Midlands News & Views

21/12/2024

Members of the Earth Appreciation Society gather around a fire in a stone circle to celebrate the winter solstice dawn at Upper Hurst Farm Caravans Camping & Glamping, Hartington, in the Derbyshire Peak District where six pairs of energy lines, often called ley lines, converge at its centre.

Sue Green [pictured wearing poncho], Guardian of the Land, opens the ceremony by calling in the powers of earth, air, fire and water, and honouring the four directions. Then, raising her drum, she leads the group in rhythmic drumming that echoes off the ancient stones as dawn approaches. The sacred ceremony honours the returning of the light and the turning of the seasonal cycle.

20/12/2024

Head butcher, Kev Busby is mid-way through making 120,000 pigs in blankets at Denstone Hall Farm Shop & Café, Denstone, Staffordshire.

The traditional pork cocktail sausages and home cured bacon are sourced locally from Packington Free Range

18/12/2024

In three day’s time it will be the shortest day of the year. From then on there’s no stopping the onset of spring. These sprouting snowdrops in a wood near Ellastone also know winter will soon be behind them…

16/12/2024

Andy Nash carries out maintenance checks on the village watermill which powers the Christmas lights in Bradwell in the Derbyshire Peak District.

The hydro project, first installed six years ago, was initially powered by a Heath Robinson-style collection of parts from villagers' sheds including a pair of bicycle wheels.

"This is the second incarnation of our waterwheel," explains Andy, one of three volunteers who look after the wheel in Bradwell Brook each December.

"It was initially built as an education aid for our local school children. The first one produced about 30 watts of power and we couldn't run it for very long.

"This latest wheel - designed by apprentice engineers from Nuclear Energy Components Ltd - a company based just down the road - chucks out between 70 and 80 watts and, with the help of a battery it charges throughout the day, now powers our village lights from 3pm until midnight," says Andy.

Bradwell Hydro Group

15/12/2024

When these hens were loaded onto a truck this morning, they may well have thought they were going the way of their turkey, goose and pheasant cousins. But these lucky birds - one even wearing a cosy Christmas neck-warmer - have a much brighter future. Each one will be avoiding the dinner table and is guaranteed to see-in the new year.

The 468 free-range organic birds were unloaded and briefly huddled together in a shed at the Ark Ashbourne Animal Welfare in Ashbourne, Derbyshire. Minutes later the first of 77 re-homers arrived to take them to their new homes.
The re-homing, one of many that takes place across the UK throughout the year, is organised by British Hen Welfare Trust.

The hens are donated from egg farms when they have their first moult at 72-weeks-old. At this point the bird's egg-laying yield drops slightly as they use more calcium for feather regrowth rather than for egg-shell production.
The lucky re-homed birds will grow back their full plumage within three to four weeks.

12/12/2024

Lit only by the orange glow of his six-bar electric heater and the twinkling fairy lights in his cellar, Mick Hulme plucks some of this week’s 200 pheasants, beneath his shop in Ashbourne, Derbyshire.

A pair - or ‘brace’ - of pheasants sell for £8.
He began plucking about 30 birds per week in October and is now flat-out preparing at least 200 festive birds each week in the run-up to Christmas.

In total, this year, Mick expects to pluck around 1500 pheasants and dozens of wild ducks and partridges.

Mick, 66, is the third generation of his family to run A L Hulme Fish Game and Poultry since the shop on Church Street opened in 1929.

A L Hulme Fishmongers

08/12/2024

Dozens of dogs - many dressed in their finest festive costumes - joined, cats and a guinea pig at the annual Celebration of Animals Service at St Oswald's Church, Ashbourne. The carol service - which was a howling success - was organised by and helped to raise funds for Ashbourne Animal Welfare.

07/12/2024

A group of ladies learn to make Christmas wreaths at a craft workshop at Whistlewood Common, Melbourne, Derbyshire.

The festive door decorations are made from foraged greenery handpicked from the local countryside. Set in the eco-friendly Roundhouse - a straw-bale building powered by renewable energy - the event highlights Whistlewood’s commitment to sustainability, community, and creativity.

Whistlewood Common is a community-owned woodland in the heart of the National Forest, dedicated to promoting eco-friendly living and nature connection.

07/12/2024

Rod Kirkpatrick is the photographer behind Midlands News & Views.
Please read his story below. Thank you in advance.

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06/12/2024

Lantern parade and Christmas late-night shopping, Ashbourne, Derbyshire.

29/11/2024

With more and more mass-produced toys on offer each year, finding that special little something - a gift made with love by a craftsman's hand - is becoming ever more challenging.

It could be said such unique treasures are now as rare as ‘hen’s teeth’, or as scarce as proverbial ‘rocking horse droppings’.

So you might be surprised to find toy-maker, Pete Rix, on a mission to keep a quintessentially English craft alive as he carves large blocks of wood into the most exquisite, traditional rocking horses from inside a small old brick-workshop in Derbyshire.

His painstaking labour-of-love sees him create dozens of new horses each year. His clients need deep pockets as his finished horses cost upwards of £3,500 each. “It really depends on what the customer wants,” explains 46-year-old Pete who owns Rix & Co Rocking Horse Maker and Restorer

“I could add diamond encrusted hand-stitched saddles or whatever.

“The run-up to Christmas - from September - is my busiest period. It usually takes between five and six weeks to make a horse. The one I’m working on today will be a Christmas gift. I have the customer’s house key and will put it under their Christmas tree so it’s there for them when they return from holiday on Christmas Eve.

“Many of my customers are retired ladies who like to indulge a passion of their own and pass an heirloom down to their grandchildren”.

Pete moved from his home workshop to the old ambulance station in Sudbury four years ago. He also restores dozens of rocking horses and teaches wood-carving to more than 200 students each year.

“I first started wood carving when I was 14 and loved it. After a product design degree I then worked as a creative director for a dot com.

“We had a daughter and I made a horse for her when she was two - and it all went from there.

“I think rocking horses should be ridden,” laughs Pete, “although some are too old and valuable.

“I use local English oak and beech where possible. The head I’m carving today is for a medium-sized horse. It’s made from tulipwood - it’s a very stable wood - excuse the pun! It’s for a child up to eight years-old and will take about four days to carve. It’ll be finished off with glass eyes and real horse hair. Getting the symmetry to match on both sides is the hardest part.

“Each horse is made from 24 pieces of wood - not including the stand. I use traditional chisels, rasps and mallets. When complete the horses are sanded down and painted with hot gesso - a glue and chalk mix - and then left for two weeks to harden and cure before being decoratively painted. My wife helps with the painting.

“I’ve sold to customers all around the world, many in Europe and some hobby-horses went to a childhood museum in Connecticut.

“I prefer the look and aesthetic of a ‘bow rocker’ but the ride is much better on the ‘safety stand’ - they canter so well,” he chuckles.

Pete is one of only a handful of rocking horse makers in the country.

Today, Carolyn Ames came in to collect her restored horse ‘Dancer’ which she dropped-off six weeks ago. “I feel wonderful, I haven’t seen him like this for years,” she said through teary-eyes as Pete removed his blanket. “He’s over 30-years-old - all three of my children rode on him. He’d lost all his hair and needed a tidy-up.

“I had a dream Pete had discovered him to be riddled with woodworm and he’d been turned into firewood.

“Thankfully that wasn’t true and he’s now ready for any grandchildren who may come along in the future. I can’t wait to get him home and put him next to the Christmas tree.”

26/11/2024

National Forest Rangers mark the start of National Tree Week by planting the first tree on a new foraging trail at Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Woodland, Moira, Leicestershire.

Located in the heart of the The National Forest , the trail has been designed to encourage people to connect with, and explore, nature.

The trail will feature a variety of trees including those bearing nuts, apples, pears and other foraging fruits.

21/11/2024

A swan glides serenely - as if untroubled by the minus seven degrees celsius temperature - along the river Dove near Mayfield. And a walker stops to photograph the river which marks the boundary between Derbyshire and Staffordshire.

20/11/2024

We hope you enjoy this short little film shot high above Minninglow this morning...

20/11/2024

After overnight sub-zero temperatures, dawn breaks over the frozen landscape surrounding Minninglow.

Minninglow is the largest and most prominently sited cairn in the White Peak area of the Peak District, just over a mile to the west of Aldwark. Surrounded by a beech plantation between the villages of Parwich and Elton, it is a landmark for miles around.

Measuring 111ft by 144ft, the cairn consists of at least four chambers and has undergone a number of construction phases. The Low originally began life as a single chamber with a small mound comprised mainly of limestone probably during the Neolithic period. It was later covered by a long cairn with four chambers and later still converted into a massive circular mound, perhaps during the Bronze Age.

19/11/2024

Derbyshire snow today

18/11/2024

Video shows workers begining their busiest week of the year at Cadeby Tree Trust. Thirteen lorry-loads of trees will arrive at their depot on the edge of the National Forest in Leicestershire today.
The sustainable business - which plants more trees than it fells each year - estimates it has at least three million trees growing in its plantations and expects to supply 270,000 festive trees to garden centres, supermarkets and farm-shops across the UK this year.

18/11/2024

18/11/24

Workers begin their busiest week of the year at Cadeby Tree Trust. Thirteen lorry-loads of trees will arrive at their depot on the edge of the National Forest in Leicestershire today.

The sustainable business - which plants more trees than it fells each year - estimates it has at least three million trees growing in its plantations and expects to supply 270,000 festive trees to garden centres, supermarkets and farm-shops across the UK this year.