Sheila Hancock and Gyles Brandreth are back on the barge to explore the Cambridgeshire Fens. They visit the vicarage where a children's classic was written, make a pilgrimage to Ely Cathedral to hear some medieval plainsong and try their hand at a spot of landscape painting, before ending their journey in Cambridge to pay homage to early 20th-century poetry great Rupert Brooke.

Sheila and Gyles boat from Wigan to Liverpool across the West Lancashire Coastal Plain. In Wigan, Gyles takes on the world pie-eating champion.

Sheila and Gyles boat the beautiful Peak Forest Canal to Manchester, where they have a go at dry stone walling and discover the hatting history of Denton.