New head at Chellaston
14 Village Voice May 2020
CHELLASTON Academy has a new head teacher, who will start in the job in September. The school’s new head is Ryan Metters (pictured). He joins the academy from John Port Spencer Academy in Etwall, where he is currently vice-principal. Chellaston Academy has pupils from a catchment area including Aston, Weston, Melbourne and Barrow. This year’s interim head has been Cara Walker. The school said she had undertaken the position “on the request of the governing board”, and thanked her “…
for all her efforts throughout this time”. The former head, Kevin Gaiderman, is now the chief executive of the Peak MultiAcademy Trust, which includes the academy along with Chellaston Infant and Junior Schools and Homefields Primary. Mr Metters’ role at John Port includes responsibility for all aspects of sixth form standards, safeguarding and careers provision. He was seconded there from the executive team at Spencer Academies Trust to strengthen its leadership prior to an Ofsted inspection. Chellaston Academy suffered a poor Ofsted inspection in July 2019. The school was rated inadequate due to safeguarding issues in the sixth form, although plenty of strengths in other areas were also highlighted. Welcoming Mr Metters, the school said: “He is very much looking forward to the challenges and opportunities ahead, and is proud to be able to lead the school in its next chapter, ensuring the changes we make are supported by the whole school community.”
Got a story to tell? Give Lucy Stephens a call on:
01332 863181 www.melbournevillagevoice.co.uk
Due to the current COVID19 situation, all Coffee & Co and minibus trips have been cancelled until further notice. Our Office is closed to the public, but we are checking on messages. Please see our Facebook page Melbourne for regular Community Care updates. Opening Hours: Monday – Friday 9.30am to 1pm
Has Chris unearthed a Bronze Age link?
PHOTO: Google Maps.
POSSIBLE evidence of a Bronze Age ‘henge’ has been spotted in Swarkestone by a photographer brushing up on his archaeology enthusiasm during lockdown. Chris Seddon, a wedding photographer who lives in Melbourne, observed the perfectly round shape next to the River Trent while investigating a ‘lidar’ image. Lidar imagery is used by archaeologists to see the topography of a section of landscape. A self-described “Time Team nerd”, since lockdown began Chris has been taking an online course offered by DigVentures, a social enterprise which organises crowdfunded archaeological excavations, as he cannot do his day job at the moment. He was looking at lidar images of his home area when he spotted the circular shape in nearby Swarkestone. Having reported the sighting to DigVen-
tures, the possible find was then reported in The Guardian newspaper. Chris said he considered the possibility that the round shape may be something modern, such as a drainage mechanism, or a geographical feature like an Oxbow lake. But one indicator would suggest otherwise. “If you look at old maps, the field borders follow the curve of this circle,” he said. “That means the circle was there before the field boundaries on really old maps.” The area around Swarkestone does have evidence of Neolithic and Bronze Age settlements. There is, for example, a Bronze Age barrow cemetery nearby, just north of Swarkestone. One exciting possibility is that the circle may be a ‘henge’. Henges are circular in shape and are thought to have been places where some sort of ritual activity took place.
“This is quite well situated,” said Chris. “It’s quite close. It could be part of a wider Bronze Age landscape. A henge next to a river starts to paint a nice picture of a landscape.” Lisa Westcott Wilkins, an archaeologist who is the co-founder and managing director of DigVentures, agreed that the circular shape could certainly be part of a wider Bronze age landscape than had previously been recorded in this area. She added that while the circular shape had been previously noted (in 2018, by Adrian Farnsworth and Paula Whirrity), the record was not online and it had never been fully investigated. “Nobody has really characterised it as to what it means,” she said. “It’s very geometric, perfectly circular. It doesn’t look natural to us. To our eyes and its position next to the river, it looks archaeological.” – Lucy Stephens
Businesses share in £7m of coronavirus grants
MILLIONS of pounds in business grants have been distributed by South Derbyshire District Council to help local firms weather the coronavirus crisis. The latest figures supplied to the Village Voice on April 29 estimated that by the end of that week – May 1 – around £7m worth of grants were expected to have been handed out.
The district council is now urging eligible South Derbyshire firms which have not already claimed the COVID-19 grants to come forward as soon as possible. Around 1,400 businesses in the district are “potentially eligible” either for £10,000 small business grants or retail, hospitality and leisure grants of up to £25,000.
By April 23, around 900 businesses had filled out an online claim form, which gives the council the information needed to verify and pay the cash as quickly as possible. Councillor Martyn Ford, South Derbyshire District Council’s leader, said: “I understand the difficulties faced by local businesses due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic
and we are doing all we can to work with them to minimise the impact caused by the social distancing restrictions. “We have written to around 1,400 local businesses to encourage them to apply for the business grants to which they are entitled. “We estimate that we will have distributed £7million in grants by the end of the week.”
Advertising...
News...
Letters...
Photographs...
To find out more call 07584 025 852 or email: ads@melbournevillagevoice.co.uk Specification and pricing is available to download online... www.melbournevillagevoice.co.uk
Call us on 01332 863181 or email... news@melbournevillagevoice.co.uk
Email us your comments... letters@melbournevillagevoice.co.uk or write to us at The Village Voice, 11 North Street, Melbourne DE73 8FZ
Photographs are available to purchase online. See all the latest images at... www.melbournevillagevoice.co.uk
© 2020. An independent community paper designed and published by Village Voice Newspapers. Typeset by Greenborough Ltd., t/a Voice Productions. Printed in England. The publishers of Village Voice are not responsible for any content or claims in advertisements. Artwork not supplied by advertisers may not be reproduced without the written permission of the publishers. The use of this or previous editions of Village Voice for marketing or canvassing of advertisers is strictly prohibited.