I am thrilled to announce that the crumbling Churches episode is now completed. This will be transmitted later this year on the wonderful Community Channel. (www.CommunityChannel.org).

It has been great to run around the Sussex countryside looking at and filming old churches. The rural parish church is facing the hardship of reduced congregations and tough repair bills. How will they manage to keep themselves afloat? What happens if they can’t? These are just some of the issues I go off to investigate in my programme.

As many regular viewers and visitors may be aware, we shall be starting a Kickstarter project soon to raise funds to produce a further six episodes of the Bald Explorer this year. They will be shot in the Autumn. As part of the incentive to get support from fans of the ‘BE’ the Crumbling Churches episode will be available to download and watch in advance of the transmission. So if you wish to be ahead of the game, put your hand in your pocket and make a donation to keep the programmes coming and you will receive a link to view the episode. You can either wait for the official Kickstarter or donate on the website here. (To the right of screen.)

If you have already donated, then you will receive the link to the video as soon as it is available online automatically.

My thanks go Georgie Lindsey, my daughter, and to Jimmy as well as the Rev. John Gay for making the episode possible.

Meanwhile, you can catch up with all the Bald Explorer episodes, podcasts and news of the new episodes on other pages of this website.

HUBBUB – Emily Cockayne

A fabulous book. It does what is said on the tin. It explains the filth, noise and stench in England from the new modern period onwards, mainly (17th and 18th Century).  People were ugly. Beauty products were available, but not ideal, many were lethal, such as rubbing powder on your face containing mercury. People didn’t wash, they crapped everywhere, sanitation wasn’t understood. Dunghills and rotten material, often butchers offal, humans excrement, decaying vegetables and dead cats and dogs lay in the streets of major towns and cities.

To get an insight into the conditions of urban environments in particular several hundred years ago, then this book is for you. The calling, shouting arguing, rumble of carts, banging of hammers on anvils, repairs, building and so on that perpetuated the air of mixed domestic and industrial areas to the pain and disturbance of life is remarkable.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this and wallowing in the filth and stench, feeling that life in the 21st century is so much better, even when the dustbin men are on strike. I am at least not sleeping with rats and vermin crawling all over me.

Richard Vobes is out and about exploring the British parish churches for the next programme of the Bald Explorer coming soon to the Community Channel.

In this preview, Richard is looking at pews and seating as well as discovering an abandoned church in the woods at Bedham in West Sussex, near Petworth.

Rector, John Gay, tells Richard Vobes about the problems with the roof of his beautiful church in Itchingfield, West Sussex in this preview of the new Bald Explorer episode coming soon to the Community Channel in 2013.

Wendy Dorkings, the church warden at St. Nicolas, allows the cameras in to see the wonderful and rare priest house that stands in the church yard and shares some of the fascinating history.

Itchingfield is home to a group of dedicated bell ringers who enjoy practicing the traditional art in the extraordinary timber built bell tower.

This is just a preview of the episode that will explore the problems the rural parish churches faces as congregations decrease and ancient buildings begin to need attention.

You find out more and watch full episodes at www.CommunityChannel.org.

As part of my Bald Explorer episode about our crumbling churches I have been working with Julian Humphrys from the Battlefield Trust. The reason was to explore a rather nasty clash between the Roundheads and Cavilers during the English Civil War (1642–1651) at a church in Alton in Hampshire. I further wanted to find out more information about the Trust and their work so I popped over to see him at his house in Surrey and filmed a short interview.

Julian suggests that nearly everyone in the UK lives within half an hour’s drive of a battlefield. Some, like Hastings, Bosworth and Culloden, are familiar to most of us. Others are relatively unknown. Yet the battles fought on them all played their part in shaping the way that we live today. How much do we know about these important fields where dreadful battles were fought, arguments were settle and Kingdoms were won and lost.

More information about the trust and how to join can be found on their website: The Battlefields Trust

An Abandoned Canal: Richard Vobes is the Bald Explorer and, in this episode, is on the trail of an old water navigation that was once thought lost and discovers the plans to put it back into water.

First shown on the Community Channel on Sunday 17th March 2013.

Richard Vobes, the Bald Explorer, is setting off to investigate the fate of our parish churches. He is in the south of England finding out about the history and uses of the old religious buildings. He also wanted to find out how money is being raise to prevent them from crumbling away and what happens when the buildings are disposed of.

This is a preview of some of the scenes shot so far and some of the fascinating contributors that will be appearing in the episode, hopefully broadcasting on the Community Channel later in 2013.

Julian Humphrys is part of the Battlefields Trust that looks after and promotes the battlefields in Britain.

Farther Godfrey is the reverend at Plumpton Green in East Sussex and a professional brewer, supply his church ales to the area.

Scott Ralph is an historic buildings specialist and advises the church how to dispose of unwanted religious houses.

You can find out more about the Community Channel, run by the Media Trust, at www.CommunityChannel.org.

Follow the Bald Explorer on Twitter, @BaldExplorer

Richard Vobes is the Bald Explorer, dashing about Britain discovering the history of its towns and villages. In this episode he is off to Petworth in the heart of West Sussex, close to Chichester and not too far from London. It is a very rural town renown for the beautiful mansion-house, upon land that once belonged to the Roger de Montgomery and later the de Percy family.

It was the third Earl of Egremont who had a vested interested in the town of Petworth. He supplied the money to build the boys school, which was later destroyed by a stray German bomber during the second World War. It was the Earl who brought water from the near by Rover Rother into the town centre and whose land it was the grim House of Correction was built on for convicted offenders from all over Sussex.

One of the prettiest streets in Sussex can be found in Petworth, complete with old shop fronts and cobbles on the ground and the Bald Explorer reveals that he once lived there.

Back in the 19th century, many of the poor were assisted out of poverty and given the chance of a new life in Canada thanks to the local rector. Also, many do not realise that a special kind of stone, Petworth Marble was mined from this area and made into all sorts of wonderful objects.

Of course, most visitors , if not travelling to see Petworth House, go to hunt around the abundance of antique shops that flank the roads or take refreshment inside the independent tea rooms. And lets not forget the beautifully restored old railway station that is now a fabulous bed and breakfast establishment with genuine Pullman Carriages to stay the night in.

Prehistoric Monuments: Richard Vobes is the Bald Explorer and is on a journey of discovery around Britain. In this episode, he tracks down some of our earliest monuments left by prehistoric man.

Broadcast on the Community Channel.

This is work in progress, but the Bald Explorer, AKA Richard Vobes, shall be trudging the countryside in search of our heritage and traditions. In this forthcoming episode, he is trying to find out what is happening to our crumbling churches. These are monuments that have stood at the centre of our communities for hundreds of years. People have been baptised, married and buried here and so they are immersed with social history and we cannot let them fade away.

In this preview, Richard is looking at the Saxon church of St. Botolphs, near Bramber in West Sussex. It was once much larger with a northern aisle but as the local inhabitants dwindled the church was restored to its original size.

Production is ongoing and it is hoped the episode will be completed by the end of March 2013.