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36-691: Created in 1980, by Chris Baines and others, it was formerly known as the Urban Wildlife Group , and then the Urban Wildlife Trust , the United Kingdom's first urban Wildlife Trust. It was responsible for the first ever International Dawn Chorus Day event, held at Moseley Bog in 1984. In the mid-1980s it established Plants Brook Nature Reserve in Birmingham. The Trust was the first UK Wildlife Trust to become

72-552: A close association, and he remains vice-president of the Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country. Through most of the late 1980s and early 1990s, Baines focused on television broadcasting, and presented The Big E , Saturday Starship , Pebble Mill at One and several other networked series. The BBC TV programme Countryfile evolved from his original regional series "Your Country Needs You" and Baines

108-645: A close involvement with reserves such as Moorcroft Wood Local Nature Reserve . The Trust operates a number of environmental centres including the Centre of the Earth and the Birmingham EcoPark . It is a full member of the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts , (one of 46 covering the whole United Kingdom), and was the first urban Wildlife Trust and has a membership of over 11,000. The trust carries out

144-539: A different female co-host each week, which included Hayley Mills , Sue Cook , Liza Goddard , Maureen Lipman , Jill Townsend , Jackie Collins and Jenny Hanley , who became the permanent co-host to Langley for the final season broadcast in 1981. In its final year, an early evening version called Six Fifty-Five Special surfaced when Pebble Mill was on its summer break, presented by Sally James , Paul Coia , David Soul and Bob Langley. In 1986, The Clothes Show , presented by Jeff Banks and Selina Scott ,

180-520: A member of Countdown 2010 the European initiative to halt the decline in biodiversity by 2010. Black Country Living Landscape was a major initiative of the Trust that aimed to be the first practical application of the principles of landscape scale conservation to an urban area. In 2012 the Trust built a partnership that was successful in getting Birmingham and the Black Country declared as one of

216-478: A new entrance. Two weeks after Pebble Mill at One began, ITV launched a brand new daytime line-up, including an ITN News bulletin at lunchtime, placing it in direct competition with Pebble Mill at One . Only a few editions of Pebble Mill at One are known to survive. One that does survive from the early years celebrated the tenth anniversary of Doctor Who in 1973, featuring interviews with Patrick Troughton and visual effects designer Bernard Wilkie; this

252-537: A regular magazine, Wildlife Focus, which provides coverage of their activities and a range of urban wildlife issues. Chris Baines Chris Baines (born 4 May 1947) is an English naturalist, one of the UK's leading independent environmentalists. He is a horticulturalist , landscape architect, naturalist , television presenter and author. Baines grew up in Sheffield , West Riding of Yorkshire . He worked in

288-453: A unique following from those who found themselves at home at lunchtime. Housewives, students, and those recovering from an illness remember it with fondness for its variety and the problems inherent with live television. One of the more frequently repeated scenes from Pebble Mill at One was in 1986, when Marian Foster introduced pop singer Owen Paul , who was to perform his hit cover of Marshall Crenshaw 's " My Favourite Waste of Time ". He

324-445: A wide range of activities to protest and develop biodiversity and engage with local people and various nature conservation, community and education projects. They carry out research, surveys and campaigns. Each year it co-ordinates International Dawn Chorus Day . The Trust is managed by a council of trustees drawn from the membership. The Trust has about twenty full, part-time and contract staff and many active volunteers. They produce

360-901: Is a national vice-president of the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts . He is a former trustee of the Heritage Lottery Fund and also completed a further five years as a member of the HLF Expert Panel. He is president of the Association for Environment Conscious Building and the Thames Estuary Partnership and the Essex Wildlife Trust . In 2004 he was presented with the RSPB 's annual Medal of Honour for his contribution to nature conservation and sustainable water management. In 2013 he

396-459: Is available worldwide through Amazon. He is also a Companion of the Guild of St George . The Living Thames 2019 (incomplete) Royal Horticultural Society Companion to Wildlife Gardening, 2015 ( ISBN   9780711235472 ) Winner, UK Charitable Film Awards as presenter of The Living Thames Pebble Mill at One Pebble Mill at One was a British television magazine programme that

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432-551: Is included among the special features of the DVD release of The Three Doctors . Some other Doctor Who -related interviews from Pebble Mill at One have also survived due to early domestic video recordings and have been released on DVDs. On 20 September 1979, Pebble Mill at One was visited by a Sea Harrier aircraft from RNAS Yeovilton (aircraft FRS.1 XZ451 of 700A Squadron ) flown by Lieutenant Commander Nigel "Sharkey" Ward , which landed (and later took off) vertically, on

468-432: Is one of the U.K.'s leading environmental campaigners, and in recent years he has particularly championed the cause of trees. He led the fight to prevent cable television and other utility companies chopping through the roots of urban street trees. He has also promoted the concept of urban forestry in the U.K. He was a founding member of the steering committee of CABE Space, the U.K. Government's urban greenspace adviser. He

504-550: Is particularly active as a professional environmental adviser to the housebuilding and development industry in the UK. He chaired the independent design review panel for the largest new housing development in the Thames Gateway , East of London at Barking Riverside and he also advised on sustainability at the 2012 Olympic Athletes' Village and Westfield Shopping City in Stratford, East London. He advised on regeneration in

540-461: The BBC planned to launch a selection of new programming along with repeats and films, to expand their daytime schedules; developing a lunchtime magazine series to anchor the new BBC1 daytime schedules, which became Pebble Mill at One . At the time of its launch, it was preceded by a five-minute news summary at 12:55   pm, which would lead into the programme commencing at 1:00   pm. The programme

576-484: The British government. There were restrictions on the number of hours per day which could be used by the BBC and ITV for regular television programming. In the 1960s, it was set at a 50-hour allowance per week (with exemptions for schools programmes, adult education, state occasions, Welsh language programming, and outside broadcasts of sporting events) and gradually increased by the government at regular intervals. In 1972,

612-457: The Mill which began in 1976. Kenny Ball and His Jazzmen were the regular house band, and they performed the signature tune. Until 1978, the spin-off was hosted by Bob Langley and Donny MacLeod , who was replaced by Tony Lewis , and who in turn was replaced in 1980 by Arianna Stassinopoulos , though she was dropped after just five editions. For the remainder of the season, Langley was joined by

648-632: The U.K. Conservation Book Prize in 1987. His other books include four-story books for young children. His investigative environmental series for children, The Ark, won the International Wildscreen Award in 1987. Also in 1987, Chris recorded an album, The Wild Side of Town , with the folk-rock Albion Band and then toured the U.K., raising money for the British Wildlife Appeal . In 2000, he presented Charlie's Wildlife Gardens with Charlie Dimmock . Baines

684-751: The UK government's Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) on biodiversity aspects of their proposed ecotowns. In 2010 he worked in the Gulf state of Qatar with the Boston Consulting Group, producing the twenty year forward strategy for that country's urban environments. In the 1990s he established the Greenleaf Housing Awards for the New Homes Marketing Board, and chaired the national judging panel for 15 years. He has particular expertise in

720-590: The UK's first tranche of Nature Improvement Areas . The organisation had a 40 hectare reserve at Park Hall near Minworth but despite opposition this was taken possession of by HS2 under powers granted by the High Speed Rail (London - West Midlands) Act 2017 . Other nature reserves include Portway Hill , Deer's Leap Wood , Peascroft Wood , Richmond Garden in Soho, Birmingham and Hill Hook Local Nature Reserve . The Trust also manages Moseley Bog and has

756-724: The UN World Heritage city of Bath , Somerset , and in the new township of the Hamptons, Peterborough, and was retained by developers Lend Lease to advise on green infrastructure for the redevelopment of the Heygate Estate, Elephant and Castle. In 2017 that development was shortlisted for the Stirling prize. He has a particular interest in the environment of retirement housing and worked for several years as an adviser to specialist developer Beechcroft. He also advised

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792-576: The adjacent BBC Social Club's football pitch . The programme returned the favour on 7 April 1986 by transmitting a live programme from the newly launched aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal in the English Channel. This programme, which was produced by Tom Ross and directed by Tony Rayner, got the show's highest ever audience of nearly six million viewers. Until 1986, there were few television programmes transmitted on BBC television during daytime hours. For this reason, Pebble Mill at One acquired

828-460: The decision was taken by BBC1 controller Michael Grade to replace Pebble Mill at One with a new lunchtime news bulletin, the One O'Clock News . Over 30,000 viewers wrote to the BBC to complain. A previous Assistant Editor of the programme, Roger Laughton (later to become a senior executive with the BBC and Meridian Broadcasting ) was given responsibility for planning the BBC's new daytime schedule but

864-634: The field of sustainable water management. He has worked for a number of UK water companies, spent time as an adviser to the water regulator OFWAT and has worked with the Environment Agency to improve communication of whole river catchment management. He also chairs the Stakeholder Advisory Group of the National Grid, appointed by the regulator Ofgem to provide independent guidance in a £500 million programme to reduce

900-542: The format did not reappear until the following year, returning on 21 October 1987 as Daytime Live . It was renamed as Scene Today in October 1990 and finally Pebble Mill in October 1991. None of these programmes were broadcast at 1:00   pm - they were aired in the hour preceding the One O'Clock News . There were several Pebble Mill spin-offs, particularly in the 1970s, such as the late night chat show Saturday Night at

936-520: The government – under Conservative Prime Minister Edward Heath – announced its plan to completely lift all restrictions and limits on broadcasting hours, and allow the BBC and ITV to set their own schedules. This was introduced in January of that year. With the lifting of the broadcasting restrictions, ITV planned to launch a full daytime schedule in the autumn of 1972, with the broadcasting day gradually increasing throughout that year. To counter this,

972-468: The local parks department when he left school, and then studied horticulture and landscape architecture at Wye College, University of London. After an early career in landscape contracting, including several years of greening desert landscapes in the Middle East and community landscaping on UK inner-city housing estates, Baines taught landscape architecture at post-graduate level until 1986, when he

1008-538: The visual impact of pylons in National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Baines has written frequently in BBC Gardeners' World , BBC Wildlife and Country Living magazines. and is a regular broadcaster on BBC Radio 4 . His film The Living Thames won the 2019 UK Charity Film Award and has won prizes and awards on four continents. It has an introduction by Sir David Attenborough and

1044-478: Was broadcast live on weekdays at one o'clock on BBC1 , from 2 October 1972 to 23 May 1986, and again from 14 October 1991 to 29 March 1996. It was transmitted from the Pebble Mill studios of BBC Birmingham , and uniquely was hosted from the centre's main foyer area, rather than a conventional television studio . Until 1972, broadcasting hours on British television were tightly controlled and limited by

1080-635: Was awarded an honorary personal professorship at Birmingham Polytechnic in Birmingham . In 1980, he was one of a group of local environmentalists who co-founded the Urban Wildlife Group (now the Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country ), the first of a series of such urban conservation organisations to appear in the UK that year. This was the beginning of a burgeoning urban wildlife movement with which he has always had

1116-413: Was broadcast from the foyer of Pebble Mill, because a planned third studio was never constructed on the site, and existing facilities were fully booked for network drama production and local news. In the beginning, visitors to the studios were seen arriving in the background as the programme was transmitted. Gradually, as the programme became more successful, the foyer became a studio, and visitors had to use

Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country - Misplaced Pages Continue

1152-628: Was expected to mime to a backing track, but as he could not hear the foldback loudspeaker as it had failed, Paul was left standing looking into the camera, while viewers heard him singing to the music. Presenters during the show's run included Marian Foster , Donny MacLeod , Bob Langley , Judi Spiers , Jan Leeming and Paul Coia . Later presenters included Fern Britton , Gloria Hunniford , Debi Jones, Tom Coyne, Marjorie Lofthouse, David Seymour, Magnus Magnusson , Alan Titchmarsh , Chris Baines and Josephine Buchanan. Editors included Terry Dobson, Jim Dumighan, and Peter Hercombe. A regular cookery slot

1188-404: Was one of Countryfile 's first presenters. Baines built the first wildlife garden ever allowed at Chelsea Flower Show in 1985, and in the same year his television programme Bluetits and Bumblebees, and his book, How to Make a Wildlife Garden , inspired many people to begin gardening with wildlife. The Wild Side of Town , which accompanied a five-part television series of the same name, won

1224-471: Was presented by Rev John Eley, popularly known as the Cooking Canon . The programme's signature tune was initially "As You Please", written by easy listening composer Raymond Lefèvre . It was later changed to "Miller's Tune" by Patchwork . In 1986, Bill Cotton , managing director of television at the BBC, decided that a full daytime service was required on BBC1. As part of this new service,

1260-932: Was presented with the coveted Peter Scott Award by the British Naturalists Association. He is the patron of the Countryside Management Association and the Wildlife Gardening Forum, and president of the Wildside Activity Centre. Baines is also a member of the National Trust's natural environment advisory group. Baines works as a self-employed freelancer, and advises government ministers, local councils and senior executives in major water, minerals, finance, construction and housing companies, on environmental practice. He

1296-502: Was principal adviser to Trees of Time and Place , a campaign for the millennium which encouraged people to gather seeds from a favourite tree, grow a seedling and plant it for the future. He also founded International Dawn Chorus Day in 1987. He was also a member of the steering board for the BBC's Breathing Places campaign. Baines is committed to urban wildlife and wildlife gardening. He works from home in Wolverhampton ,

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