountain up for sale at a price of £1.75 million and a community group called Friends of Blencathra was set up in a bid to raise enough money to buy the mountain. In 2015, the mountain was taken off the market but the sense of ownership felt by the local community remains. Helen Mark meets Terry and the local people who live within the shadow of this iconic peak.

Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire is home to one of our most enduring legends, that of Robin Hood. David Lindo learns how the man in green tights who stole from the rich and gave to the poor is still important to the people who live within the Sherwood Forest area, and to the many visitors who come here. The truth about the man behind the legend remains in dispute but the ancient oak trees remain. Some, like the Major Oak, are up to one thousand years old and need support to remain standing. They provide precious dead wood habitat for many species and this is one reason why the RSPB are taking over the management of the national nature reserve and building a brand new visitor centre to help people understand how precious this ancient habitat is. The forest landscape was created and preserved by medieval Kings and David visits King John's Palace in Kings Clipstone to find out how the ruins we see there today could be part of a much bigger story about the real time in which Robin and his Merry Men would have roamed the woods. And Robin Hood is also the inspiration for Sherwood's anti-fracking campaigners, they fear that trees like the Major Oak could be affected if planned seismic surveys in the wider area lead to drilling for shale gas.

Ian Marchant travels back to Newhaven in East Sussex, to learn to see a familiar landscape through fresh eyes. He grew up round here, bunking off school with his mates on the South Downs and the derelict Newhaven Fort (now beautifully restored). There's a weird mix of things to look at in panorama here: a glimpse of the iconic Seven Sisters (white cliffs, anyone?), stereotypically English rolling green hills, the industrial business of the ferry port to Dieppe and a new and massive biomass incinerator that upset local residents when it was built. But it's all potentially beautiful, depending on how you look at it.While his friends the Bugman, the Starman and the Painter were all busy looking at bugs, stars and landscape, what was Ian doing? Since he left the town, the South Downs has become a National Park and the air above it is now an International Dark Skies Reserve. It's time for Ian to return to the birthplace of Wreckless Eric to find out.

Helen Mark travels to south-east Devon, to the Dartington Estate. This 14th century estate was reinvented by an off-shoot of the Bloomsbury set in the mid-1920s as a centre for personal growth, innovative education and rural regeneration, inspired by the environment. It still has the arts, ecology, sustainability and social justice at its heart and aims to be 'a laboratory for living and learning with the purpose of pioneering deep personal and societal change'.Helen Mark finds out about the extraordinary history, present and future of a movement and community inspired by the landscape of Dartington.

In January 1942, Gordon Butcher was ploughing a field in the village of West Row, near Mildenhall in Suffolk. His plough hit something solid, and on further investigation discovered a circular piece of metal. Sensing he'd found something significant he went and found his boss Sydney Ford, and for the rest of the afternoon he and Ford pulled piece after piece from the ground. What they found was in fact a Silver thirty-two piece set of Roman tableware, and it remains the greatest find of its kind in the UK. 'The Mildenhall Treasure' as it became known went on display in the British Museum, and the story of this extraordinary find was captured by Roald Dahl in a short story of the same name.Helen Mark visits the find site to find out about a new joint-project between the British Museum and Suffolk County Council which aims to identify exactly where the treasure was buried and why, and to better understand the archaeological context of this find. Richard Hobbs from the British Museum tells the story of the Treasure, and Faye Minter and the detectorists talk about their work on the find site and how they've grown up with stories about it. She visits Mildenhall Museum in which a replica of the find is housed and finds out what this incredible Treasure still means to Ford's Grandson Sydney Holder. Producer: Toby Field.

Think of Bristol and the iconic Clifton Suspension Bridge and St Mary Redcliffe church may be on your list to visit. But what lies beneath? Tunnels, caves and waterways lie hidden, explored by some and missed by many. For those who know tickets on rare open days are snapped up like hot cakes. Helen Mark invites you to explore some of these gems that lie out of sight to explore the myth and history behind them. She starts at the Redcliffe Caves whose 'rabbit warren' under the streets above reveals more about the city's ancient trades but has a modern life as a film set and theatre location. Yet the magical Goldney Grotto - lined with shells from faraway lands - could conjure images of fairytales but has its closest connection to Robinson Crusoe. While Clifton Rocks Railway - which had to remain hidden within the gorge cliffs - failed as a business, it had two new lives helping to save the lives of others. No wonder there's so much curiosity about these hidden places! Presented by Helen Mark Produced by Anne-Marie Bullock.

There's a campaign gaining ground to make London a National Park City. But what exactly does that mean? David Lindo meets the campaign founder Dan Raven-Ellison to find out and goes on a journey across London to see for himself why anyone would think the UK's biggest city could qualify for such a title. Along the way he finds a ghost of a river, an enthusiastic ornithologist, and some paddlers who call Regents Canal their breathing space.