Tilting at windmills in Knighton

Sara Jane Hall and presenter Alan Dein spent several days in Knighton

Earth-destroying asteroids, raining fish, and windfarms are well known to the inhabitants of Knighton.

But the rest of Britain will find out why Apocalyptic visions run surprisingly high in the borderland town this week.

The BBC Radio 4 series, Lives in a Landscape, focuses on these stories on BBC iPlayer until Friday 20 November.

The programme was recorded by presenter, Alain Dein, and producer Sara Jane Hall in July 2009.

Destruction

Situated with one foot in Wales and the other in England, Knighton is known for its picture-postcard tranquillity.

Yet today all is far from calm, as a new windfarm, with its giant slowly rotating turbines, is planned for the hill on the edge of town.

Some people look on this as their part in saving the Earth from the threat of climate change, others as the destruction of the ancient landscape.

Meanwhile, on the hill itself stands an observatory, the Spaceguard Centre , whose director sees its role as drawing attention to the dangers lurking in space, and the likelihood of the world's destruction by asteroid strike.

So did a strange shower of fish over the town hint at apocalypse?

Spaceguard

Alan Dein reads the omens and tries to understand why the sky over Knighton is filled with portents.

Producer Sara Jane Hall discovered the town in 2008, when walking the Offa's Dyke Path , and decided she had to return and make a programme about it.

Sara Jane started by contacting the Offa's Dyke Association, which runs Knighton's Offa's Dyke Centre.

Staff and members of the Association then used their local knowledge to put her in touch with interesting characters from all walks of life in and around Knighton.

In early July of this year Sara Jane and presenter Alan Dein spent a few days in Knighton recording the sounds of rural life in Welsh Marches.

They dropped in on local farmer Russell Davies, attended an auction at McCartneys and visited the Spaceguard Centre on Llan-wen Hill.

And of course they took in a section of Offa's Dyke, in Pinner's Hole.

Lives in a Landscape is broadcast on BBC iPlayer until Friday 20 November.