Abergavenny

Overview

The team are in Abergavenny, a town famous for its markets and its food. Matt Baker is looking at the history and heritage of the old mining town of Blaenavon, seeing how the old spoil heaps have become rich habitat for a surprising number of creatures. The spoil heaps have also been made into a world-class BMX bike trail - Matt takes on some local young people in a time trial. He also sees how one old pit is now producing cheese rather than coal. Julia Bradbury is combining her love of food and art; she is at the Abergavenny Food Festival, where a group of artistically minded local people get together to make huge sculptures based on the food on show. Julia also explores the Monmouthshire and Brecon canal, and joins the team of volunteers restoring the waterway and bringing it back to life. Helen Skelton is in Scotland, meeting two of the contestants in this year's One Man and His Dog. John Craven heads to Essex to surprise the winner of this year's photographic competition - and to launch the Countryfile Calendar for 2014. Tom Heap is in Lincolnshire, investigating the criminal gangs behind widespread illegal hare coursing in the countryside.