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Matt Baker heads to the Isle of Sheppey, where Charles Dickens found inspiration for Great Expectations and where the shadow of Victorian industry can be seen in the ruins of Elmley village. Islander Ken Ingleton joins Matt on a 4x4 tour of what was left behind of Elmley after the Turkey cement works closed in 1902 and the community was deserted.听

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Ellie Harrison explores the many rooms and secrets of Knole, a country house dating back to the 15th Century which was once owned by the Archbishops of Canterbury and Henry VIII, and later by 13 generations of the Sackville family. Vital repairs to the outside are finishing up, so the National Trust are turning their attention to the inside, where once private rooms are being prepared to open to the public from 2015. 听Ellie helps conservation volunteers document the contents and she hears from Robert Sackville-West, the 7th Baron Sackville, on how Knole left an indelible mark on his ancestor - the writer Vita Sackville-West.

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Siegfried Sassoon was a soldier and poet who made his name in WWI for his valour and verses.听 But as the conflict progressed his poems reflected his anger and despair at so many lives cut short.听 As Helen Skelton discovers, the man who had survived the battlefields found solace in the Wiltshire countryside. 听She finds out how nature inspired Siegfried鈥檚 poems and that he was rather fond of a game of cricket.听 Helen also hears rare recordings of Siegfried reading some of his work.听

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And you can find more WWI stories on the

Our search for coal, lead, copper and a whole host of other useful materials has left a vast void beneath the British countryside. 听It's estimated that there are more than 300,000 disused mines and shafts in the UK and some of them are still having an impact on our lives today.听 Every year there are more than 300 mine shaft collapses and in recent weeks we've seen far more holes in the ground than usual because of the impact of the wet weather. 听But old mines can also cause problems with subsidence and water pollution. 听Tom Heaps finds out what鈥檚 being done to ensure the safety of these disused workings and asks whether we should be doing more to find them.听

John Craven gets kitted out for some cheese-making on a family-run 250 acre farm. Dairyman Steve Reynolds and his Holstein Friesians provide the milk and, together with his wife Karen and their two sons, they make Kentish blue cheese. It鈥檚 a small local business which each member of the family is passionate about and helps get the produce to market.

Elmley is the only national nature reserve run by a farming family. Matt hears from owner Philip Merricks, who is committed to both farming and conservation.听 He then makes like the local birdlife and wades in to see first-hand how water is managed on the reserve and how this approach attracts so many birds. 听A wet and windy trip to Elmley ends in one of the dry hides, the perfect place for photographers to take some fantastic snaps of our feathered friends.听听

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Ellie follows Vita Sackville-West鈥檚 story to Sissinghurst, the hugely popular garden she co-created with her husband Harold Nicholson. 听Although famed for her poetry, Vita was also known as a self-taught garden designer and her newspaper columns drew many visitors to see her colourful blooms and imaginative planting. Ellie helps the gardeners prepare the spring seedlings and replant the rose garden during the busy winter season. Vita鈥檚 grandson, writer Adam Nicholson, joins Ellie to share his stories about Sissinghurst, a place he sees as much more than just a garden.

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