Flamborough

Villages by the Sea • Season 3 • Episode 4

About this episode

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.