A special edition of the Tyne Tees Television rural affair programme Landmark presented by Jessica Holm who travels to the village of Brockholes in West Yorkshire to report on the problems facing badgers from the modern world and what is being done to protect them. Title: Landmark This week Jessica Holm introduces this special programme sitting next to a badger sett in Yorkshire. She explains that badgers are under threat from an encroaching modern world. A train pulls into Brockholes...

A special edition of the Tyne Tees Television rural affair programme Landmark presented by Jessica Holm who travels to the village of Brockholes in West Yorkshire to report on the problems facing badgers from the modern world and what is being done to protect them. Title: Landmark This week Jessica Holm introduces this special programme sitting next to a badger sett in Yorkshire. She explains that badgers are under threat from an encroaching modern world. A train pulls into Brockholes station near Huddersfield. Brockholes was given an apt name on the strength of the local badger population. The countryside in this part of Yorkshire is a very attractive living environment for badgers. The film shows a badger emerging from its sett at dusk looking for food. A cross section view of a live sett shows how the badger constructs various chambers and is fastidious in changing bedding regularly. In February badgers produce young, in this sett there are two young cubs that will not emerge from the sett until June. Gary Baker of South Yorkshire Badger Group is an avid badger watcher and keeps an eye on the setts of local badgers near Doncaster. He makes his way through woodland to one of the setts, which has been destroyed by humans. Jessica explains that many threats to badgers are from humans who try to catch them illegally using dogs. The badgers are either killed on the spot or used in illegal badger baiting. A video shows how a sett is raided in this way; the film was used as evidence in a successful prosecution. John Bryant from the League Against Cruel Sports outlines the type of individual attracted to such sports. A Nature Conservancy Council Survey reported that ten thousand badgers a year are killed by the illegal digging of setts. In South Yorkshire eighty per cent of setts have been destroyed, mainly by diggers since the 1960s. Over the last 25 years Richard Paget and Mike Dyson have compiled a register of badger setts in the county, which raised the alarm on the severe reduction in numbers. The two men examine an entrance to a sett. Richard Paget , one of the badger recorders seen earlier speaks about the illegal practices of sett digging. The film shows old paintings from medieval times onwards that illustrate a history of badger persecution which was especially severe in the 19th century. After the war badger hunting declined but rose again in the 1960s’. Working terriers are still used legally to control foxes and rats. Ray Walker a gamekeeper says there is a case for some badger control. John Bryant says that badgers don’t need controlling but if needed he believes strongly that killing is a last resort and then only under special licence. Richard Paget is also less than convinced about badger control. Jessica Holm says that legislation is now in place to protect badgers and outlaw the practice of digging out setts. However John Bryant says that setts are still being attacked. Derbyshire police have produced a training video to help enforce the new wildlife laws. Inspector John Thornley Wildlife Liaison Officer for Derbyshire police encourages reporting sett digging or those who put terriers in known sett sites. The police can then check if the individuals are breaking the law or not as some work with terriers is legal but not in badger setts. Richard Paget says that if cases are brought to court strong evidence to support a prosecution must be submitted. Jessica says that despite the risk to sett diggers the law is still being broken and the maximum penalty is rarely awarded. Badger groups are frustrated by the current position. Title: Landmark There are currently 47 badger protection societies across the country, the South Yorkshire group has taken a cue from the areas former mining industry to frustrate sett diggers. Badgers have occupied some former mine workings and with its network of tunnels shafts and galleries, the site is too large and complex for sett diggers to cause harm This has led the local support group to constructing a sett of its own, with help from local industry. Naylor Brothers of Barnsley produce clay pipes for drainage, and can be perfect protection underground for badgers. The company was happy to help the group and a delivery of pipes is made to an area of woodland near Barnsley. The pipes are transported to the site for the new sett. Other materials arrive and machines are deployed to dig trenches for the new pipes. Clive Turner of the South Yorkshire Badger Group and a local coal miner thought up the idea of creating this secure sett. He acknowledges that badgers are slow colonisers, but he knows that badgers do visit the woods and that the sett will support a colony eventually. The sett is designed using materials to make it impenetrable to sett diggers. Mick Birkinshaw of the protection group acknowledges there maybe attempts to dig into the sett, but the materials and design will make it extremely hard and time consuming. More people are joining protection groups such as the one in South Yorkshire, they have a variety of backgrounds, but they all want to stop the senseless killing of badgers. Clive Turner has been studying badgers for years, and during the miners strike he surveyed as many badger setts he could in the Doncaster and Rotherham area, only to find that many were unoccupied. The risk for the new sett is that it remains unoccupied. However out the 15 badger setts created by the group around the county, five are fully occupied. The film shows badgers emerging from one of the man-made setts at dusk, exploring and digging for food. As the programme comes to an end Jessica Holm encourages people to keep an eye on their local badger setts and if possible join a support group. Credit: Thanks to League Against Cruel Sports, News of the World, South Yorkshire Badger Group, Cookworthy Museum, Devon Credit: Presented by Jessica Holm Credit: Hoi Polloi Film and Video Credit: Camera Simon Crouch Credit: Sound Paul Gunn Credit: Electrician Bill Hughes Credit: Wildlife Cameraman Peter Smithson Credit: Wildlife Sound Chris Watson Credit: Production Assistant Pauline Grant Credit: Production Secretary Coreen Harvey Credit: Sound Postproduction Charles Heath Credit: VT Editors Amanda Baxter, Howard Beebe, Peter Telford Credit: VT Assistant Editor Claire Storey Credit: Written and Directed by Crispin Sadler Credit: Landmark Productions Credit: Executive Producer Chris Potter Credit: Director Simon Lawson Credit: Producer Charles Bowden End credit: Waterfront Productions for Tyne Tees Television© MCMLXXXIX