Coast at Greenwich: Mark Horton

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Hi, well I'm Mark Horton, I'm one of the expert presenters of Coast, and I'm here on one of the roadshows about Coast, engaging the public in what we've been doing for the last few years.

And we’re here in Greenwich, this is the end of a long run of roadshows, have you been to any of the others?

Yes, this is my third of the roadshows, and, you know, each one of them have been very different and very interesting, and highly successful. I was at the Cardiff one and also at Great Yarmouth at The Time and Tide Museum. And Time and Tide was particularly good because we were in the holiday season, so we got lots of holidaymakers coming and seeing what we were up to.

And what do you think the people attending these events are actually getting out of them?

Hopefully we’re getting this message that the coast is a very precious part of our inheritance, of our national heritage, and what they're learning about is there’s many different facets; there's the heritage, the history, but also the environment, the conservation issues and so forth. And a lot of the kids are doing various interactive activities with windmills and making boats, which, as it were, hopefully, will teach them that the coast is really important, and that we need to cherish it and preserve it, and hopefully they can take these things back to their schools and their educational experience and share it with their friends.

And do people turn up and talk to you about the bits that you’ve done on the series?

Oh yes the whole time, yes, and of course not just here but also when I'm walking down the street. You know, I was on the train this morning talking to people. It’s been an absolute hit series and I suppose it’s hit a national chord. And what the person on the train this morning said was quite interesting, you know, 'Well, it’s ours and it’s very precious,' and what we've done is tell people just how fascinating and diverse our coastline really is.

Two people just said to me, just now, we've saved one particular episode because it’s near where his sister lives...

Well that’s right. Well everyone always wants to watch the episode in which they go on holiday on and so forth. But I suppose what the series has also done is tell people about the coast they don’t know about, and has, we think, changed the way in which people have gone on holiday, that people have said, you know, 'Well let’s stay in Britain, let’s go and see our own coast rather than go overseas,' or the weekend, 'Let’s go and walk along the coast,' because most of us live very close to the coast. In fact, everywhere in mainland Britain is no further than 72 miles from the coast, so it’s perfectly easy for a daytrip to go out and enjoy our coast, not just go on holiday there but in the summer, the autumn or the winter. And, of course, that’s what we discovered when filming, because we did a lot of the filming in the winter and in the autumn, and that’s a fantastic time to go.

Now if there's one thing that you personally have gained out of these roadshows, what would that be?

It’s great to visit some of the places in a little bit more detail. For example, I did the London programme here but I went past this museum at high speed in a boat, and we didn’t actually come to visit The National Maritime Museum, I mean I've been here before but some years ago. At Great Yarmouth, at The Time and Tide Museum, we stayed in Great Yarmouth but there was no time to go and visit these places. So it’s great to actually see. And what I've learned, what I've brought back from these roadshows, is how much our maritime towns and cities are increasingly embracing their maritime culture.

And there's been a long tradition. Here in London is a classic example. London has turned its back on the sea, but it’s on the sea, it’s on the coast, and it’s slowly rediscovering its coastline. Great Yarmouth, where I was at, has rediscovered its coast, its maritime inheritance; it has maritime festivals, there's a maritime museum plan. Cardiff, Cardiff Barrage has totally revitalised what was a really run down part of Cardiff, and, again, Cardiff is again rediscovering its maritime heritage. It’s a huge force for regeneration, for prosperity, and, really, we need to embrace it, not just because we’re a maritime nation but because actually it makes economic sense as well.