Flat Holm: 'I like stripped back life' The tiny island that has become a new home for one man

Watch the video report by reporter Hamish Auskerry and camera operator Lynsey Green

Lots of people dream about moving somewhere remote and living off grid. Very few people actually make that dream a reality, but Simon Parker did.

Simon's career has been spent working on the avionics of helicopters in the Navy and then on the Red Arrows.

Earlier this year, he chose the tiny island of Flat Holm in the Bristol Channel as his new home by taking up the job of the island's warden.

"I like stripped back life, very simple living", he tells me in the Gull and Leek, Wales' most southernly pub situation on Flat Holm.

"This is pretty raw. It's back to basics in the sense, you're relying on renewable energy so you don't have a lot of power and you're conserving all the time.

"You have to be careful how much water you're using, and also the island was in a bit of a sad way and it just needed a bit of TLC. I was lucky I didn't have many commitments so I thought I want to give this a go and really try to improve the island".

The island is beautiful, and even though camera operator Lynsey Green and I had 10 hours on the island, there was so much we didn't have time to enjoy properly.

I have a bias to declare here, as someone named after an island in Orkney, Scotland where I grew up with my sheep-farming parents, one of whom happens to be called Simon.

The Vikings named "Auskerry", or "East Isle", just as the word "Holm" comes from the Old Norse word for a "small rounded island". So I was always likely to feel at home here.

Flat Holm is designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest and Local Nature Reserve. Run by Cardiff Council, the Flat Holm Project conserves the island’s natural and cultural features, from maritime grassland to Victorian barracks, from seabird colonies to wartime bunkers.

As the new warden, those responsibilities fall on Simon and there is a lot of history to look after.

In 1860 the Royal Commission recommended that Flat Holm was to form part of a “strategic coastal defence system for the Bristol Channel”, which included Brean Down, Steep Holm and Lavernock. Preparations for construction of the fortress on Flat Holm began in 1865, and it was completed in 1869. Despite the millions spent, an attack never occurred.

Then again in the Second World War, the island's vegetation and habitat was levelled by the military to fortify the island again.

That work started in spring 1941 and the main construction of the gun positions continued throughout 1942. Eventually, Over 350 soldiers were stationed on Flat Holm, but none of the gun batteries ever fired at enemy ships or planes because they were never in range of Flat Holm.

Soldiers would have watched from the island as Cardiff and other places across south Wales were bombed.

Simon says he wants to ensure that the history of the island is preserved as much as the natural habitats for the Lesser Black Back Gulls, Peregrine Falcons, rabbits and slow worms that live there.

Flat Holm is just four and a half miles from Cardiff, but the island itself is only half a mile wide. For health and safety, Simon is not allowed to ever be entirely on his own on the island, but for weeks on end it can just be him and one of the other volunteer wardens on the island.

"I have been affected by loneliness during my life", Simon tells me, "But I've found that's come when I've been in cities or large towns when I feel a little out of place, or if I'm travelling around a lot it makes it hard to connect.

"I'm very comfortable with my own company, and while there's not many people here, there's lots of wildlife and I could happily watch the birds all day".

People have enjoyed visiting Flat Holm for thousands of years. An axe head found on the island is believed be from the late Bronze Age, 900 to 700 BC.The earliest known visitor to Flat Holm was St Cadoc. He made frequent visits to the island in the late 6th century for periods of tranquil meditation, especially during Lent.

Some visitors haven't enjoyed their stay quite so much. In 1883, Flat Holm became an isolation hospital to protect the mainland against a cholera epidemic.

The main building consisted of two six-bed wards, whilst the converted building was improved to provide four extra beds. A laundry and a wooden crematorium were also constructed.

In 1935 the Ministry of Health condemned the building.

The remaining ruins of the hospital are a popular tourist attraction on the island, which can welcome around 2,000 people a year on day trips and overnight stays from the mainland.

The island is most famous for receiving the first ever radio message across water by Marconi on May 13th 1897.

On the 127th anniversary of that momentous achievement for science and engineering, there is now also an acceptance that Marconi himself has a more challenging past.

Cardiff Council had been planning a sculpture in Cardiff Bay to help connect people on the mainland with the isolated island they can see on the horizon.

After the council was made aware of Marconi’s links to fascism and antisemitism, it decided the sculpture will not feature Marconi’s name, as originally intended.

A Cardiff Council spokesperson said: “The work carried out by Marconi is just one small part of Flat Holm island’s fascinating history, which stretches all the way back to the Bronze Age. None of that history, good or bad, can be deleted, but we have a responsibility to learn from it, and ensure it is presented in a way that is consistent with Cardiff’s values as a tolerant and welcoming city, where equality and diversity is championed and celebrated.

"To be clear - the Council in no way condones Marconi’s links to fascism and antisemitism.”

Marconi's association with the island was incredibly brief in the context of its long history, and there is so much to love about Flat Holm. The history, the wildlife and the spectacular views over to the Somerset Coast and back towards Cardiff Bay and Penarth.

Despite the challenges of crumbling buildings, climate change and limited resources, the island's future looks bright under Simon's wardenship.

I was certainly sad to leave, and if you take a trip out there this summer, you might be too.