DARTMOOR photographer Chris Chapman will be in front of the camera next week as he presents a new landmark six-part television series about the history of the South West?s unique landscape. In How The West Was Made the Throwleigh documentary photographer journeys back and forth across hills and into forts, castles, cathedrals and Medieval towns to bring the landscape to life. With stunning photography, revelatory stories and CGI graphics and animation, Chris reveals the secrets of how the West Country came to be the way it is today. The story begins in a small cave near Torquay. Kent?s Cavern holds clues to the West Country?s earliest humans. They came here first more than 400,000 years ago, sheltered from successive Ice Ages and left evidence of their presence inside the caves. Chris brings to life their experience with the help of CGI graphics which illustrate how the area, now occupied by the English Channel, would have been home to herds of bison, woolly rhino and their predators including the great cats. As the Ice Age retreated, humans left the caves and began to colonise the countryside. On a beach in Porlock, Chris discovers the remains of a prehistoric forest and travels inland with archaeologist, Paula Gardner to Exmoor to find evidence of flint knapping, 6,000 years ago. Chris also travels to a majestic stone-age monument at Avebury in Wiltshire. And finally back home to Dartmoor to uncover evidence of the first humans to work metal ? bronze. In the company of Dr Andrew Fleming we find evidence of huge field systems, ?reaves? that suggest a sophistication in human organisation. How The West Was Made starts on Sunday, April 30, at 6pm on ITV Westcountry.
