A visit to Yorkshire Sculpture Park
A short drive from Junction 38 on the M1, leads to the well-signposted way into the Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP), where scores of massive, mainly metal, sculptures dot the landscape of the 500 acre Bretton Estate not far from Wakefield. Well placed in an open landscape for the best effect, there is everything from Barbara Hepworth’s ‘Family of Man’, to Henry Moore’s massive bronzes, and quirky exhibits such as the larger than life sized man reading his mobile phone, this is called ‘Networking: uphill from this is the Chinese dissident Ai Weiwei’s group of animal heads apparently in conversation, then a rabbit headed woman’s body made from chicken wire made by Sophie Ryder; and just outside the café, is a life sized version of Albrecht Dürer’s Rhinoceros drawn in 1515. I found the piece called ‘The Cave’ by Mark Suvero the wittiest. It looks as though it is made from bits and pieces of cast off JCB machines, as it is quite likely, for Suvero was a construction worker at one time. Bretton Estate was acquired by Wakefield Council and converted into the sculpture park in 1977, but the estate has a longer and fascinating history. Originally awarded to one of William the Conqueror’s knights for his services at the Battle of Hastings, lands in Bretton and West Bretton including the estate are listed in the Domesday Book of 1086, but by 1158 it was settled by the de Bretton family. Through changes of ownership following convenient marriages, the estate passed through three interconnected families, the Dronsfields, the Wentworths and the Beaumonts. It was the Dronsfields who built up the estate on the banks of the River Dearne, living there until 1407 when it passed to Elizabeth Wentworth, wife of John Wentworth; she bequeathed it to her son Richard and the Wentworths lived at Bretton for the next four centuries, with the house passing through the male line until 1792. The first documented house probably half-timbered, was built by Sir Thomas Wentworth around 1508. The estate continued to prosper until the Civil War when its Royalist owner another Sir Thomas, was imprisoned after the Battle of Naseby. Following the Restoration of the Monarchy, King Charles II made him a baronet in 1664. It was yet another Thomas, the 5th Baronet who by employing the landscape gardener, Richard Woods, a talented contemporary of ‘Capability’ Brown to develop the gardens and park in the mid to late eighteenth century. Although Thomas never married, he had an illegitimate daughter, Diane to whom he bequeathed Bretton. Through her marriage to Colonel Thomas Beaumont an MP for Northumberland the estate became owned by the Beaumonts, later Wentworth Beaumonts for the next hundred years or so. Like many estates before it, Bretton became a drain on its owner’s finances and gradually it was sold piecemeal, first to West Riding County Council, and eventually in its present form to Wakefield Council. Around 1949, the house became Bretton Hall Teacher Training College, later merging with the University of Leeds, specialising in music, the arts and drama. While the mansion has been neglected to some extent and is currently in line to become a hotel, the rest of the park is now an imaginative open air sculpture gallery, with the added bonus of new buildings for the YSP Centre devoted to displays of individual artist’s work and restaurant and café facilities. The 500 acre Yorkshire Sculpture Park is open daily throughout the year. Allow at least three hours to do justice to a visit. 00
Walk Derbyshire – Carsington Pasture & The High Peak Trail
5 miles (8km) of minor road and field path walking with one steady 252 foot climb (77m). Moderate. RECOMMENDED MAP: Ordnance Survey Explorer Map Sheet OL24. 1:25000 scale; the Peak District, White Peak Area. PUBLIC TRANSPORT: Your Bus service between Ashbourne and Matlock calls at Carsington Water Visitor Centre and Carsington village every hour on weekdays and Saturdays. Two hourly service on Sundays and Bank Holiday Mondays. CAR PARKING: Accessed from the B5035 Cromford to Ashbourne road. Sheepwash car park is opposite the farm lane into Carsington village. Alternatively, use Carsington Water Visitor Centre car park if planning a longer walk. REFRESHMENTS: Miners’ Arms in Carsington village and café/restaurant facilities at Carsington Water Visitor Centre’s New Leaf Restaurant. This walk combines popular routes by linking them with a little used path. Here the view across Carsington Water leads on across the north Midlands Plain, almost to Leicestershire. Starting from Sheepwash car park, the way is first through Carsington village to Hopton. This is where the only serious climb in the walk follows a little used path up to the High Peak Trail. The trail is followed, parallel to the moorland road from Wirksworth to Brassington, until the two routes diverge. A sharp left turn at this point leaves the trail, then crosses the road to reach the popular path crossing Carsington Pasture. Its wind turbines now stand where our prehistoric ancestors once farmed, or later inhabitants delved for lead. This path eventually reaches Carsington village and its welcoming pub. At Carsington a decision must be made, either to return to the car, or continue along the reservoir path into the Visitor Centre for a short stroll to Stones Island, and then walking back the same way, or perhaps catching service bus no. 110 Ashbourne to Matlock via Carsington. The charming village of Carsington nestles in a sheltered valley above Carsington Water. The reservoir was opened by HM the Queen in May 1992, and contains when full, 7,800 gallons of water, sufficient for the needs of three million people in the north Midlands cities. Carsington village’s tiny church though much ‘improved’ in Victorian times, actually dates from the 14th century, outdating its yew by more than three hundred years. Hopton, the second village, more a hamlet with a manor house, passed through on the walk, surrounds the one-time home of Sir John Gell who led his band of locals on behalf of parliament during the English Civil War. One of the Gells fancifully named the road he created to link Cromford and the coach road at Newhaven, the Via Gellia. He did this in an attempt to make people think the road was Roman in origin. Certainly the Romans inhabited the locality, basing their lead smelting on Lutudaron, a place yet to be discovered, but thought to be somewhere between Carsington and Wirksworth. Hopton Hall is famous for its snowdrops blooming every spring and the garden. The flower garden on the far side of the house from the snowdrop beds is sheltered by the delightfully named ‘crinkle crankle’ wall. Built in a wavy line for both strength and to create sun-arbours, you will pass it early on during the walk. There is an urn in the courtyard of Hopton Hall which Sir William Gell brought back as a souvenir from his Grand Tour visit to Pompeii in 1832. THE WALK 1. Leave Sheepwash car park, and cross the main road. Walk up the narrow lane opposite and cross the Miners’ Arms car park in order to reach the road through Carsington village. 2. Turn right and walk along the minor road for a little under a mile. 3. Go past Hopton Hall and its crinkle crankle wall. 4. Continue to follow the road downhill and then up for another half mile. Keep going forwards by bearing right at the road junction in the dip. 5. Leaving the hall and cottages behind, the road cuts through woodland. 6. Where the road begins to bend sharply to the right in order to join the main road, do not go forwards, but turn left at the corner of the wood on your left. 7. Bearing slightly right and using stiles to keep to the right of way, begin to climb the hillside and enter the first of a series of fields by crossing the woodland boundary wall. 8. Cross the wall at the top right hand corner of the first field and immediately turn half right to cross into the third field. 9. Cross a walled farm track and then, still climbing, looking out for stiles or gaps in boundary walls, climb up through five fields. 10. Cross over a narrow minor road and walk through the last four fields by following their boundary wall on your right. 11. Next to an old farm building, turn sharp left and walk up to the High Peak Trail. 12. Turn left along the trail. Follow it parallel to the Brassington road for around 1¼miles. 13. Where road and trail diverge, turn left to leave the latter. Go through stiles on both sides of the road in order to enter the vast expanse of Carsington Pasture. 14. With the wind turbines on your right, follow the boundary wall across the undulating and steadily descending grassy path. 15. Keep to the path where it zig-zags down the steepening slope. 16. Cross a stone stile and follow the narrow lane past a series of cottages. 17. Bear left along the road through Carsington village and turn right at the Miners’ Arms pub. 18. From the pub follow the farm lane you used in the first part of the walk, this time gently downhill to the main road. 19. Cross the road in order to reach Sheepwash car park. A LITTLE BIT EXTRA TO THE WALK If you still have the time and energy to walk another mile or two, the waterside path from Sheepwash car park to Carsington Water Visitor Centre is a delight. Simply
Celebrity Interview – Tara Fitzgerald
‘Prism is at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre from 3rd – 12th October and at The Theatre Royal, Nottingham from 21 – 26 October’Tara admits she always gets nervous: “It’s always been the same as far back as I can remember. Excitement and the desire for something to be good are the drivers and inevitably make me nervous. As long as I stay nervous I’m fine. Anxiety isn’t welcome” She’s recognisable for her roles on the big screen in Brassed Off and on television in Waking The Dead and Game Of Thrones. Now Tara Fitzgerald is teaming up with Derbyshire-born actor Robert Lindsay for one of the theatrical highlights of the year which is coming to Nottingham. Lindsay is reprising the part of Jack Cardiff, “the man who made women beautiful”, in Terry Johnson’s play Prism. Tara plays two roles, Cardiff’s wife Nicola as well as Katharine Hepburn, the Hollywood star who worked with the legendary director and cinematographer. The play features Cardiff who is suffering from dementia looking back over his life and the films he’s made. When I spoke to Tara during the early stages of rehearsals for Prism, she was still examining her two characters and how they fit into the play. But she was quick to praise playwright Terry Johnson who also directs Prism. Her deep voice is mellifluous as well as unmistakeable “Terry’s writing is fantastic and very exciting to work with. It has a sort of visceral quality and it’s funny, as Terry’s work often is. If we do it right it will also have real pathos. But Terry never becomes sentimental. He’s a very fine wordsmith.” Tara whose deep voice is mellifluous as well as unmistakeable says she is already loving the play: “It’s a real treat to be able to play two characters. Terry’s writing is so beautiful you want to honour it.” She is also relishing the opportunity to team up with Robert Lindsay again. They both appeared in the Terence Rattigan play In Praise Of Love at the Theatre Royal, Bath last year. It was directed by Jonathan Church, formerly associate director at Derby Playhouse and assistant director of Nottingham Playhouse in the 1990s. Tara says it’s a “real pleasure” to be working with Lindsay. Tara Anne Cassandra Fitzgerald was born on 18 September 1967 in Cuckfield, Sussex. She came to international attention in 1993 when she starred with Hugh Grant in the Australian comedy Sirens. She appeared in a stream of independent films during the 1990s, most famously Brassed Off in 1996 alongside the late Pete Postlethwaite. She played Gloria Mullins, a young woman working for British Coal who’s sent to her home town of Grimley to determine the profitability of its pit. “People talk about it as being one of their favourite films,” remarks Tara. “It still has so much relevance, as I suppose the best pieces of art do. Everyone believed in it. It wears its heart on its sleeve, so it chimes with people.” The previous year Tara had won the New York Critics’ Circle best supporting actress award for her role as Ophelia in Shakespeare’s Hamlet opposite Ralph Fiennes. On television she appeared in 32 episodes of the BBC1 series Waking The Dead as forensic scientist Eve Lockhart and also in the spin-off drama The Body Farm. If you’re a fan of the TV fantasy drama series Game Of Thrones you won’t need me to tell you that Tara played Queen Selyse Baratheon, wife of the Lord of Dragonstone and claimant to the Iron Throne. The character killed her daughter before hanging herself. Tara considers herself lucky to be able to move between the different media of theatre, film and television. She found Game Of Thrones to be “phenomenal” because she was a fan of the series when she got the role. “I was just over the moon. There was such talent everywhere you looked, both the cast and crew. It was a great thing to be part of and something I can feel so proud of. Even if you haven’t seen Games Of Thrones you know it. And you know culturally the impact it’s had globally. This sounds a bit grandiose but I think it was the start of a television revolution.” There’s also been a revolution in theatre, with actors being cast in roles no matter what their gender, race or age. Tara feels she has benefited from this change. “It feels like people are just much more open-minded. It’s a time of reinvention. People are looking at projects with fresh eyes, which is great. “There’s just been this zeitgeist,” observes Tara, an intellectual who thinks carefully about everything she says. “The change has been so swift and so huge. But I still miss in film – not so much on TV – representation of women of a certain age, women who are my age basically.” Tara has recently been working on a major ITV period drama, Belgravia, written by Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes. “That had the most wonderful roles for older women who are the drivers of the story.” Lady Macbeth at Shakespeare’s Globe Tara had at one point become frustrated at a lack of interesting roles for mature actresses and had started to direct. Yet she has had a range of major parts in the past few years including playing Lady Macbeth at Shakespeare’s Globe and Bella Manningham in Patrick Hamilton’s Victorian chiller Gaslight in Northampton. She found acting at the open-air Globe in London “extraordinary” because “the main house isn’t like anywhere else. For me it was a big learning curve, the immediacy of the space and the interaction that you inevitably have with the audience. “Usually when I go out onto a stage there’s some sort of a wall. They call it the fourth wall. And so you’re enclosed in your make-believe land. At the Globe you’re not. You come out on stage and you can see every face in the house. People are very active and alive
The Lost Houses of Derbyshire – Greenhill Hall, Norton
When I write about Derbyshire, I do tend to stick to the historic borders of the County, the land of which has been eroded (and less generously replenished) ever since County Councils were first formed in 1888. Although we have gained the Seals (Over and Nether) in the south and Fernilee to the north west, we lost all the ‘islands’ of Derbyshire that were once immured in Leicestershire: Measham, Ravenstone, Donisthorpe, Stretton-en-le-Field, Oakthorpe, Clifton Campville and Appleby Parva, not to mention Edingale, Chilcote and Croxall in Staffordshire. Since then, large settlements outside the county have hungrily seized parts of Derbyshire just to increase their rates income: Burton had Stapenhill and Winshill, for instance, and so in the same spirit, Sheffield gobbled up Beauchief and Norton, two of our most historic villages. They tried to get their hands on Dronfield, too, in 1974 but were successfully rebuffed! Thus, I make no excuses for writing about Greenhill, a township (hamlet) of Norton, in which until 1965 stood a most venerable small manor house called Greenhill Hall. Generally speaking, smaller manor houses which managed to survive the first three decades of the twentieth century have tended to enjoy relatively assured futures, but this has not been the case for those which have fallen within the destructive ambit of Sheffield City Council, as Norton did. Little Norton Hall, Norton Lees Hall and Norton House have all passed into oblivion. Of these, Greenhill was the most important, although its listing was never higher than II. Although the exterior dated from the later sixteenth century, the house had a much earlier core. This became only too clear as the house was demolished, revealing a three bay timber framed great hall of fourteenth century date, only matched in Derbyshire by West Broughton Hall in Sudbury. The Tudor exterior boasted a delightfully irregular gabled façade of coursed rubble of Grenoside sandstone from a local outcrop. The Tudor arched door is flush with a gable to the left, whilst two others were to the right, each slightly advanced from the main façade and with fine six-light stone mullion and transom lead paned windows under short hood-moulds. The gables were straight and un-coped, with the usual array of diamond-set stacks above the stone slate roof. The SE front was ungabled, and much plainer, built in two stages, the NE part being fractionally lower than the portion adjacent to the main front, the whole being of four bays with a second (garden) door at bay three and with fenestration all of three light mullions, the lower windows being noticeably deeper than those above and having similar short hood-moulds. The upper windows (or at least some of them) had flat mullions and surrounds instead of moulded ones, suggesting later alterations – perhaps the replacement of the original timber windows. It was within this that the substantial vestiges of the original timber framed house lurked. Inside there was a beautiful ‘Sheffield School’ ribbed and rosetted plaster ceiling in the parlour, called the ‘Oak Room’ from its lavish period panelling, which indeed stretched to other parts of the house. Indeed, the Oak Room ceiling went to Cartledge Hall not so far away in Holmesfield and can still be admired. There were also fine period over-mantels, one armorial. To the NW was a later, nineteenth century wing of no great pretension, but sufficient to make the house reasonably spacious and to afford an element into which modern (for the late 19th century!) plumbing could be inserted. The earliest certain family to have a capital mansion on the site was the Mowers, also of Barlow Woodseats, William de Mora (as the name was originally spelt) being in possession in 1384. He was a tenant of the Abbey of Beauchief, nearby. A descendant left a daughter and heiress, Joan, of Newbold, who married James Bullock of Unstone in 1586 as his second wife. James was a local man, his father John, living on The Green at Greenhill but, despite the Mowers actually having long held a lease on Greenhill Hall, John had actually acquired the lease (of twenty one years) from the Abbey in their stead in 1533. However, the Dissolution of the Abbey came about within three years, and he promptly bought the freehold as well. James Bullock’s father died in 1579 at a great age, and seems to have undertaken the first stone rebuilding in the 1560s. His son and heir, another James (1580-1632) inherited in 1598 and added the gabled front and also extended the SE side. On his death it passed to his son John and from him to another John, who died without issue in 1699. Yet the second James Bullock became involved in iron smelting at Staveley, where, on the death of his grandson, John Bullock (1627-1699) the enterprise passed to a cousin by marriage, Godfrey Froggatt. As a result, the hall at Greenhill was let to Thurstan, third son of Arnold Kirke of Whitehough Hall, Chapel-en-le-Frith, for he had married Francesca daughter of Jerome Blythe of Norton Hall, nearby and produced a large family, of whom Gervase, the eldest went to London and became a successful merchant of the Staple, trading at Calais. He married a French lady and had five sons, four of whom continued their father’s business whilst the youngest, James, ran the estate at Greenhill and occupied the Hall. The eldest three sons, David, Lewis and Thomas, led an expedition to Canada in 1628, in which they were up against the wily French leader Samuel de Champlain, eventually wresting Quebec from him and David receiving a personal grant of Newfoundland from the King. His relations with de Champlain, though were formidably courteous, de Champlain calling him ‘Capt. Quer’ and indeed, with the family being semi-domiciled in France, this is how they were spelt there, too, just like the Williamses who served the Kings of France in a later era, whose descendants are called Quilliams! This Canadian enterprise was later referred to as the ‘First British
Trams & Trains That Climb Mountains
The Great Orme tramway climbs the hill by a cable operated system from the North Wales coastal resort of Llandudno. It carries holidaymakers almost to the summit of the mountain. nce the preserve of Oxbridge graduates, following the growth of prosperity and the expansion of railway travel during the reign of Queen Victoria, enjoying mountain scenery became open to anyone with the desire to explore the wilder regions of their countryside. Easy access from the industrial Midlands and North West saw hordes of visitors trekking each summer to north Wales’ seaside resorts where, after a short ride along one of the railways snaking up from the coast, they were able to gaze on the dramatic beauty of mountains surrounding Snowdon, the second highest point in the British Isles. Attracted by the dramatic peaks towering above their heads, visitors began to explore the higher ground, but not all had the confidence to find their way in safety amongst the peaks and crags. Quick to grasp the opportunity of an easy income from guiding individuals and groups, shepherds cashed in on their intimate knowledge of the hills, with many turning it into a full-time occupation. Unfortunately some were not as knowledgeable as they thought, while others tried to turn a day amongst the peaks into something more like an alpine expedition; some even demanded the need to carry provisions more suited to a military expedition, even down to the provision of vast quantities of alcohol! With serious hill climbing beyond the ability of the bulk of potential peak-baggers, many were tricked into attempting climbs that were frequently dangerous and life-threatening. It was with this in mind that the idea of a railway to the summit of Snowdon, the most popular mountain was put forward. The suggestion was far from new, trains had been climbing Swiss mountains for a decade or more, so the technology was there, it only needed capital and the encouragement of one or two entrepreneurs to get it off the ground in more ways than one. The man who first had the idea of building a railway to the summit of Mount Snowdon was Sir Richard Moon, Chairman of the London and North Western Railway. In 1869 he came forward with a design using the Swiss ‘rack and pinion’ system where locomotives literally clawed their way up and down steep gradients. The cost to be borne by the LNWR was a staggering £63,800 (almost seven million pounds in today’s money). Naturally this did not meet with immediate approval, with the opposition led by a local landowner, George William Duff-Assheton-Smith, but seeing the potential he became one of the leading members of the Snowdon Mountain Company, with his wife Enid cutting the first sod in a track from Llanberis to the summit of Snowdon. At that time the most popular footpath route to the top of Snowdon was from Portmadog by way of Snowdon Ranger on the mountain’s west flank and for a while building the line as a branch of the Portmadog/Carnarvon line had its backers. However, the northern route from Llanberis was chosen as the means of easing the local economy already suffering from the decline of the Welsh slate industry. Dug by men wielding picks and shovels helped by dynamite alone, working in whatever weather the mountain could throw at them, amazingly it only took fourteen months for the single-track line to reach the summit. The first commercial train ran in time for the summer rush of 6th April 1894. Reaching the summit in good order, unfortunately this journey ended in disaster on the way back down to Llanberis. Possibly due to overloading, locomotive No. 1 Ladas towing two coaches lost the track and ran out of control. The locomotive derailed on the narrow col above Clogwyn Halt and fell into Cwm Glas Mawer on the Llanberis Pass. Amazingly only one passenger died, from loss of blood after jumping from the carriage. This luck continued when due to miscommunication a second downward train hit the carriages of the first, with no fatalities. THE SYSTEM and its ROUTE TO THE SUMMIT The original plan was to use a two-rail system, relying purely on wheel friction for grip. Following the disaster of the first journey, it was decided to adopt the Swiss system and use the rack-and-pinion method for both climbing and descending. A large cog beneath each locomotive was fixed to either side of a central point on the axle and alternately connects with each section of the toothed rack made in the shape of an inverted ‘L’ cross section. The cog alternately connects with individual sections of the rack and literally claws its way up and downhill. Two sections of the line, at the top and bottom being relatively level, do not have a central rail and the boilers on steam locomotives slope downwards in order to keep them as level as possible. Although the majority of trains are pulled by steam engines, there are four diesel locos operating. Five halts are made on the way to the summit and its busy café. Not many passengers use them and their main purpose is to create passing places. Reaching the topmost station it is a rare day when passengers can sunbathe beside the summit cairn built by Ordnance Surveyors; Snowdon has some of the wildest mountain weather in Britain. Below the cairn and a few yards from the summit station platform, the welcoming café offers simple refreshment to shivering would-be mountaineers. The present café stands on the site of earlier attempts to provide hospitality. Originally all that was on offer was a cluster of crude wooden huts later followed by a 1930s structure which by the twenty-first century had become rather scruffy. The present building, Hafod Eryri (literally translated from the Welsh into English as ‘high mountain residence of Snowdonia’ was opened by First Minister Rhodri Morgan on the 12th June 2009 and cost a staggering £8.4 million. Strangely in a region sitting mostly
Taste Derbyshire – How Green is your Kitchen?
The pine worktops may give off the clean scent of zesty lemon but the kitchen of Taste Derbyshire’s Amanda Volley contains a dirty little secret. Each week she is putting three bags of non-recyclable packaging into her wheelie bin. Desperate to clean-up her act, she reached out to Sue MacFarlane who runs a low impact shop in Belper. A week before meeting with Belper’s Sue MacFarlane, a woman at the forefront of the battle against single use plastic, I saved all the food packaging which normally gets pushed into the deepest recesses of my 30-litre touch top bin. I might recycle seven wine bottles a week, use tatty tote bags for shopping and my old fridge was removed by the council rather than dumped on a country lane, but the shameful amount of non-biodegradable plastic in my bin bags proved two things; – 1. I am no friend of the earth. 2. I have a serious crisp addiction. Fortunately, Sue MacFarlane (58), is happy to act as fairy-godmother to the eco-curious. People who want a greener home but are not ready to exchange loo paper for a family cloth (it’s a thing – Google it). Instead of slapping you across the knuckles with a bamboo dish brush, she guides you gently towards greener habits. Sue runs regular workshops for people who want to cut down on their plastic. A year ago, she launched Sue’s Sustainables – a scoop shop where you can buy loose food for your evening meal and refill on eco-friendly washing-up liquid for the dirty plates afterwards. “Getting started on the sustainable journey can be daunting,” Sue says when I tell her about the pile of plastic waste my two-person household produces in one week. “People are often made to feel they are at fault for all the environmental problems and, if it’s getting worse, it’s because individuals aren’t doing enough. Big businesses are very skilled at putting responsibility on consumers for something they didn’t create.” Then she looks at a picture of my rubbish; “Oh wow – that is a lot,” she laughs. “I think you’re at the start of the journey towards a low impact life.” Sue’s own journey began in 2013 when she and husband Will (63), moved to Belper to pursue a simpler life. “Working for a bank in Sheffield, I saw at first hand the waste that goes on a corporate level – like being asked to fly across the country for a business meeting. When the bank restructured, I decided I didn’t want to be part of that world anymore” she explains. “When Will and I moved back to Belper (the couple had previously lived there from 1997-2004) it was a ‘wow’ moment as the town was more vibrant with lots going on in the community. I became the chair of ‘Sharing not wasting’ which re-distributes food not wanted by supermarkets. In addition to her Green Party commitments, Sue began work as a part-time singing teacher (she is a Natural Voice Practitioner who believes everyone – regardless of talent – should be encouraged to sing) and as a celebrant. She also found time to offer free advice to people who wanted to reduce their own plastic consumption. “I’ve been interested in the environment and ecology all my life,” Sue explains. “In 2017, I decided to look for plastic-free alternatives to everything I was still using in the home and started sharing my tips on-line. The one which really got people talking was finding out that some tea bags contain plastic.” For Sue, a lot of her personal changes meant embracing thrifty habits of the past; “My late my mum Janice was part of the war generation and it was natural for her to re-use things instead of throwing them away, making and mending clothes and never wasting food,” she says. “I can recall her buying the pretty margarine tubs so she could use them as containers afterwards.” Sue became so well-known for her friendly tips; a regional TV news channel did a piece about her low impact life and even followed her to the local chippie where she was filmed getting a glass jar filled with mushy peas. But it was never Sue’s intention to launch an eco-business; “It came about in July 2017 when I went along to the opening of Vegan Revelation Cafe and met the owner Leise Taylor,” she recalls. “I became a regular customer and, when the space next-door to her cafe became available, Leise told me Belper needed a vegan food and refill shop. I asked if she had anyone in mind to take it on and Leise replied ‘Yes – you,’.” Catching up with Leise for a coffee, a week after my meeting with Sue, she tells me there was no one else in the running. “I remember the first time Sue walked into the restaurant – dressed in pink – and she was the picture of positivity. Belper needed a sustainable living shop and there was only one person who could run it,” she laughs. “It had to be Sue.” Sue decided to take on the business in August 2018 and recalls the mad ‘whoosh’ between that decision and opening a month later. Sue timed her launch to coincide with a local screening of Plastic Ocean – a film which documents the devastating effects of plastic pollution on the world’s oceans. “It’s a life-changing film like Blue Planet II. Once seen – you can’t un-see it. When we opened the next day, we saw many of the film-goers,” Sue recalls. “In fact, it was mad all day. A lot of my customers said they’d been waiting for it to open. A massive amount of people just said ‘thank you’. They still do, it makes all the effort worthwhile. It’s such a lovely place to work.” Just over a year later, the shop is a testament to all that effort. Over the past twelve months, she’s doubled the stock
Restaurant Review – Lunch at The New Inn, Milford
Fresh, seasonal and cooked in a traditional way. The New Inn is situated conveniently on the main A6 just midway between Belper and Duffield. And true to its name it is experiencing a new lease of life under the careful direction of Kyle and Hollie. Make no mistake about it, this isn’t a fast food outlet where the ‘ting, ting’ of the microwave can be heard from the kitchen. On the contrary The New Inn, Milford is a place where all the ingredients are fresh, true to the season and cooked in a traditional way by their young chef. So with this fixed in mind relax, have a nice drink and enjoy the ambience of a light airy restaurant with stunning views over the Chevin, as your food is prepared. We dined at lunchtime where there is a wide variety of dishes, one menu contains ‘light lunches’ and the other a ‘lunch menu’, these encompass both English and Italian cuisine. The pasta dishes caught my eye and funnily enough we both chose a pasta dish but for the purpose of writing this article and adding variety I gallantly gave in to my wife and went for the traditional instead. But before that we began with a starter and I got in first with a traditional Italian risotto prepared with fresh leeks, tender pieces of chicken and topped with parmesan. We don’t always associate rice with Italy but rice has been grown in southern Italy since the 14th century, and it soon spread North to Milan where this dish became a firm favourite. With a soft and creamy constituency this generous dish was lovely although very filling. This unfortunately caught me out and made my main course difficult to do justice to. I think I must change my style and give more thought to balancing my choice from the menu better. The steak and mushroom pie had a puff pastry lid and the meat was really tender and full flavoured. It was accompanied by a dish of fresh vegetables, lightly cooked and with flavour still intact. A small wire basket of chips completed the dish. A generous main course I think you’ll agree! My wife who has a little more common sense chose the baked asparagus with a crumb and Stilton topping, this left her room for her main-course of tagliatelle pasta in a cream sauce. The flat ribbons of pasta were in a rich sauce with chunks of chicken and slithers of pancetta and mushrooms, nicely presented. Was there room for pudding? Sadly no, so we will just have to come another day for my fruit crumble. If however, you have a more strictly allocated lunch time than ours, there are things such as homemade fish finger baguette, steak and Stilton ciabatta and homemade beef burger all served with a side of salad and chips to tempt you. The service at the New Inn definitely deserves a mention as the staff are so kind and attentive, they give you a real, warm welcome. 00
Tried & Tested – Feed Your Skin with Superfood from Elemis
Nourish from the outside-in with these new additions to the vitamin-packed Pre-biotic SUPERFOOD SKINCARE RANGE New Superfood Blackcurrant Jelly Exfoliator £28 | 50ml This super gentle facial scrub is jam-packed with anti-oxidant rich fruit extracts, Black Tea Extract and Glycerin, leaving the complexion smoother, softer and hydrated. • Sustainably-sourced Blackcurrant Fruit Pulp exfoliates for a smoother, more radiant complexion. • Unique jelly texture transforms into a milky smoothie when you add water. • Bilberry Extract, naturally high in vitamins and minerals, locks in moisture and rehydrates. New Superfood Vital Veggie Mask £30 | 75ml Get a shot of green goodness with this treatment mask that nourishes, smoothes and brightens. • Locks in hydration with Avocado and Chia Seed Oils, rich in omega fatty acids 6 and 9 • Passionfruit Acids, naturally rich in Vitamin C, brightens while gently exfoliating. • Nourishes with Wheatgrass Extract, rich in chlorophyll, amino acids, minerals, vitamins and enzymes to leave skin healthy-looking and feeling smooth. New Superfood Berry Boost Mask £30 | 75ml A purifying mask with Brazilian Purple Clay and an omega-rich Superberry Complex balances the T-zone and helps mattify skin. Product Test Blackcurrant Jelly Exfoliator. I found this to be a very gentle exfoliator that I could use every day. There are no harsh, gritty bits so it’s very kind to your skin and yet does give good results. It also doesn’t dry or irritate your skin. JP Vital Veggie Mask My friends verdict of my skin was ‘wow, it looks so bright!’ There you have it. A fantastic skin brightening product. I love this! VP Berry Boost Mask Gentle face mask that can be used twice a week. It smells incredible and can notice the different in my skin after the first use. It controls excess oil and leaves your skin looking more even toned and refreshed. Super face mask! CB 00
Taste Derbyshire – Hooked on Ice Cream
There was a time when it was unnecessary to give a dessert menu to Gavin Murray; it didn’t matter what form or flavour – hard or soft, exotic or everyday – to know Gavin was to know he had a thing for ice cream. “I’ve always loved ice cream, but then who doesn’t?” says Gavin (48), director of Derby’s first not-for-profit, ethical ice cream brand Just-ice. “I got hooked on homemade ice cream thanks to my dad. He used to make ice cream every year in flavours like butterscotch and coffee. I remember him having to get up in the night to stir the bowl so it didn’t develop ice crystals. It was gorgeous.” Gavin’s transition from ice cream fan to ice cream man began when good friends bought him an ice cream making machine in 1999. “I loved all ice cream but Ben and Jerry’s ice cream was a special favourite and the gift came with a recipe book,” Gavin explains. “I’d make it every couple of months for occasions like birthdays. I experimented with flavours like mocha, maple and pecan and I used fresh fruits like raspberries and strawberries. It must have gained a bit of a reputation because, when I donated some as a charity raffle prize, the top bid was £40.” Perhaps this explains why, on a perfectly ordinary day in his kitchen, Gavin found himself making an ‘out-of-the-blue’ declaration to wife Sally. “I just told her that if I was to open a shop, it would sell ice cream and the business would help the survivors of trafficking,” he says. “For years and years, we’d supported Hope for Justice, an organisation whose mission is to put an end to modern slavery. I told Sally and she said ‘Oh, we could call it ‘Just-Ice.’ That’s how it all started.” The ‘all’ involved in starting a business from scratch led to a massive life-change. The couple, along with their three teenage children, had lived in London for twenty years and Gavin was working as a minister for Morden Baptist Church. “If we wanted to launch the business, and really help people, we realised we couldn’t run it alongside Gav’s church commitments,” Sally (49), a physiotherapist, explains. “It was a make or break moment as the family house came with the post. But we decided to take a leap of faith. Life is short and, as someone coming up to 50, I knew we’d regret it if we didn’t follow our dream.” The couple decided they needed a fresh start in a new location. “All roads seemed to lead to Derby,” Sally laughs. “Gavin visited a pub called the Derby Arms and we were watching Pride and Prejudice on the TV, which is set in Derbyshire. We came up to Derby in February 2017 and met with the Marketing Derby team as we were looking for a shop. We were shown a large vacant space in Derby Market Hall and it just made sense as the rent was reasonable and we could make and sell our ice cream there.” Even so, there was still work to be done taking the dream to reality; “It’s amazing what you can get done with the help of Google and a bar of Green and Black’s chocolate,” Sally laughs. “One of the priorities was joining Social Enterprise UK. Becoming a member puts you in touch with a network of other businesses and we were really encouraged by other people’s stories. Plus, we were able to source things from other social enterprises like NEMI tea, a business which supports asylum seekers and refugees.” Gavin, Sally and the family moved to Derby in August 2017, cheered on by their friends from Morden. “They gave us so much help and support,” Sally says. “Before we left, our friends presented us with Fairtrade aprons bearing our company logo. Another came up to Derby for the day to just to wallpaper our stall. A friend who runs Rachel Joy Lettering re-designed our branding for free to make it more exciting and fun.” Sally smiles at the memory; “We try to make everything we do about family, friends, fairness but, above all, about fun. Yes, we want justice for some of society’s most vulnerable people and yes, it’s a dark subject but there is joy – not just in the making of our ice cream but in helping someone gain their freedom.” The family were overwhelmed by the help they received in Derby; “We joined St Werburgh’s Church in Derby and we were invited up to tell our story,” Sally recalls. “We told them we were setting up a not-for-profit business to help people trapped in human trafficking and to support Chance for Childhood, a charity which helps child soldiers. After our talk, we ended up with a fantastic bunch of volunteers. The Murrays were also approached by another member; “A man said he’d been really moved by our story and offered to make something for us,” recalls Sally. “Incredibly, he made ice cream trikes. That’s how we acquired ‘Wilber’, named after William Wilberforce the politician who helped to abolish slavery. He’s since been joined by a gifted horse box called Rosa, after Rosa Parks, which we take to outside events.” The Murrays were finally ready to open for business on March 31 2018 – or so they thought. “We inherited money from a great aunt to buy ice cream making equipment but the first time I came to make a big batch, I had to ring Sally in a panic. I’d followed my normal recipe for homemade ice-cream and produced scrambled eggs,” recalls Gavin. “Our wafer supplier was with me at the time and he was able to spot that, because I use a high percentage of cream, the commercial machine was churning it too fast and I was basically making butter.” This glitch was soon corrected in time for opening. “We had a grand launch for around 200 people, including guests from Leicester, London and even
Limescape – The Shrouded Aesthetic
Captured over a 3 year period, this study by Steve Gresty considers how limestone quarrying – a process which seeks to meet our unrelenting desire for the comforts and conveniences of consumer items – is concealed both from public view and under the veil of the dust it creates. Carboniferous limestone contributes to the natural beauty of areas within the Peak District National Park. This exhibition however draws attention away from the obvious picturesque countryside and reveals the obscure and surreal ‘landscapes’ of the hidden worlds that are the quarry environments. The body of work on display consists of a series of 19 large photographs exploring how our cultural principles influence the way we see and value the land and the way it is used, specifically land utilised for limestone quarrying – an industry that seeks to meet our unrelenting desire for the comforts and conveniences of consumer products. These large colour photographs attempt to capture what Steve sees as metaphoric shrouds that veil the phenomenon of quarrying, beginning with a series that captures the shroud of beauty of the rock with its bewitching colours, fissures and textures that can offer us a Pollock, Kandinsky or a Picasso. The exhibition then moves to the ’shroud of human intervention’ which captures how humans irreversibly alter the landscape in order to procure vast amounts of a raw material that has taken millions of years to form , whilst veiling the trauma of this pursuit from the public eye by the ironic employment of topography and vegetation. We desire this valued commodity of limestone to use it in a long list of modern-day products we feel we need, from cement to indigestion medication, breakfast cereal to chicken feed. The show then highlights the dystopian shroud that coldly processes, conveys and commoditises the extracted mineral in a cloak of human technological activity and the inevitable cloud of dust, into usable forms that be utilised in a myriad of modern commodities. The final series documents after humans have left, neglecting and forgetting about the wounded and corrupted land. But, soon after we have we left, Mother Nature begins to heal by casting her green shroud over this damaged earth, and with calm resolve the monuments to human consumption crumble and dissolve as she reclaims the land and affords beauty to it once again. The main image series are augmented by a mini 2 x 2 series displaying Polaroid type photographs (referencing the wasteful, ’throw-away’ society within which we live) that draw attention to the huge number of these products that we demand, use and discard without a thought of what they are made from and where these constituents come from. With this exhibition Steve wants people to think about why these huge quarries are sited where they are and reflect on the fact that it is us and our relentless desires for modern products that necessitate their existence. 00
