Derby July 2018

Country

Derby Edition - July 2018

A friend dropping in

Thcee Sisters

Spi

Rise

SUMMER NIGHTS

Out & About of the Independent Traders The Lost Houses

of Derbyshire

Melbourne Castle

Yorkshire’s

Dangerous Coast Queen’s Park took Tom to their hearts

Elvaston Castle

Steve Orme interviews award winning local writer

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Walks from Grand Houses

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Advertisement Executives: Lisa O’Reilly, Carol Wilson, Alison Gent, Mark Dowthwaite.

Editorial Features: Brian Spencer, Maxwell Craven, Steve Orme, Amanda Volley.

Since 1994 our policy has been the letterbox distribution of top quality magazines which we still maintain today thereby reaching in excess of one million potential readers each year. Over time technology has advanced at a rapid pace and we embraced it to the extent that Country Images Magazine digital editions reach even more readers giving our advertisers the added opportunity to do more business in our area as their web sites can be accessed through our digital pages.

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Derbyshire

Yorkshire’s

The best known wreck was fictional and featured the way novelist Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula came ashore at Whitby, in the shape of a huge black dog. As the story goes, Dracula reached England from Eastern Europe on the ship Demeter that foundered on rocks outside Whitby harbour, which only Dracula survived.

Dangerous Coast

Due to stormy weather or engine failure, many ships have failed to gain the safety of Whitby’s harbour. One of them was the Rohila, a WW1 hospital ship that was on its way south to collect wounded. Due to engine failure it missed the entrance to the harbour and drifted on to the rocks at Saltwick Nab below the abbey. Even though it was a matter of yards from the harbour, violent seas prevented the Whitby lifeboat rescuing more than a handful of survivors. Due to the strength of the gale, many of the rockets fired from the tantalisingly close beach, failed to reach their mark, but eventually rescue from the land did take place once the tide had dropped sufficiently.

Most of the visitors who flock to Yorkshire’s coast every summer, do so without realising that it has a history of marine tragedy reaching back over the centuries and it is hard to realise that an average of two shipwrecks a week have taken place along the North East coast since records began in the 1500s. Brian Spencer investigates the sinking of just a few of these ships, ranging from a First World War hospital ship, to the wholesale sinking of a fleet of colliers, whose wrecking led to a major safety device designed by a Derby M.P.

More recently, in 1976 a trawler, the Admiral von Tromp ran aground in a thick fog and heavy seas not all that far from where the Rohila foundered.

Here again the Whitby lifeboat tried to rescue its crew and in fact came within touching distance of the vessel, but the rescue proved too difficult and two men drowned. At low tide the jagged remains of the once proud ship are exposed like some futuristic artwork.

St Mary’s church stands against the elements high above Whitby harbour and within its walls there is a memorial to a lifeboat tragedy in 1861.

During a severe storm, and after saving many lives in full view of a crowd watching from the pier, the Whitby lifeboat was flipped over and 12 men were drowned. Henry Freeman, the only crew member to survive did so because he was the only one wearing the then experimental cork life jacket.

The Abbey at Whitby

N

ature has decreed that Yorkshire’s coast will provide few, if any natural harbours, lining it instead with jagged rocks waiting for unwary craft. Bridlington, Scarborough and Whitby are the only places where it has been possible to build safe anchorage. In other places, only small inshore craft can be used and they must be drawn up on to local beaches, well above the high tide mark. Robin Hood’s Bay is unique, because here fishing boats, the traditionally designed cobles, rest at the bottom of the village street.

Robin Hood’s Bay with boats on the village street.

Staithes, where storms have washed away some of the harbour houses.

Southwards from Whitby along Yorkshire’s all too frequently tragic coast, Robin Hood’s Bay and its street-end beached cobles, high ended like Viking ships to cope with rough waves, marks the start of a line of high cliffs with limited sea access. It was around here that in early geological times, rocky strata was twisted throughout ninety degrees, leaving long jagged fang like dykes that run far out into the bay. The parent rocks of these dykes are rich in alum, a chemical used to

Walks from Grand Houses

Elvaston Castle

T

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his walk, around the parkland of Elvaston Castle, is one of my occasional excursions from some of Derbyshire’s grand houses. Unfortunately it could almost be described as from one of Maxwell Craven’s ‘Lost Houses’. Financial constraints on its present owners, Derbyshire County Council, make it impossible to fund the necessary £6.1 million needed to restore the building’s fabric; something that has put it very firmly on the list of ‘Buildings at Risk’ register. As a result of the house being unsafe, it means that it has been closed to the public since 2008, but the 200 acres of parkland around which this walk goes, are still freely accessible. There is also a programme of events in the park throughout the year, ranging from an Easter egg trail, to a night time guided nature walk – for further details check www.derbyshire. gov.uk/countryside events.

Until Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries, the estate was owned by Shelford Priory, after which it was sold in 1538, to Sir Michael Stanhope of Rampton, Notts. Following his death in 1611, the whole estate, including Elvaston, was inherited by his second son, also called Michael. He became High Sheriff of Derbyshire and died in 1638, but not before he built the Elizabethan-styled house at Elvaston on the outskirts of Derby in 1633.

With little change, Elvaston passed steadily through generations of Stanhopes until the 19th century. This was when Charles Stanhope, 3rd

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Earl of Harrington employed the architect James Wyatt to extend and re-develop the castle in the then popular Gothic Revival style. During this time a new wing and the great hall were added.

Further modifications on the Elizabethan-styled south front were carried out in 1836 by the architect Lewis Nockalls Cottingham, leaving the building very much as we see it today.

several cottages and gate houses, along with an ice house plus a boat house. Ideally the property could be owned by the National Trust, but by confining their interest to acting in as a Consultancy Body, even they baulk at the thought of funding the £6.1 million required to restore the fabric of Elvaston Castle.

Vacated by its original owners, Elvaston Castle became a teacher training college until 1950, after which it remained mostly empty, slowly declining through intervening decades right through to the present time.

In 1969 following the Countryside Act the previous year, the estate including the castle was sold to Derbyshire County Council by the 11th Earl of Harrington. The council opened the estate to the public in 1970 as a Country Park under the terms of the Act. Since then it was used for country fairs and other major events, but latterly lack of funding has meant that even such things have been abandoned. Nevertheless the park is popular with up to 350,000 visitors a year, offering a wide range of activities alongside self-guided walks and cycle rides, or just for a day out in the popular children’s play park. .

Elvaston Castle Gardens Probably still the only truly cared for section of the estate, the gardens were laid out in 1830 for Charles, 4th Earl of Harrington by the relatively unknown gardener, William Barron. The earl had caused something of a scandal by marrying the actress Maria Foote who was seventeen years his junior. Very much a love-match, the couple kept the gardens for their private retreat while Barron spent the next twenty years building their now Grade 2 listed Gothic paradise.

Following the 4th Earl’s death in 1851, his brother Leicester Stanhope became the 5th Earl. It was he who opened the gardens to the public for the first time.

Along with the castle and its gardens, the estate covers some 200 acres of parkland, including

Moving northwards away from Whitby, the coast is littered with the poignant remains of shipping that never reached safe harbour. A little way off the shore at Kettleness, between Whitby and Runswick Bay, the boiler of the Wolfhound a Humber trawler that ran aground in 1896 can still be seen, kelp covered and colonised by limpets and mussels. Another wreck is of the 1932 sinking of the Belgian trawler Jeanne, and it is commemorated in the clifftop churchyard at Lythe, where three of its crew are buried.

Antiques & Collectibles

by Maxwell Craven

J

Beswick Pottery Figures

Mould no 1377: rare Canadian mounted cowboy: sold for £540 [Private collection]

ohn Beswick Ltd, formerly J. W. Beswick, was a pottery manufacturer, founded in 1892

by James Wright Beswick and his sons John and Gilbert, in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent. The firm survived until in 1969 when it was sold to Doulton & Co. Ltd. They closed the factory in 2002 and the brand name John Beswick was sold on in 2004 to Dartington Crystal, which outfit resumed production.

SUMMER NIGHTS

An important change came in 1939, when The pottery was chiefly known for producing Wolstanton-born Arthur Gredington (1906high-quality porcelain figurines such as farm Summer has finally arrived. the was most of the appointed chief modeller and the firm animals and Beatrix Potter characters and haveMake1976) sunshine and light evenings in your garden began producing farm animal figurines which become highly sought in the collectables market. quickly became widely collected. Gredington's The Dartington owned brand will still sell range of no less than 190 rearing horsemen is you items from a range of their classic pottery one of the largest (and most popular amongst animals at prices ranging from around £16 for a collectors) ever produced by the company. Not seated piglet to £65, which sum will buy you an that the number 190 is anything but a notional impressive-looking red stag. one, for it is made up of minor variants of the Based at the Gold Street works in Longton basic 150 or so of Gredington’s horse figures.

(Stoke-on-Trent), Beswick originally There were, for instance two versions of model produced tablewares and ornaments such 868 (a racehorse, jockey up), one with the jockey as Staffordshire cats and dogs. Yet when James in an orange or scarlet jacket cut away at the Wright Beswick died in 1921, the company waist sitting bolt upright. In the second version continued to expand under his grandson, John introduced in 1952 horse and rider have greater Ewart Beswick. In 1934 the introduction of high animation, the rider flung back by the motion of fired bone china meant they could produce highhis steed. quality figurines, such as famous race horses and champion dogs. The company was made a limited The commonest model of version two with a brown horse can be found for around £175. Yet company, John Beswick Ltd, in 1936. these have fallen in price from around £250 a few Currently offered by Bamfords at an estimate of £40-60: Ch. Wallboy & two friends.[Bamfords Ltd.]

years ago, although colour does make a difference, for a version two 868 in grey can sell for £650, whilst one in chestnut with damage to an ear sold for £2,124 in January, and yet a third, in rocking horse grey, the most sought-after colour, sold for £2,588. Version one is harder to come by, but the price for one with a brown horse rarely exceeds £500. The rarest of all Beswick wares is Spirit of Whitfield, a pony, modelled after the pit pony Kruger. An example of this item sold for £9,500 in London fifteen years ago.

Under decorating manager Jim Hayward, there was a shift towards lifelike animal pieces, including cats, dogs, farm animals, fish and wild animals. Continued expansion enabled the acquisition of the adjoining factory in 1945 to accommodate offices, warehousing and new potting and firing facilities.

In 1947, Lucy Beswick suggested bringing to life the illustrations in the Beatrix Potter

Introduced 1952, six piece Disney cartoon set: sold February 2018 for £260. [Bamfords Ltd.]

Elavaston Country Park

The Future Threatened with closure due to lack of funding, the council would like to remove its immediate financial liabilities amounting to around £500,000 a year simply to keep it open. Since closure of the main building to the public in 1990 when it was deemed unsafe, the castle and estate have attracted the interest of golf club developers, but this could well restrict the sort of access currently enjoyed by the public at large.

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i51 Artstone by Contura Artstone is a stained white cast stone, unique to Contura. The insert is easy to position in the home: It takes up very little space and can be placed against a combustible wall. Supplement with a black painted steel log box.

For local stockists visit www.contura.eu

Boulangerie by Fired Earth When choosing this soft muted palette we were drawn to the rolling wooded hills of Provence with the scent of lavender hanging gently in the breeze.

Listening to the clink of champagne flutes, quaffed whilst dancing under a starlit cloudless sky.

For local stockists visit www.firedearth.com

Coffee Machine by Bodum Since the very beginning, coffee has been BODUM’s great passion. And this coffee machine is no exception. Slow coffee is about both taking time to brew the coffee, but also letting the water filter through at a suitable rate. Using this new coffee making method, we are setting new standards for careful coffee brewing, getting the full taste without using paper filters or capsules.

For local stockists visit www.bodum.com 8 | CountryImagesMagazine.co.uk

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SUMMER NIGHTS Summer has ďŹ nally arrived. Make the most of the sunshine and light evenings in your garden

Idbury Fire Pit by Garden Trading Create a relaxed warm atmosphere outdoors with the Idbury Fire Pit. The heavy gauge Cast Iron bowl is deep and sits low to the ground on the Powder Coated Iron frame and legs. The bowl is designed to rust once placed in the garden yet we feel this adds a rustic appeal.

For local stockists visit www.gardentrading.co.uk 10 | CountryImagesMagazine.co.uk

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Winchester by David Hunt Lighting Winchester outdoor wall light in Black jesmonite stone effect. IP44 rated, complete with dedicated 11w 2 Pin low energy lamp.

For local stockists visit www.davidhuntlighting.co.uk

Murano by Neptune We designed our classic Murano wicker chair to have an unimposing silhouette, because the texture created by wicker weave is more than enough. It’s completely at home in the garden (or garden room), where it picks up on the colours of stone and timber. And, just like fences and plant supports made from hazel and willow, it adds organic texture to your outdoor space. It’s a versatile collection too: these pieces can be combined into any sofa configuration For local stockists visit www.neptune.com

Blue Calico Picnic by Burleigh Burleigh’s Calico design celebrates it’s 50th birthday this year. To mark this milestone, there are ‘Osbourne’ mugs available in three traditional Burleigh colours along with four new colourways of Burnt Orange, Teal, Burgess Blue and Moss Green.

For local stockists visit www.burleigh.co.uk 12 | CountryImagesMagazine.co.uk

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Exterior Paints by Little Greene Little Greene is the last independent, British paint manufacturer still making a complete range of traditional and modern paints for domestic use.

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Yorkshire’s

Dangerous Coast

Most of the visitors who flock to Yorkshire’s coast every summer, do so without realising that it has a history of marine tragedy reaching back over the centuries and it is hard to realise that an average of two shipwrecks a week have taken place along the North East coast since records began in the 1500s. Brian Spencer investigates the sinking of just a few of these ships, ranging from a First World War hospital ship, to the wholesale sinking of a fleet of colliers, whose wrecking led to a major safety device designed by a Derby M.P.

N

ature has decreed that Yorkshire’s coast will provide few, if any natural harbours, lining it instead with jagged rocks waiting for unwary craft. Bridlington, Scarborough and Whitby are the only places where it has been possible to build safe anchorage. In other places, only small inshore craft can be used and they must be drawn up on to local beaches, well above the high tide mark. Robin Hood’s Bay is unique, because here fishing boats, the traditionally designed cobles, rest at the bottom of the village street.

18 | CountryImagesMagazine.co.uk

Robin Hood’s Bay with boats on the village street.

The best known wreck was fictional and featured the way novelist Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula came ashore at Whitby, in the shape of a huge black dog. As the story goes, Dracula reached England from Eastern Europe on the ship Demeter that foundered on rocks outside Whitby harbour, which only Dracula survived.

Due to stormy weather or engine failure, many ships have failed to gain the safety of Whitby’s harbour. One of them was the Rohila, a WW1 hospital ship that was on its way south to collect wounded. Due to engine failure it missed the entrance to the harbour and drifted on to the rocks at Saltwick Nab below the abbey. Even though it was a matter of yards from the harbour, violent seas prevented the Whitby lifeboat rescuing more than a handful of survivors. Due to the strength of the gale, many of the rockets fired from the tantalisingly close beach, failed to reach their mark, but eventually rescue from the land did take place once the tide had dropped sufficiently.

More recently, in 1976 a trawler, the Admiral von Tromp ran aground in a thick fog and heavy seas not all that far from where the Rohila foundered.

Here again the Whitby lifeboat tried to rescue its crew and in fact came within touching distance of the vessel, but the rescue proved too difficult and two men drowned. At low tide the jagged remains of the once proud ship are exposed like some futuristic artwork.

St Mary’s church stands against the elements high above Whitby harbour and within its walls there is a memorial to a lifeboat tragedy in 1861.

During a severe storm, and after saving many lives in full view of a crowd watching from the pier, the Whitby lifeboat was flipped over and 12 men were drowned. Henry Freeman, the only crew member to survive did so because he was the only one wearing the then experimental cork life jacket.

The Abbey at Whitby Staithes, where storms have washed away some of the harbour houses.

Moving northwards away from Whitby, the coast is littered with the poignant remains of shipping that never reached safe harbour. A little way off the shore at Kettleness, between Whitby and Runswick Bay, the boiler of the Wolfhound a Humber trawler that ran aground in 1896 can still be seen, kelp covered and colonised by limpets and mussels. Another wreck is of the 1932 sinking of the Belgian trawler Jeanne, and it is commemorated in the clifftop churchyard at Lythe, where three of its crew are buried.

Southwards from Whitby along Yorkshire’s all too frequently tragic coast, Robin Hood’s Bay and its street-end beached cobles, high ended like Viking ships to cope with rough waves, marks the start of a line of high cliffs with limited sea access. It was around here that in early geological times, rocky strata was twisted throughout ninety degrees, leaving long jagged fang like dykes that run far out into the bay. The parent rocks of these dykes are rich in alum, a chemical used to CountryImagesMagazine.co.uk | 19

‘fix’ red dyes once popular in Tudor times. Small coasters laden with barrels of human urine would carefully thread their way between the dykes, using them as a ready-made natural harbour, to unload on what passes as a beach. The urine was used as a chemical in the process of separating the alum from its parent rock which would be carried back to London dyeworks. As navigation was a rather hit-and-miss affair, it is quite likely that many of the chemical-carrying coasters foundered amongst the maze of sharp rocks running out to sea from the foot of places like Ravenscar where alum processing was a major industry.

The remains of a modern vessel which came to grief on these fangs still lie out to sea about half way along the rocky shoreline between Robin Hood’s Bay and Ravenscar. This was the Sarb-J, a Grimsby trawler that ran aground in 1994 after its propeller got tangled with a rope. The successful rescue of all its crew became a major operation involving a helicopter. The hulk now sits forlornly upright on its keel hard beneath the cliffs.

Scarborough has an all-weather harbour. It stands at the foot of the castle and probably owes much of its origins to the time when the castle and the expanding town was the major port on this part of the coast. While the harbour has offered safe refuge to both inshore and small coastal traffic, the town, along with Hartlepool and Whitby was severely damaged by bombardment from the sea during the Great War. On 16th December 1914 a battle-cruiser squadron under the command of Rear Admiral von Hipper systematically shelled the totally unprepared North East coastal towns, causing great loss of civilian life and extensive damage to property. For many years after the end of that war, a German cruiser, held as part of post war reparations, became a tourist attraction while moored in Scarborough harbour.

Walkers and bird watchers strolling along the cliff tops of Flamborough Head on their way to Bempton maybe stop to admire the apparently calm sea gently washing up against the cliffs far below. Gentle though it may seem, the prevailing current is deceptively strong and many ships have ended their days dashed against the cliffs.

A clue as to sea conditions can be gained from the number of cobles winched well above the tide-line at North Landing, one of the few access points along this section of coast. During the American War of Independence, in 1779 an American man-of-war watched by a large cliff top crowd as it battled with the British ship, Serapis.

The American was forced on to the rocks by the tide, but bizarrely its crew managed to board the Serapis and, following a short hand-to-hand skirmish managed to capture the British ship.

The remains of a more recent disaster, this time by a Royal Navy ship, the SS Rosa that went aground on the far side of North Landing in 1930, can be traced by the still recognisable riveted steel plates of its boiler.

20 | CountryImagesMagazine.co.uk

Still today underwater rocks present a hazard

Staithes Bridlington is still popular as a family ‘bucketand-spade’ holiday resort and it has a handy little harbour where inshore fishing boats can gain shelter in all weathers. In February 1878, a fleet of colliers on its way to London from Tyneside was overtaken by a severe storm. Several foundered before they could reach the safety of Bridlington harbour, but most managed to reach its shelter.

They stayed there until they thought the storm had abated, but no sooner did they reach the open sea than they were attacked by an even more violent storm. At that time unscrupulous ship owners were in the habit of grossly overloading their vessels, safe in the knowledge that their insurance value more than covered their costs.

With most of the fleet of colliers in trouble, the Bridlington lifeboat, assisted by shore-based volunteers tried to rescue survivors. Scores of sailors died, along with six lifeboat men – the parish records for that disaster cover two pages, with most victims recorded as ‘unknown, drowned’.

The direct result of the Bridlington collier ship disaster came about when the reforming radical Derby MP, Samuel Plimsoll (1824-1898), fought against vested interests to bring about an act ensuring the correct loading of ships. The Plimsoll line as it became known shows safe loading on all deep-sea ships and is his lasting memorial.

The south shore of Whitby Harbour

CountryImagesMagazine.co.uk | 21

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22 | CountryImagesMagazine.co.uk

The Lost Houses

of Derbyshire

by Maxwell Craven

Melbourne Castle

The 1602 survey drawing of the castle, possibly from the north. [The National Archives]

S

ome castles grew from purely Norman military motte-and-bailey castles, constructed by William the Conqueror’s knights to keep a firm hold on England. Others are later affairs, fortified houses built later in the middle ages or even in the Tudor Age more as symbolic castles than effective defensive buildings. Later still, houses like Elvaston or Bretby had ‘castle’ added in lieu of ‘hall’ for effect.

If one was a member of the medieval elite, with a largish house built around one or even two courtyards, adding defensive works was sometimes felt advisable, as during the barons’ wars in the mid-13th century, or during the wars of the Roses in the mid-fifteenth century. In that case one applied to the King for a licence to crenellate, or to put it simply, to adapt one’s house to make it to some extent defensible. Such houses are usually termed defended manor houses rather than pure castles, and locally included Codnor, Bretby and Melbourne.

The exposed exterior wall footings at Castle Farm on an open day. [Private collection] CountryImagesMagazine.co.uk | 23

The Lost Houses

of Derbyshire

by Maxwell Craven There never was a Norman castle at Melbourne.

The King had granted Melbourne to the Bishops of Carlisle, a place often made too hot for comfort by marauding Scots, hence the epic scale of the Norman church there. Yet it was not until 1246/1248 that we have evidence for a manor house at Melbourne. In the very beginning of the fourteenth century Sir Robert de Holand, held a manor house there under the ambitious Thomas, Duke of Lancaster of whom he was a leading confidant. He duly obtained a licence to crenellate in 1311 and in 1314 the mason Peter de Bagworth is recorded and undertaking extensive works there, ‘there’ being the area on the SE side of Castle Square at Melbourne, although this work was being done for Lancaster, not Holand himself, that year created a peer by writ of summons.

George Hastings, 4th Earl of Huntingdon and his son Henry.

[Leicester Museums]

Jean I, Duc de Bourbon and Auvergne.

[Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris]

Indeed, whatever arrangement there was between Lord Holand and the Duke, it was clearly intended to enable the former to reap the fiscal benefits of ownership whilst his master retained control of the site. Indeed, this was the year of the disaster at Bannockburn and for the next four years Lancaster was effectively in control of the government. In 1322, however, the King had his revenge, defeating the Duke at Boroughbridge, although, strangely enough, Holand had deserted to the King just prior to the encounter, thus saving his neck.

What Holand created was a fortified manor house and he was later confirmed in his possession of the manor of Melbourne, held this time from his former mentor’s younger brother, Henry, Earl of Lancaster, again raised to a dukedom in 1351. The Castle is specifically referred to as such in the documentation generated by his death ten years later. The manor and castle passed by marriage to John of Gaunt, also created Duke of Lancaster, and when his son became Henry IV, his possessions were made into a separate principality, called the Duchy of Lancaster which still owns much land in England and especially in Derbyshire.

Two black and white views of the 1970s excavations.

[The Late Howard Usher]

24 | CountryImagesMagazine.co.uk

By this time there was an extensive park, now attached to the Melbourne Hall estate, surrounded by a pale – an earthen bank designed to stop the deer jumping out - still extant in several sections, and equipped with two lodges, one (moated) situated at SK392241 and recorded as in existence from c. 1262 until the late 15th century. There was also a moat and bridge. After Agincourt the castle was developed into a palace-like residence and became the very luxurious PoW camp of the captured Jean, Duc de Bourbon and other notable French prisoners.

Poor Duke Jean was there for no less than nineteen years; clearly no one at home was in any hurry to raise his ransom! Their gaoler and the Constable of the Castle was local landed magnate Nicholas Montgomery of Cubley, the younger. It was later granted to Henry V’s French queen after his death in 1422.

at the time in that it was said to be constructed of lead-covered ashlar, had large spacious rooms that would need to be partitioned, floors of earth and plaster, walls that appear to have needed repointing and rendering since they were described as being too easily scaleable, and no paths or wall about the house ‘so as being out of dors you are in the myre, for it is verie foule and unpleasaunt to walk round about...'.

This description would suggest that, at some point in the later Middle Ages, the curtain wall around the castle had been demolished and that the ward surrounding the main building had gone

out of use. In the event, Mary was never moved to Melbourne and the castle ceased to be a residence.

A survey of 1597 reported that it was used as a pound for stray cattle and in that year the park was sold to Francis Needham, a man who was to be knighted in 1617 after having bought an East Anglian estate, and who had already purchased Melbourne Hall and the rectory.

The castle itself was sold by the Crown to four speculators, probably to defray the cost of the coronation of James VI and I. They sold it on to the Ashby magnate, George Hastings, 4th Earl of Huntingdon for £4,700; quite why he wished

A drawing of 1602 in the PRO (subsequently rather well engraved in 1733 for the Society of Antiquaries) shows it to have been embowered with something like a dozen round and square section towers, all embattled, the external walls having plentiful slit windows but high up, one or two elaborately traceried Gothic ones too. A pedimented lantern visible in the midst of the pinnacles seems to indicate the position of the great hall and there was an impressive elaborate door with a crocketed ogee moulding above it in the outer wall, compared by Anthony Emery with that at Mackworth (see last month) and presumably the main entrance, reached by the bridge over the moat. Emery also suggests that it must have been built, like Haddon and Wingfield Manor, around two courtyards and points out that the original drawing (rather than the engravings taken from it) clearly suggests this. In its time it must have been most impressive.

Yet its apogee was brief and, with the French wars at an end, it swiftly became a white elephant although exactly what it was used for in the later fifteenth and earlier sixteenth centuries is not at all clear, but it was still in good repair when the itinerarist John Leland saw it in the early1540s, writing that it was ‘Prety [pretty] and yn meately [very] good reparation.’

Yet under Elizabeth it appears to have become completely redundant. Hence it was referred to in 1576 when it was reported that the castle was in a fair state of decay though the stonework was good. In 1583, it was recommended by the Privy Council that the queen move her cousin, the imprisoned Mary, Queen of Scots, to Melbourne, and a description of the castle was provided which throws interesting light on its appearance CountryImagesMagazine.co.uk | 25

The Lost Houses

of Derbyshire

by Maxwell Craven to acquire it though is a mystery – perhaps he wanted it as a replacement for his castle at Ashby.

Clearly his son, Henry (5th Earl succeeded 1604) didn’t agree: he instead set about demolishing it, selling its building materials, and indeed, much of the 17th century buildings of Melbourne seem to include stone from it, including, it is said, the hall. Castle farm was already on the site by 1630 according to a survey of that year and certainly incorporates much of its stonework, in some instances, still in situ.

Castle Farm, showing the remaining wall section. [Private collection]

Lord Huntingdon clearly did a very thorough job of pulling it down, precious little remains, most of them in the grounds of Castle Farm (largely built from its fabric as with the farmhouse at Codnor Castle), including a substantial (80 feet long) wall revealed in the later 19th century, but long robbed of its outer skin of fine, ashlared Keuper sandstone. Extensive cellarage was discovered in 1843, recorded as `subterranean apartments' beneath Castle Farm and `considerable foundation walls...in many parts of the garden' were recorded by Joseph Deans in 1843 but were back-filled and built over soon afterwards; furthermore, in 1889 W DashwoodFane excavated more footings. Indeed, the only clue we have that it was built of such fine dressed stone was in the PRO drawing, until excavations and in the 1960s, 1971 and 1973 and again in 1989 (when Castle Mills and cottage to the south of Castle Farm and orchard were demolished for housing) revealed substantial footings of a tower and other parts still encased in ashlar.

Excavations, carried out in Castle Orchard, revealed a complex of ashlar-faced battered, or sloping, wall plinths, extending southwards from the upstanding wall, which appear to represent the remains of projections or towers and may belong to more than one phase of building.

Architectural features include the base of a flight of steps leading up to a robbed-out level, parts of string courses designed to protect walls from rainwater, the respond (supporting column) of a stone door jamb, drainage holes and some 38 mason's marks. In 1987, the need to disassemble and reconstruct the east end of the lean-to cart-shed on the north side of the upstanding medieval wall led to the discovery of a possible floor and a north-south running wall while, in the same year, the curving stone foundations of a tower or bastion were also found beneath the lean-to, some 32ft to the west where they are now sealed beneath a concrete floor. Some of these were left visible by the then owner of the Farm, John Blunt, and open days are still occasionally run to allow people to see them.

26 | CountryImagesMagazine.co.uk

Castle Farm from Castle Square, 1980s. [Late Howard Usher] The foundations of the 80ft wall had been noted during the construction of Castle Mills in 1857 when they were reported to be 12 feet thick and were exposed in one of the knitting shops.

A second massive east-west wall was identified in 1989, 39ft north of the first wall, together with some less substantial foundations and a possible robber trench. To the east, beneath the 1960s extension of Castle Mills, where mill footings are recorded as having cut through medieval foundations to a depth of 15 feet, a layer of medieval lead-glazed roof tiles was found. A medieval stone-lined well was also found when Castle Mill was constructed and was used subsequently to supply its boiler until it was covered over in 1928. Much of the site is protected as a scheduled ancient monument.

Survey papers from the late fifteenth century in the PRO make it clear that the castle was used as the administrative HQ of the Duchy of Lancaster

in the Midlands. Emery states that ‘Melbourne Castle was a key building in the development of late medieval residences in the Trent valley. Its size, maintenance and extension show that it was more than an administrative centre for the Duchy lands in Derbyshire. Its loss therefore represents a serious gap in our knowledge of the area.’

Indeed, considering the importance of the east Midlands as a forcing ground for early experiments in high-built elite residences, one can only concur. Melbourne Castle as developed in the 15th century clearly has a place in the sequence of such buildings with Prior Overton’s Tower at Repton Hall, Tattershall Castle in Lincolnshire, the High Tower of Wingfield Manor and Eastwood Hall, leading on to old Chatsworth, Hardwick, Worksop Manor and Bolsover.

Not bad for a lost house.

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Derbyshire

Antiques & Collectibles

by Maxwell Craven

J

Beswick Pottery Figures

Mould no 1377: rare Canadian mounted cowboy: sold for £540 [Private collection]

ohn Beswick Ltd, formerly J. W. Beswick, was a pottery manufacturer, founded in 1892

by James Wright Beswick and his sons John and Gilbert, in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent. The firm survived until in 1969 when it was sold to Doulton & Co. Ltd. They closed the factory in 2002 and the brand name John Beswick was sold on in 2004 to Dartington Crystal, which outfit resumed production.

The pottery was chiefly known for producing high-quality porcelain figurines such as farm animals and Beatrix Potter characters and have become highly sought in the collectables market.

The Dartington owned brand will still sell you items from a range of their classic pottery animals at prices ranging from around £16 for a seated piglet to £65, which sum will buy you an impressive-looking red stag.

Based at the Gold Street works in Longton (Stoke-on-Trent), Beswick originally produced tablewares and ornaments such as Staffordshire cats and dogs. Yet when James Wright Beswick died in 1921, the company continued to expand under his grandson, John Ewart Beswick. In 1934 the introduction of high fired bone china meant they could produce highquality figurines, such as famous race horses and champion dogs. The company was made a limited company, John Beswick Ltd, in 1936.

An important change came in 1939, when Wolstanton-born Arthur Gredington (19061976) was appointed chief modeller and the firm began producing farm animal figurines which quickly became widely collected. Gredington's range of no less than 190 rearing horsemen is one of the largest (and most popular amongst collectors) ever produced by the company. Not that the number 190 is anything but a notional one, for it is made up of minor variants of the basic 150 or so of Gredington’s horse figures.

There were, for instance two versions of model 868 (a racehorse, jockey up), one with the jockey in an orange or scarlet jacket cut away at the waist sitting bolt upright. In the second version introduced in 1952 horse and rider have greater animation, the rider flung back by the motion of his steed.

The commonest model of version two with a brown horse can be found for around £175. Yet these have fallen in price from around £250 a few

Currently offered by Bamfords at an estimate of £40-60: Ch. Wallboy & two friends.[Bamfords Ltd.]

30 | CountryImagesMagazine.co.uk

years ago, although colour does make a difference, for a version two 868 in grey can sell for £650, whilst one in chestnut with damage to an ear sold for £2,124 in January, and yet a third, in rocking horse grey, the most sought-after colour, sold for £2,588. Version one is harder to come by, but the price for one with a brown horse rarely exceeds £500. The rarest of all Beswick wares is Spirit of Whitfield, a pony, modelled after the pit pony Kruger. An example of this item sold for £9,500 in London fifteen years ago.

Under decorating manager Jim Hayward, there was a shift towards lifelike animal pieces, including cats, dogs, farm animals, fish and wild animals. Continued expansion enabled the acquisition of the adjoining factory in 1945 to accommodate offices, warehousing and new potting and firing facilities.

In 1947, Lucy Beswick suggested bringing to life the illustrations in the Beatrix Potter

Introduced 1952, six piece Disney cartoon set: sold February 2018 for £260. [Bamfords Ltd.]

Early Beswick Mark [Private collection]

Modern Beswick, mould no 1037: racehorse with jockey up.

[Private collection]

books. In 1948, John Beswick secured the right to reproduce a range of 10 Beatrix Potter earthenware characters, the first of which was Jemima Puddle-Duck, modelled by Arthur Gredington. In 1952, Beswick began manufacturing a range of Disney characters, including Snow White, Mickey Mouse and Bambi. Along with the designs of James Hayward, the high-quality pieces they produced have become quite desirable. A Beswick model of a running hare, 5 inches high, model no. 1024, issued 1945-1963 was sold by us at Bamfords for an impressive £330 a decade ago now.

Arthur Gredington retired in 1968 and the following year the company was sold to

Right: Mould no 2694: Rupert Bear, part of a Daily Express commissioned set, est. £150-200. [Bamfords Ltd.]

Gymkhana Queen: sold for £100 in 2009 [Bamfords Ltd.]

Royal Doulton and although animal figures continued to be produced, by 1989, the Beswick backstamp was dropped in favour of the Royal Doulton Royal Albert DA one.

The popularity of the Beatrix Potter characters was a factor in re-introducing the range in 1998, specifically for the collectors’ market. But by the end of 2002, Royal Doulton ceased production of all Beswick products and in 2003 the Gold Street works were sold.

In 2004 the Beswick name and product design rights were also again sold. The John Beswick name is now owned by Dartington Crystal, which continue to produce animal figurines using some original production moulds from the Gold Street works; they also produce vases

under the John Beswick name. The Snowman and the Gruffalo figures are just some of the nursery figures still being produced.

Yet if you want to collect, you should ideally be looking to buy items from the Gredington era (1939-1968) and the earlier the better. As usual, check for damage and wear. There is also a published price guide by Harvey May (no relation!) last republished in 2014, which gives some idea of current prices (which appear pretty stable at present) and mould numbering. Buying new is best avoided, as it will take decades before your purchase reaches the sum you paid, and there is always the danger that the manufacturer will over-produce, which always hobbles future prices.

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t is alleged that Napoleon said “the British are a nation of shoppers”; whether he said it or not is debatable but the statement is true, because we are. Since the 1860s, as people moved into towns or cities to find work, the need to buy goods rather than grow or make their own increased, and the vagrant craftsmen visiting villages selling their wares or services diminished.

As the population of towns grew with the industrial revolution, so did the demand for shops which sold off the shelf goods. This steady growth peaked in the 60s in true Carnaby street style which is why over the years our high streets became full of individual shops, each purveying their particular wares with the owner having specialist knowledge in it.

The two Ronnie famous “Four candles” sketch, whilst making us all smile emphasised the value of personal service in a specialist shop. It was a far cry from today’s “if you want it - you find it”

stores. The high street has changed again over the years with national chain stores elbowing their way in, threatening the existence of the independent retailer.

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Our local shopkeepers are savvy buyers of goods and choose their ranges carefully, sourcing the best current offers and often from individual crafts men. Attractive shop fronts displaying goods will always attract a passing shopper so windows change regularly.

Large high street and online corporations have put a lot of effort and money into attracting people to buy from them posing the question “how does the independent retailer compete?”

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not least, competitive on price. It’s a definite misnomer that it’s cheaper to buy from multiple chains and the internet.

However the tide is turning and we have seen over recent months many chain stores start to disappear leaving huge chunks of empty real estate littered around towns and city centres.

But, the true nation of shoppers that we are won’t be deterred, we still have the need to buy food and home wares and thankfully our towns and cities are now seeing a new era of independent retailers offering expert advice.

Laser Hair Removal

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Independantly Trading in Mickleover for over 40 years.

DERBYSHIRE’S INDEPENDENT ESTATE & LETTING AGENTS

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Rise

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Queen’s Park faithful took stylist Tom to their hearts

by John Shawcroft

TOM GRAVENEY gave a wry chuckle at the suggestion that our interview should concern, in the main, his matches against Derbyshire.

“Ah, Derbyshire,” he said.

“Well, I’ve got plenty of good memories, certainly from when I played at Queen’s Park. But it was never easy when I batted against their bowlers.”

So let’s set the scene. Thomas William Graveney, Gloucestershire, Worcestershire and England.

Born Riding Mill, Northumberland, 16 June 1927 but brought up in Bristol. Tall, rosycheeked elegant right-hand batsman who made 47,793 first-class runs in his flowing style, average 44.91 with 122 hundreds.

In 79 Tests he scored 4,882 runs, averaging 44.48, with 11 hundreds, the highest of which, 258, was made at Trent Bridge in 1957 against the West Indies. Served in Suez with the Gloucestershire Regiment in 1946, achieving the rank of Captain.

Became the first former professional cricketer to be elected President of MCC in 2004. Died 3 November 2015, aged 88.

Those are the bare facts. What they cannot convey is the majesty of Graveney’s batting, a predominantly front-foot player whose aesthetic qualities belonged in the picturesque setting of grounds like Cheltenham, New Road at Worcester or Chesterfield’s Queen’s Park.

He was also a delightful man with phenomenal recollections of matches from long ago, the kind of strokes he played in a certain innings and a memory for statistics that was usually spot on.

“Derbyshire always had good bowlers. When I started they had George Pope and Bill Copson along with Les Jackson, Cliff Gladwin and Bert Rhodes, Harold’s dad. Then along came Derek Morgan, Edwin Smith, Harold Rhodes and Brian Jackson. They were always difficult, particularly on some of the green pitches in the county. The problem was that they could get you out at any time. You’d feel set, get to 30 or 40, and then something would happen. If they didn’t get you they could nearly always keep you quiet. Les 44 | CountryImagesMagazine.co.uk

A study in elegance.

Tom Graveney in full flow.

was an exceptional bowler. I faced the world’s fastest in my time: Ray Lindwall, Keith Miller, Wes Hall, Charlie Griffith, Roy Gilchrist and the South Africans Neil Adcock and Peter Heine.

England had Frank Tyson, Fred Trueman and Brian Statham and although Les wasn’t as quick as these, he had a nasty break-back that came at you. Whenever I saw him I used to rub the inside of my thigh in anticipation! They also had good captains, Guy Willatt and Donald Carr and later on Charlie Lee and Morgan. I first came across Donald at an Officers’ Cadet Training Unit in Wrotham, Kent but I really got to know him very well when we toured India, Pakistan and Ceylon in 1951-52. He was vice-captain and skippered the team in the final Test against India at Madras.”

Graveney made Derbyshire’s acquaintance early in his career, at Bristol in July 1948.

He had been doing just about enough to retain his place, partly because Jack Crapp and George Emmett were sometimes with the England team against Australia. Derbyshire made 207, Gloucestershire being all out on the second morning for 202, Graveney caught Pope bowled Gladwin 0. Derbyshire were then bowled out for 210 and with 15 minutes left the Gloucestershire captain BO Allen sent Graveney in first with the fast bowler George Lambert to preserve his best batsmen.

“I wasn’t expecting to go in and I was out first ball, caught Dawkes bowled Jackson 0. It was the only time I bagged a pair – and on the same day, too. Derbyshire won, I was dropped and only got back in again when Emmett was summoned

to Headingley for the Test only be made twelfth man.”

There was a measure of revenge when his brother Ken took all ten wickets in the second innings at Queen’s Park in 1949 and Tom made 95 at Bristol a year later and 89 at Gloucester in 1951.

But these were as nothing when compared to his performance at Queen’s Park on Wednesday and Thursday 4-5 August 1954.

By now Graveney was in the England team and would tour Australia under Len Hutton’s captaincy the following winter.

During that wet summer, Derbyshire pressed hard for the Championship and Gladwin soon had Gloucestershire’s openers back in the pavilion. When Jackson bowled Arthur Milton three wickets were down for 32. Graveney – who came to the crease at 2-1 – and Emmett added 82 before Emmett was bowled by Jackson for 50.

With the score 114-4, the veteran Crapp joined Graveney and a tense struggle developed between the past and present England batsmen and the home attack: Jackson, Gladwin, Morgan, Bert Rhodes and Smith. “I had to be careful at the start because we were in a bit of a fix but gradually Jack and I got on top of the bowling. After tea, we were able to open up a bit.”

In the last two hours of the day, Graveney increased his score from 94 to 204, he and Crapp adding 205 in 202 minutes before Crapp was caught at the wicket off Arnold Hamer for 95, with two sixes and 11 fours. By the close, Gloucestershire were 366 for six, a big score in a three-day match and next morning they batted until noon, declaring at 399 for nine. Graveney

made 222 (four sixes and 26 fours) before being caught by Rhodes off Gladwin.

A personal memory might not come amiss.

On that Wednesday, I sat in teenage misery, fully appreciative of the majesty of Graveney’s batting but wishing it could have been played in circumstances less damaging to Derbyshire’s Championship hopes. An elderly man nearby noted the dejection. “Never mind, lad,” he said.

“The result of this match won’t matter in time (Gloucestershire won) but you’ll never forget Graveney’s innings.” More pertinent are the memories of the then 20-year-old off-spinner Edwin Smith “It was magnificent. I think I went for about 50 in 19 overs and apart from Les and Cliff we were all under the cosh. I remember he hit me back for a tremendous six straight over the pavilion and into the house behind it. But I got him for a duck in the second innings, although they were chasing runs for a declaration. The ball struck the top of his pad and went on to hit his wicket.”

This was one of six occasions when Edwin – elected Derbyshire’s President for 2018 – took his wicket – three at Chesterfield and once at Derby, Bristol and Worcester, where he held on to a brilliant caught and bowled.

“He was one of the finest batsmen I bowled against and I would bracket him with Peter May and Colin Cowdrey as the best English batsmen in that era. Tom was a mainly front foot player but Peter was strong everywhere, a brilliant batsman who hit with exceptional power. Tom was a lovely bloke. In May 1956 I played for MCC against Yorkshire and Surrey at Lord’s and stayed in London for about ten days. I shared a room with Tom and we got on very well. The funny thing was that a week after his double-century at Queen’s Park, we bowled Gloucestershire out for 43 at Cheltenham and we were 44-0 at lunch. People coming on to the ground late thought we had been batting all morning for 44. But Tom wasn’t playing in that game.”

At Derby in 1959, Graveney, now captain of

Gloucestershire, injured his arm when he fell on the stairs and when Milton was also hurt Derbyshire allowed their opponents the use of their twelfth man, the young spinner Gordon Beet. He held four catches three in the second innings when Derbyshire, chasing 229 against the clock, were all out for 174. A delighted Graveney gave Beet £5.

Graveney made another hundred at Queen’s Park in June 1960, when he shared a partnership of 256 for the second wicket with Tom Pugh, an Old Etonian who was to succeed him as captain and, although popular with the players, was not worth his place. This was Pugh’s only hundred in first-class cricket, 137 with one six and 16 fours, but how he remained at the crease was a mystery.

It was easy for the crowd to see the frustrated expressions on the faces of the Derbyshire fielders and some of the players recalled it as the only time they saw Les Jackson lose his rag. He could deal with being hit for four by a batsman of Graveney’s class but Pugh was a different matter, as Smith recalls.

“It really was remarkable. There was endless playing and missing, top edges going over the slips and mistimed shots going for four. We missed him when he was on 26 and I think Graveney was as baffled as we were. But give Pugh credit, he stuck it out and made a century.”

Similar views were expressed by Tony Brown, who was in the Gloucestershire team: “There was Tom Graveney at one end with his eloquent batting, and Tom Pugh at the other, hitting it here, there and everywhere. Pugh was a champion rackets player and batted accordingly.

He was used to a high, bouncing ball, so when they pitched short, like that day at Chesterfield, it played to his strength. Instead of three slips, they should have had three third men.”

Pugh was a flamboyant character, suave and good looking with Etonian poise.

He dabbled in acting and was on a short list of six for Dr No, the first Bond film. The part went to Sean Connery and this was the closest Derbyshire came to playing against 007.

Graveney was run out for 135 and this was one of only three hundreds he made against Derbyshire, the other being 100 at Worcester in 1963, and his overall record against the county, some 1,700 runs, average 43, reflects consistency rather than total dominance (Geoff Boycott, for example, averaged 67 for 2,693 runs.)

However, in the mind’s eye, it’s the beauty of that cover drive and the sheer elegance which remains, as opposed to the scoreboard.

Graveney enjoyed his most successful seasons after he left Gloucestershire and when he arrived at Chesterfield with the Worcestershire team in June 1970 there was genuine regret that this was to be the last occasion he visited the county as a player. He made 64 and 46, both not out, which was appropriate because even the most partisan supporter did not really want him to get out.

Gerald Mortimer, the Derby Telegraph’s cricket correspondent, captured the moment: “Graveney added a new dimension to the game.

Of all the batsmen produced since the war, none can have given such universal pleasure. Graveney has taken the arts of batting to such a peak of perfection that it is hard to believe that there has even been a player who so typified the beauty of cricket…Bob Taylor could have stumped him for 28 (in the first innings) but it would have been in a way sad to have denied Chesterfield spectators what may be their last glimpse of Graveney.”

Since then other stylists have graced England’s cricket fields – David Gower and Ian Bell, while Joe Root’s all-round game can have today’s spectators purring with pleasure.

Graveney cut across the generations. He would have flourished in cricket’s Golden Age and white-ball’s modern reverse sweeps, scoops and ramp shots would have taken on a touch of elegance should he have felt it necessary to play them.

Edwin Smith, the Derbyshire off-spin bowler who took Graveney’s wicket on six occasions, three of them at Queen’s Park.

Tom Graveney heads for the pavilion after being caught at the wicket by Bob Taylor off the bowling of Harold Rhodes for 49 at Chesterfield in 1965.

CountryImagesMagazine.co.uk | 45

GARDEN ROOMS

BBQ Cabins to Home Office

T

he concept of an indoor BBQ in your garden was introduced to the UK

by Arctic Cabins back in 2001. With close family links to Finland, where the design of these cabins originate, and the British love of a BBQ, it was an obvious connection. The one thing that regularly spoils the great British BBQ is the weather. With a sloping walled BBQ Cabin in your garden, this is no longer an issue. All year round you can enjoy sitting around the open fire, cooking optional of course, but there is no better place to go and relax with family and friends. Now manufactured in the UK to the same design and using the same high quality Scandinavian timber and BBQ equipment, the Arctic BBQ Cabin is something you and your whole family will enjoy for years.

To really complete the genuine feel, all Arctic Cabins come with a Finnish accessory pack, reindeer skins (or cushions if you prefer) and BBQ cooking utensils. With their sister company Cabin Master, the ethos is quality. The quality of the buildings, customer service and first class in-house installation teams is something they are very proud of and has become the cornerstone of the business.

Cabin Master have set out to achieve what they believe is the ideal system for giving the customer exactly what they require from their new garden room, from the initial telephone call and site visit to establish what needs and wants they require. Cabin Master have some fantastic new finance offers, why not talk to the team and find out how you can have your dream garden room this summer.

There is a complete fitting service, so you don’t need to do anything except have the space in your garden. Give us a call on 0115 932 8888 or visit www.arcticcabins.co.uk or www.cabinmaster.co.uk for more information. If you want to see one for yourself, and who wouldn’t, there is also a show site with all 4 sizes of BBQ Cabin on display. Arctic Cabins, 251 Toton Lane, Stapleford, Nottingham, NG9 7JA. Follow signs for the Nottingham Tram Toton Park and Ride car park and you will find us.”

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Gardening

July 2018

with Mark Smith

Anyone who knows me knows that this is one of my favourite times of the year. Some of my top 10 best plants start coming in season this month but the highlight has got to be the National Plant Show; sadly not open to the public but a trade show of some of the new varieties of plants that will appear in garden centres and plant nurseries next year. As something of a change I will do a show “Special” in next month’s Country Images so you will be the first to see all the must haves for next year.

Remember there are lots of National Garden Scheme Open Gardens this month so go and visit some; you may be inspired to open your own garden next year.

Look out for yellow posters in garden centres and nurseries.

Allotment or Vegetable Patch: • Spray apple trees and gooseberry bushes with a fungicide to help prevent mildew – “Fungus Fighter” is very good.

• Keep looking out for woolly aphid as the recent weather has been “perfect” for them.

Spray with an insecticide.

• Start to “lift” early potatoes.

• Sow a late crop of peas between the start and middle of July.

• If you haven’t already, thin out heavy crops of apples, pears and plums by removing any weaker looking fruit.

• Feed fruit trees and bushes with liquid sulphate of potash, such as a tomato feed.

• Feed tomato plants every time you water with a suitable tomato fertiliser.

• Water celery plants regularly if the weather suddenly becomes hot and dry.

In the Greenhouse: • Water tomatoes regularly to help prevent fruit splitting.

• Use calcium with your tomato feed to prevent blossom end rot.

• Replace new hanging sticky traps (found in all good garden centres) over plants to catch any whitefly.

• Thin out weaker looking bunches of indoor grapes.

• Take out side shoots of developing tomato plants.

• Place pots of tagetes or pots of basil near greenhouse doors to deter whitefly.

• If going on holiday this month, set up a watering area using a growbag tray and some capillary matting.

• Water down the greenhouse floor each morning on hot days to increase humidity.

• Open all vents and prop doors open on warm days to improve ventilation.

• Pick tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and other greenhouse crops regularly to encourage further flowers to develop.

General Garden Maintenance: • Feed the lawn with a suitable lawn fertiliser; ideally one that also has iron.

• Keep mowing the lawn regularly, but don’t cut too short if weather stays warm.

• Remember to water newly planted trees and

shrubs well if there is a lack of rain.

• Apply a deep layer bark mulch around newly planted or established trees and shrubs to retain much needed moisture and help suppress weeds.

• Feed hanging baskets and patio pots with a liquid fertilizer every week.

• Top up bird baths regularly with fresh water.

They are drying out very quickly in the hot weather.

• Turn over and refill compost heaps to help composting process.

Plants that are a must this month: Verbena bonariensis: Very popular herbaceous perennial with tall green sparsely-leafed stems and flat lavender purple flowers which will attract butterflies and bees. Ideal for the back of a border as it will reach about 150cm (5ft) if this is too tall try Verbena Rigida, this will reach 60cm (2ft), both are classed as half hardy but planted in-between other plants should give winter protection. TIP: Buy this now as when it comes into flower it is usually sold out.

Heuchera (Coral Flower ): Fantastic herbaceous perennial with brightly coloured, compact foliage and neat flower spikes which appear from June to September. A good plant for borders or containers which will give you colour all year long as it keeps its leaf in winter. There are now hundreds of varieties but some new varieties are Midnight Rose, Jade Gloss and Mahogany.

Agapanthus: Great herbaceous plant that does best in a container when the roots are restricted.

Large round blooms of pure white or to the deepest blues appear now till late August. Expect agapanthus plants to be more expensive than most herbaceous perennials.

Dahlias (herbaceous): A great herbaceous plant that gives weeks and weeks of stunning colour, most people pick the fabulous dahlia Bishop of Llandaff but many other varieties are equally stunning Bishop of Canterbury, Caribbean Fantasy, Fascination, Karma Choc, Moon Fire, Procyon and Swan Lake are well worth a look. These are very easy to grow for border or container but do require winter protection in exposed areas. TIP: Buy this now as when it comes into flower it is usually sold out.

Please keep contacting me with your gardening problems. If you can, please include a photo or as much detail as you can think of. garden.guru@hotmail.com or tel: 07817 651216 or search on Facebook Mark Smith – Garden Guru CountryImagesMagazine.co.uk | 47

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BBC Gardeners’ World Live 2018 winners.

The Made in Birmingham Garden by Paul Stone won Best Show Garden at BBC Gardeners’ World Live 2018 BBC Gardeners’ World Live announced all the winners of its prestigious annual awards, honouring a garden based on the history of the host city, Birmingham, with its highest accolade, a Platinum Award plus Best Show Garden.

Designed by Paul Stone, the ‘Made in Birmingham Garden’ features a fullyfunctional steam locomotive set along a railway embankment, featuring a prize-produce allotment, cut-flower garden and, in a nod to the region’s brewery culture, a hops and barley patch.

Also in the Show Garden category, the ‘Wyevale Garden Centres’ Solution Garden’ designed by David Stevens scooped a Platinum award. The spectacular garden which was built to illustrate the best practice, and stylish, solutions to common garden challenges such as planting in dry shade, acid soil or boggy areas.

The Association of Professional Landscapers (APL) returned to the show with five Show Gardens on APL Avenue, created by APL accredited landscaping companies. Two of the gardens picked up Gold Awards – Keyscape

Design & Construction made a stunningly private space to relax in the aptly titled ‘Breath of Fresh Air’ garden; and Peter Cowell from Living Gardens expertly displayed how a garden for children and for adults can work in harmony, in his ‘Inspiration in the Raw’ garden.

winning ‘Tesco Every Little Helps Garden’,

by Owen Morgan, being recognised for Best Construction.

Paul Stone, winner of Best Show Garden, said: “With the calibre of gardens at this year’s show, I think any number of Show Gardens could have won this award. The standard is always high, but to have two platinum awards in the same category is testament to the designers. It’s an honour to have won.”

Elsewhere in the show, the talented duo Jacob Botting and Laurence Senior won the inaugural Young Landscapers Award for their build of a Diarmuid Gavin Show Garden design, and Nikki Hollier’s Platinum-awarded design ‘The Jar of Life’ was crowned as the Best Beautiful Border.

Derby College was chosen as the space which best interpreted a theme, for its ‘Chronicles of Narnia’ Beautiful Border, with the Gold award

Bob Sweet, horticulture director at BBC Gardeners’ World Live, said: “Paul’s garden displays incredible imagination and ambition. To put a working steam train in a show garden in the middle of Birmingham is quite outstanding.”

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Celebrity Interview Walk Diary Gallery Food & Drink

Steve Orme interviews

Stephen Booth

T

he Peak District’s beauty and charm are undeniable – but the area can also be full of dangers and mystery.

Especially if you live in Edendale, a place that has experienced almost as many murders as the picturesque yet doom-filled Midsomer.

Never heard of Edendale?

It’s where writer Stephen Booth sets his crime novels which sell in impressive quantities. It can be as hazardous living there as in the fictional county of Midsomer where Detective Chief Inspector Barnaby has been solving dastardly crimes on television for more than 20 years.

S

tephen’s 18th book featuring the double act of detectives Ben Cooper and Diane Fry, Fall Down Dead, will appear on bookshelves in hardback next month.

His latest work showcases Stephen’s knowledge of the hidden dangers lurking in the Peak District in general and Kinder Scout in particular.

“There are lots of cases where people go out onto those hills totally unprepared, unable to read a map or a compass. They’re putting their lives in danger.

“In Fall Down Dead a party of walkers get lost on Kinder Scout in the fog and have to be rescued. One of them doesn’t make it alive. That location, as with many of my books, is absolutely central to the story. The story couldn’t happen anywhere else because the landscape is so specific and influences the way people lead their lives.

I think it’s just a fascinating place to write about,” says Stephen who lives in rural Nottinghamshire with his wife Lesley.

Stephen ventured into the Peak District's dark subterranean world for his 17th thriller Dead In The Dark which came out in paperback a couple of months ago.

The landscape has always been an integral part of Stephen’s stories, going right back to his first book, Black Dog, in 1998. He was a huge fan of crime fiction but noticed that the central character was nearly always a “world-weary, middle-aged, alcoholic loner”. He wanted to do something different.

“I decided to make my characters young and junior police officers.

So Ben Cooper and Diane Fry are both in their twenties at the start of the series and they’re both detective constables, giving a different perspective on a police investigation because they’re not in charge.

They’re on the bottom rung of the ladder.

Dead In The Dark came out in paperback a couple of months ago.

“I wanted one of them to be a local boy. That’s Ben Cooper who grew up in the Peak District. He’s from a farming family and knows everybody. I wanted the other character to be an outsider from the city.

So Diane comes from Birmingham and moves into Derbyshire. That gave me two very different pairs of eyes to explore the setting.

“Those two characters see the Peak District in very different ways. Really that was all I knew about them when I started to write the first book. Immediately when I began to write about them they came alive

54 | CountryImagesMagazine.co.uk

off the page. It was quite an experience that hadn’t happened to me before.

“I’d written other novels. But those two characters just seemed to take on a life of their own straight away.

Everything else about them, their background, their personalities, their families – I discovered all of that as I was writing about them.

“I decided to give those two characters their freedom.

They drove the story. I was very lucky that they came to me in that way.”

The pair have proved so popular that Stephen has sold two-and-a-half million books all over the world. The novels sell well in the USA and Canada and have been translated into 16 languages including Russian and Japanese.

“One of my books sold more copies in Russia than it did here just because it’s such a big market,” says Stephen. “And Scandinavia too. Although the populations are small, they read huge numbers of books in places like Sweden. They love crime fiction and my books do very well over there.”

Despite that Stephen still gets a thrill when he sees his work in print. “I think no matter how many books I published it would still feel the same. Every time I pick up a new book it’s wonderful.

“The hardback is a rare thing these days.

I know a lot of people read ebooks. In America about 95% of my sales are ebooks. But here so many readers say to me ‘I still like the feel of a proper physical book in my hand’. There’s nothing like it really.”

Stephen Booth was born in 1952 in Burnley, Lancashire. He wrote his first novel when he was 12 and knew he wanted to be a writer. But first he became a trainee teacher only to leave the profession after a terrifying spell at a big comprehensive school in Manchester.

He moved into journalism, working for the Wilmslow Advertiser and other local papers before becoming deputy editor of the Worksop Guardian.

Eventually the business changed so much that he wasn’t enjoying the job any more. So he single-mindedly set about achieving his ambition of getting a book published.

“I came home every day from work and wrote in the evenings. Every single night, religiously. I was very disciplined about it. When you have a limited amount of time to write in, it’s surprising how well it concentrates the mind.

“I produced that first Cooper and Fry novel in about four months, just writing in the evenings and a bit at weekends. It was there waiting to come out, I think. So I actually feel quite embarrassed about the fact that it takes me a year now (to write a book).”

Black Dog and Dancing With The Virgins Black Dog won an award for best British crime novel in 2001 and the follow-up, Dancing With The Virgins, picked up the same accolade.

they’re real people. They get so involved; it’s magic.”

Fall Down Dead is the last novel that Stephen is contracted to write for his current publishers. He now wants to take a breather after being committed to write a book a year for the past 18 years.

“I’ve got so many ideas for other books that I’d love to write but I haven’t had time. It’s come to a point where I think I’d like to take a break from Cooper and Fry, do something different and surprise readers a bit.

“I can’t pick up a newspaper in the morning without seeing ideas for half a dozen crime novels.”

His previous books prompted the Sunday Telegraph to call him “one of our best storytellers” while the Guardian considers him “a modern master of rural noir”. Whatever Stephen Booth does next will no doubt be sure to please readers and critics alike.

Fall Down Dead will be published by Little, Brown in August.

Stephen was still a working journalist while his writing career was taking off : “I was very lucky that Black Dog did so well and my publishers loved the second book when I delivered it. I was able to give up the day job before the second book came out.

“I was really lucky to be making a living from the books straight away because lots of writers don’t. It’s very hard work. You’ve got to be dedicated and give it a priority.

Lots of other things in my life had to be put aside while I concentrated on this thing that I was determined to do.”

He has this advice for budding writers: “Sometimes I hear people say ‘I haven’t got time to write’. All that means to me is that there’s something else that’s more important than writing. Rather than sitting watching TV for a couple of hours in the evening, turn the TV off and get writing.”

Strong words from the author whose fourth book Blind To The Bones won the 2003 Dagger In The Library award, presented by the Crime Writers’ Association whose membership includes writers at all stages of their careers.

One of the reasons why readers keep coming back to Stephen’s books is because of the complex relationship between Cooper and Fry. “I like to keep the dynamics of the relationship changing: one will get promoted above the other so the relationship isn’t static. Readers get very involved in that.

“Ben is the one who readers sympathise with the most because he’s such a likeable character, has a great sense of passion and humanity. Readers get very involved in his life. On the other hand I find that for some readers Diane has become the woman they love to hate: she’s a rather more brittle, hard-edged character and some people don’t like the way she treats Ben. “I love it when readers react to the characters as if CountryImagesMagazine.co.uk | 55

Walks from Grand Houses

Elvaston Castle

T

his walk, around the parkland of Elvaston Castle, is one of my occasional excursions from some of Derbyshire’s grand houses. Unfortunately it could almost be described as from one of Maxwell Craven’s ‘Lost Houses’. Financial constraints on its present owners, Derbyshire County Council, make it impossible to fund the necessary £6.1 million needed to restore the building’s fabric; something that has put it very firmly on the list of ‘Buildings at Risk’ register. As a result of the house being unsafe, it means that it has been closed to the public since 2008, but the 200 acres of parkland around which this walk goes, are still freely accessible. There is also a programme of events in the park throughout the year, ranging from an Easter egg trail, to a night time guided nature walk – for further details check www.derbyshire. gov.uk/countryside events.

Until Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries, the estate was owned by Shelford Priory, after which it was sold in 1538, to Sir Michael Stanhope of Rampton, Notts. Following his death in 1611, the whole estate, including Elvaston, was inherited by his second son, also called Michael. He became High Sheriff of Derbyshire and died in 1638, but not before he built the Elizabethan-styled house at Elvaston on the outskirts of Derby in 1633.

With little change, Elvaston passed steadily through generations of Stanhopes until the 19th century. This was when Charles Stanhope, 3rd

Earl of Harrington employed the architect James Wyatt to extend and re-develop the castle in the then popular Gothic Revival style. During this time a new wing and the great hall were added.

Further modifications on the Elizabethan-styled south front were carried out in 1836 by the architect Lewis Nockalls Cottingham, leaving the building very much as we see it today.

several cottages and gate houses, along with an ice house plus a boat house. Ideally the property could be owned by the National Trust, but by confining their interest to acting in as a Consultancy Body, even they baulk at the thought of funding the £6.1 million required to restore the fabric of Elvaston Castle.

Vacated by its original owners, Elvaston Castle became a teacher training college until 1950, after which it remained mostly empty, slowly declining through intervening decades right through to the present time.

In 1969 following the Countryside Act the previous year, the estate including the castle was sold to Derbyshire County Council by the 11th Earl of Harrington. The council opened the estate to the public in 1970 as a Country Park under the terms of the Act. Since then it was used for country fairs and other major events, but latterly lack of funding has meant that even such things have been abandoned. Nevertheless the park is popular with up to 350,000 visitors a year, offering a wide range of activities alongside self-guided walks and cycle rides, or just for a day out in the popular children’s play park. .

Elvaston Castle Gardens Probably still the only truly cared for section of the estate, the gardens were laid out in 1830 for Charles, 4th Earl of Harrington by the relatively unknown gardener, William Barron. The earl had caused something of a scandal by marrying the actress Maria Foote who was seventeen years his junior. Very much a love-match, the couple kept the gardens for their private retreat while Barron spent the next twenty years building their now Grade 2 listed Gothic paradise.

Following the 4th Earl’s death in 1851, his brother Leicester Stanhope became the 5th Earl. It was he who opened the gardens to the public for the first time.

Along with the castle and its gardens, the estate covers some 200 acres of parkland, including

Elavaston Country Park

The Future Threatened with closure due to lack of funding, the council would like to remove its immediate financial liabilities amounting to around £500,000 a year simply to keep it open. Since closure of the main building to the public in 1990 when it was deemed unsafe, the castle and estate have attracted the interest of golf club developers, but this could well restrict the sort of access currently enjoyed by the public at large.

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Elvaston Castle

This walk follows rights of way around the estate as far as the River Derwent and back by way of the gardens and woodland surrounding the castle.

• From the car park off the Borrowash/Elvaston road, follow the woodland track to the left of the children’s play park. Within sight of the lake, turn right.

The huge mound of white rocks, an imaginative adventure playground, is made of tufa (naturally reconstituted Derbyshire limestone). The rock was used extensively throughout the park to decorate William Barron’s garden lay-out.

• Cross the bridge over a narrow neck of the lake and make your way up to the courtyard at the back of the castle.

• Bear left from the courtyard and then right into the ornamental gardens.

• Work your way up to the lodge and boundary wall.

• Join the tree-lined formal drive for about 50 yards and then angle left away from it and on to a path heading towards modern houses in Thulston.

• Bear right past the newish housing estate and on to a road passing the Harrington Arms.

• Turn left to join the Borrowash road for a few yards.

• Cross the main road and bear right on to a side road, bearing right again where it forks. This is Ambaston Lane, follow it for about a mile into Ambaston village. n.b. although this is a minor side road, it can be busy at times, so walk on

the right-hand side, facing oncoming traffic.

• At the ‘T’ junction turn left on to a side road through Ambaston.

• At the road end turn left past the last houses and follow a grassy field path over a series of fields and as far as the river.

• Walk along the river bank until the path reaches the Borrowash road.

• Climb up to the road and bear left along it for about 100 yards.

• Drop down a side track on your right and regain the river bank.

• The path here is part of the Derwent Valley Heritage Way running upstream to Bamford and the Derwent Dams. Across the river to your right is the British Celanese factory.

• Where the path forks beside a weir, turn left on to a field track dog-legging for over a quarter of a mile until it reaches the western access drive into Elvaston Park. Turn left and follow the drive up to the castle.

• Go to your left around the castle and then half-right to walk down grassy terraces to the wooded lake-side track. Follow this to the right, back to the Country Park car park, which is to your right through the trees.

You will pass more tufa structures; one of them makes a perfect arch, framing a view of the lake.

Other features seen from this section of the walk

Useful Information

5½ miles (9km) of level parkland, back roads, riverside and country park walking.

Muddy sections after rain beyond Ambaston village.

Recommended map: Ordnance Survey Explorer, 1:25,000 scale Sheet 259 (Derby).

Public transport: Skylink (Leicester direction), from Derby.

Refreshments. Café in castle kitchen. Pub, the Harrington Arms Thulston is passed on the walk.

Car parking near entrance to Elvaston Country Park, via Borrowash/Elvaston road.

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Diary Of Events Royal Centre Nottingham & Concert Hall 0115 989 5555 www.trch.co.uk JULY 2 - 7 Titanic - The Musical 5-7 The Wedding Reception 7 The Magic Lantern Backstage Tour - July 2018 11-15 Gangsta Granny - It’s Friday night and Ben knows that means only one thing – staying with Granny! There will be cabbage soup, cabbage pie and cabbage cake and Ben knows one thing for sure – it’s going to be sooooooooo boring! But what Ben doesn’t know is that Granny has a secret – and Friday nights are about to get more exciting than he could ever imagine, as he embarks on the adventure of a lifetime with his very own Gangsta Granny! From the acclaimed producers of Horrible Histories comes the award-winning West End production of this amazing story by David Walliams, the UK’s best-selling author for children.

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6 Schools’ Public Speaking Competition 7 Bubble Rush 8 The Derby Charity Classic Car and Retro 8 8 Razzle Dazzled 10 England vs New Zealand 13 Sunrise City 5k 15 Derby Caribbean Carnival 19-22 RHS Tatton Park Flower Show 19 Little Mix 21 July -to Aug 28 Derby Beach Come and enjoy the Derbados beach!

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14 Journeys: A Collection Of Drama, Dance And Song Drama: A varied programme of drama, dance and song performed by young people from firstSight Performing Arts and Rollo Academy.

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Derby Museum’s is delighted to accept the generous donation of £11,500 from the Mayor of Derby’s Charity. John Whitby the outgoing Mayor presented the cheque to Patricia Coleman – Chair of Derby Museums, the charity that manages Derby’s museums and collections. The gift will go towards Derby Museums’ Endowment fund, meaning it will be doubled in value and help to sustain the Museums for generations to come.

The donation is part of a very successful year of fundraising led by the former Mayor which included a reunion music gig, gala dinner, quiz night and of course the infamous lock-up!

John Whitby said as a former trustee of Derby Museums, it is a charity that means a lot to me and the people of Derby and I am so proud to be able to make this endowment gift knowing it will be doubled in value by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Pat Coleman said we are thrilled to receive this generous support as one of the Mayor’s chosen charities, it will make a great contribution to our endowment campaign which is so important to help secure Derby Museums future for the people of Derby.

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Diary Of Events Birdwatching for Beginners walks at Carsington Water.

Bird Watching for Beginners – Sunday 1st July 2018 10.00am If you want to see and hear, all the breeding summer warblers that have come to Carsington, July is a good time, with adults actively collecting food for the young. And nests everywhere.

Foliage will soon make it harder to spot birds in the trees, so come and join the experts to help you identify and enjoy the birds even more.

The next Beginners walk, which are held on the first Sunday of every month, is on Sunday August 5th. Book by contacting Carsington for more information, 01629 540696 or just drop in to reception. If you don’t want to miss the birds, binoculars are essential!! Future date to slot in your diary app, September 2nd.

Derbyshire Dales Woodcraft Club Meets in Wyaston village hall (DE6 2DR) on the first Saturday of each month from 10:00am to 2:00pm. We have a mixed programme of visiting demonstrators, hands-on sessions under the guidance of more experienced members and a monthly competition.

7th. July 2018 - this is a hands-on meeting and visitors may come along and have a go at woodturning, woodcarving etc. under the guidance of an experienced member. For more information go to www.ddwc.co.uk where you can see reports with photos on previous meetings, including competition results, and read past newsletters. If you would like to know more about the club, email your query to info@ddwc.co.uk or phone James Sharpe on 01335 344933.

Darley Abbey Historical Group ‘St. Chad’ by Jonathan Oates. All meetings start at 7.30pm and are held in Darley Abbey Village Hall, Abbey Yard off New Road, Darley Abbey, DE22 1DS. There is a charge of £1 for members of the Historical Group and £3 for visitors. For further information contact Maria Gibson on 01332 552837 To find out more about the Historical Group, take a look at their blog: https://darleyabbeyhistoricalgroup.wordpress. com/ Ashbourne & District Flower Club Monday July 16th Di Singleton will provide a demonstration entitled Summer Celebrations.

Monday August 20th a workshop will show you how to arrange a mixed bunch of flowers from the supermarket. Visitors welcome Meeting to be held at St Oswald’s church hall Ashbourne 7:30pm.

Bestwood Male Voice Choir Summer Harmony Concert. Bestwood Male Voice Choir are delighted to be joined by special guests Tideswell Male Voice Choir for a Summer Harmony Concert at St Mary Magdalene Church, Hucknall on Saturday 23 June at 7.00pm.

Based in the beautiful Peak District village of Tideswell, the guest choir has a well-deserved reputation for its excellence in choral singing.

Founded in the 1950’s, the choir members were

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diary@imagespublishing.co.uk

originally drawn from the villages of Tideswell itself. However, today men travel from all around to be part of this exciting group, now numbering 40 members, enjoying rehearsals which continue to be held in Tideswell. Tickets are priced at £6.00, available from Colin on 01159 794842 or on the door. So come along.

theatre company Babbling Vagabonds take us on a Wild Walk outdoor adventure to discover the rascal who has been stealing the King’s golden apples. Pit your wits against riddlers, puzzle makers, and a useless wolf ! See if you can discover who the Golden Thief is!

Charity Horse Ride Charity Horse Ride at Shottle, Belper on Sunday 15July. A beautiful 10mile ride in central Derbyshire on land not normally available for horse riding. Raising money for local charities - for full info - Paul.millership@yahoo.co.uk OR www. rotary-ambervalley.org.uk Heanor Floral Art Group Demonstration by Jane Pugh entitled Dance the Night Away. At the Wilmot Street Welfare Centre.

Wilmot Street Heanor . On Monday July 16th at 7oclock. Visitors £5 everyone welcome. For further details contact 01332-880179 .

Little Chester Local History Group Little Chester Heritage Centre, St. Paul’s Church, Mansfield Road, Derby. We are open on Sunday July 1st 2-4pm, when you are invited to view our collection of original newspapers from the Napoleonic Wars to recent times. Read ‘Forces’ and other newspapers from the Two World Wars. Free admission. Refreshments available. For further information Tel. 01332 363354 Allestree Flower Group Tuesday 17th July 2018 Flower demonstration by Di Singleton TIme: 7.00 pm for 7.30 pm. Venue: The Evergreen Hall, Cornhill, Allestree Admission: Members £3.00. Non- members £7.00 For further details telephone 01332 558540 Derby City Photographic Club Derby - Celebration of a City’ 3rd May to 28th July venue Deda, Chapel Street, Derby An exhibition of 40 framed photographs and an audio visual by members of Derby City Photographic Club celebrating Derby as it is now, 40 years after attaining City status. Showcasing its buildings, commerce, industry, sport and leisure. The exhibition is open Monday to Saturday 9am to 5pm and entry is free. For further information visit www. derbycitypc.co.uk Derby Wine Circle Friday 13th July – A “Russian Banquet” with speaker. Meetings are held on the first Friday of each month at The Evergreen Club, Allestree – 7.30pm for 7.45pm. for further information contact Julie@Thebelks.plus.com / 01159 328217 Gilllian.wall@Ntlworld.com / 01332 551447.

A Wild Walk: The Golden Thief by Babbling Vagabonds.

Saturday 18th August 11:00 am and 2:00 pm at Crich Glebe Field Centre (DE4 5EU) Explorers, wanderers and daring adventurers – we want you! Join us at Crich, as professional

This is a ‘for all the family’ event, but it is an outdoor theatrical walk, and will take about an hour to complete. Please come prepared with good walking shoes, a rain coat and other outdoorsy things. Be warned – you may need to be brave, quick thinking and definitely ready for adventure!

The show lasts an hour, and takes place near The Crich Glebe Field Centre, and on and around Crich Recreation Ground. There will be 2 performances, starting at 11:00 am and 2:00 pm. Meet at the Glebe 15 minutes before the start. Children under 16 must be accompanied by a responsible adult. Everyone will need a ticket. They are free for those aged 3 and under, and £5.00 for everyone else.

Wirksworth Antiques in the Streets 2018 Sunday the 15th of July 10am-4pm The beautiful little town of Wirksworth is yet again opening it’s doors to a fabulous Antiques and Vintage market scattered around the town.

Antique dealers , flea market goers, people moving house, Aunty Mable clearing out her garden shed, they all turn out for a fabulous day with a difference.

If you want a wonderful free day out wondering around the quirkiest town in Derbyshire then come along, you will not be disappointed. If you want to escape the hubbub of the crowd then venture into church walk or the puzzle gardens and enjoy a quiet minute or two. Of course you can also enjoy fantastic street food, award winning restaurants, cafes, micro breweries, old fashioned pubs serving the best local real ale and the famous “Yorkshire pudding wrap” at the Sizzling pig , the best fair trade shop in the county, fabulous gifts, gallery and framers, organic foods and so much more all in our historical little town. Don’t forget to bring your valuables for a free valuation from Bamfords Auction house and the big indoor antiques and flea market at the Memorial Hall on the main road. Visit our Facebook page Wirksworth Antiques in the streets 2018 or call 01629 820191. marsdensgifts@gmail.co.uk

O

The Marlowe Players present All My Sons

ne of Derbyshire’s oldest established theatre groups will pursue its aim of presenting plays that other companies shy away from when it performs Arthur Miller’s All My Sons.

John Freeman and Chris Davies will direct the family drama for the Marlowe Players. For John, it represents an opportunity to tackle a very different type of play from the ones he has previously been involved with.

“Up to now all the plays I’ve directed have been comedies or at least relied heavily on comedy scenes. Five years ago I directed Lucy Bennett’s A Piece of Cake and there was a scene that was a bit more emotional.

“I really enjoyed the challenge of the different approach that was needed and I realised then that I wanted to direct a ‘serious’ play. But I changed jobs and moved house, so I’ve had to wait to fulfil this ambition.”

John added: “All My Sons is considered a classic and with good reason.

It’s a play that’s been frequently staged for more than 70 years. It’s still hugely popular, largely due to Miller’s style of writing, his development of characters and storytelling which make it an incredibly moving piece of theatre, one that still resonates with audiences today.”

All My Sons is the story of successful businessman Joe Keller who lives with his wife Kate and son Chris in 1940s suburban America. Their only sadness is the loss of their other son Larry, who went missing in World War II. Kate still clings to the hope that her son is alive.

When an unexpected visitor arrives, deep wounds are opened and the family

have to confront the truth behind their comfortable lives.

The play also appealed to American studies graduate Chris Davies. “Having been directed by John in other plays I felt confident we could work well together and I’m pleased to say that this has been the case.

“We have very similar visions of what the play should look like and it’s been a pleasure bringing those visions to life with our exceptional cast.

“The play and its author are well loved and we intend to produce something special.” The Marlowe Players will present All My Sons at Darley Abbey Village Hall from Tuesday until Saturday, July 24 to 28. For tickets call 07961 607372 or go to marlowe-players.co.uk.

Lor Bird is a fine artist working from her studio in Matlock and will be showcasing her work at a number of exhibitions around the county including Banks Mill Studios in Derby from 30 July – 20 August.

Visit her website to see more of her work http://lorbird. wixsite.com/artbylorbird

DERBY FOLK FESTIVAL

T

4 - 7 October 2018

his year the Festival ranks as one of the most popular weekend Folk Festivals in the UK with an unrivalled guest list of over two hundred musicians, singers and dancers. Ticket sales are at record high levels and it looks like attracting even more people to the city for a fantastic weekend celebration of folk music. Owing to its popularity, this year’s festival has been extended with a special Thursday evening concert featuring Gary Stewart’s “Gracelands Show” featuring an incredible 7-piece band, coming together to recreate the iconic Paul Simon “Graceland” Album in all its glory. Plus the exciting music and dance from the Zulu Tradition, making a great party night to kick start the Festival. Tickets are available at the Derby Live Box Office 01332 255800 / www.derbylive.co.uk or in person at the Derby Tourist Information, Market Place, Derby.

Well known Derbyshire artist Norma Gent is a versatile artist with a wide range of subjects and styles.

You can visit her at her delightful studio in New Lane, Alfreton where you can see her working on her latest painting as well as a display of her original works. No 2 The Galleries, New Lane, Alfreton.

Norma Gent Derbyshire Artist

◆ Pets, Portraits, Scenes, Still Life, Executive Caricatures, Victorian Life.

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Out & About Hot August Night Mickleover 2018:

Bigger & Better!

A

fter the success of last year’s event, Hot August Night 2018, will be bigger and better than last year! The event is an unforgettable family music festival at the Don Amott Arena, Mickleover Sports Club, Station Road,Mickleover. This year the event takes place on Sunday 5th August 2018, starting an hour earlier than last time. Doors open 2pm, which means even more great entertainment!

With some fantastic live tribute acts this year appearing including; – Bulsara and his Queenies – Little Mix – Rod Stewart – Beyoncé – Take That – Blondie Plus 60’s Rock music from The Moggies! There will be plenty of food and bar outlets, but you are also welcome to bring your own picnic. (Limited alcohol permitted). We have also improved the sound for this year’s event! This is a ticket only event so to purchase yours please use the link below or you can buy them from local Mickleover shops , Don Amott Leisure, Hilton, Etwall Post Office, Littleover Passion Flowers and Cottage Garden Florist at Willington. Tickets are also available from www.ticketsource.co.uk

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Every Rose Has A Story Every rose has its own individual and exciting story to tell. The Luxembourg rose breeders Soupert & Notting produced Madame Jules Gravereaux in 1901 to honour the man who, having made his fortune at the Bon Marché department store in Paris, purchased land at L’Hay for the first garden dedicated solely to roses: containing 1,600 different plants. While some Derbyshire estates have replanted with David Austin roses, other rose gardens include examples of plants produced by breeders from France, Germany, Denmark, the USA, England and Northern Ireland. Some of these firms have been breeding roses for more than 250 years. The summer is the best time to admire the roses and to hear their stories. We organise regular visits to enjoy the history behind local rose gardens. www.offthederbyshirebeatentrack.co.uk

The 87th

WEDNESDAY 8TH AUGUST 2018 A TRADITIONAL AGRICULTURAL SHOW WITH ENTERTAINMENT FOR EVERY MEMBER OF THE FAMILY The Rectory Fields, Ashover, Chesterfield, Derbyshire S45 0BA 9.00AM UNTIL DUSK Telephone 01623 811545 E Mail ashovershow@aol.com www.ashovershow.co.uk

Off the Derbyshire Beaten Track A series of half-day tours a 40 mile journey of discovery lead mines great & small Sir George Watt & the Delhi Durbar 1903 June, July & August The History behind Local Rose Gardens the stories of the people who originally bred the roses December Derbyshire & the '45: a Scotsman’s Tale The minibus leaves Ashbourne @ 1.30pm

Booking essential

phone: 01335 345239/07771667097 or email frances@franscript.co.uk For further information see www.offthederbyshirebeatentrack.co.uk

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Out & About A brewers tale

You may have read about the Peak Ales storey – in 2003 Robert and Debra Evans had a carefully prepared plan - sell the house, uproot their family, leave secure jobs and set up a microbrewery in the Peak District, simple? Rob knew he only had one chance to get this right, working hard to find premises suitable to fit in with his dream. Chatsworth suggested he took a look at Cunnery Barn on the Chatsworth Estate, the barn buildings were in disrepair but the potential was obvious; the perfect location for a microbrewery had been discovered.

Two years later and after many hurdles including planning, electricity, drainage, renovation, finance and resident barn owls, the first beer had been brewed and the owls had a purpose built nesting box - no other barn owls in Derbyshire have accommodation so grand! It had been an emotional journey. Mighty oaks grow from little acorns as they say and by 2012 it was becoming clear we'd hit capacity and keeping up with demand became a challenge, at the end of 2014 we upgraded our brewing equipment to a 20 barrel plant and the main brewery moved to a purpose built premise in the picturesque location of Ashford in the Water. Good things come to those who wait, and our relationship with the perfect location for a microbrewery didn’t end there and after another 4 years of hurdles similar to those we faced in the beginning, we complete the 2nd stage of this project by installing a 2.5 barrel pilot brewery, allowing us to experiment with new recipes and beer styles. We’ll be fully opening the Peak Ales Visitor Centre in July 2018, consisting of our brewery, shop and tasting room. The venue is also available to hire for private functions and events. Autumn 2018 will see installation of a gin still, where we’ll start a brand new adventure!

We have a core range of National award winning cask and bottled beers, alongside specials throughout the seasons. We're proud to be able to consistently supply quality products in and around the Peak District.

Derby Museums go WILD this summer with an exhibition celebrating Natural History of the British Isles.

‘Wild’ is a stunning exhibition featuring animals from the British Isles which are rarely encountered up close. These iconic specimens are shown as taxidermy pieces in dynamic poses which show the visitor some of their behaviour. The suggestions of habitat also allow the visitor to appreciate the diverse environments that are found within the UK and experience what it is like to see the animals as they would in the wild.

The visitor will see a barn owl swooping down to catch a mouse. Red squirrels chasing each other around a tree and a gannet in full dive plummeting towards the sea. Among other displays they will also see large dramatic images of wonderful landscapes from the UK and become immersed in the family friendly interactives that accompany the displays.

Tony Butler, Executive Director of Derby Museums said: This wonderful exhibition is incredibly family friendly but also works so well with the national science curriculum. It focuses on British species and the relationship they have with their environment and their biology.

The exhibition opens to the public on Saturday 7 July and runs until Wednesday 22 August 2018 at the Museum & Art Gallery, The Strand Derby.

MON 17 - SAT 22 SEP 01332 593939 • derbytheatre.co.uk 64 | CountryImagesMagazine.co.uk

Derby Museums is delighted the University of Derby and Alderwasley Hall School and Sixth Form Centre, part of the Senad Group, are both proud to support this exhibition through their generous sponsorship.

Derby Museums will ask visitors to ‘Give What You Think’, as a donation, when visiting this exhibition.

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CountryImagesMagazine.co.uk | 65

Blooming success! Rare Fabergé flowers smash through estimates to fetch hundreds of thousands of pounds at auction

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wo rare Fabergé flowers said to showcase ‘the very best of Fabergé genius’ sparked a strong bidding battle at auction on Monday (June 11).

And now the flowers, made thanks to the inventiveness and skill of Russian goldsmith Peter Carl Fabergé, are heading to a new home after being purchased by the same phone bidder.

A Fabergé barberry bush sold for £160,000 while a morning glory blossom went under the hammer for £180,000 making a total of £340,000 for the pair. Both flowers exceeded their estimates of £100,000 to £150,000 each.

Three phone bidders battled it out to own the botanical studies, which sparked strong interest from Russia. The flowers have been bought by an anonymous buyer.

Charles Hanson, owner of Hansons London, which sold the flowers at its saleroom at the Normansfield Theatre, Teddington, said: “I am thrilled both for our client and bidder who has secured some of the rarest masterpieces of the goldsmith’s art ever to be offered at auction.

“Right from the start, there was great excitement and interest in these two flower studies, which came from the late Lady Juliet Duff’s personal collection.”

Mr Hanson, 40, a familiar face on TV’s Bargain Hunt and Antiques Road Trip, called the discovery of the two rare Fabergé flowers his most significant find ever. The jewelled ornaments were taken along to Hansons London’s valuation office in Hampton Court Village after their owner saw a Fabergé flower, valued at £1m, uncovered by TV’s Antiques Roadshow in March.

Mr Hanson said: “A lady came along carrying a humble cardboard box.

Inside, wrapped in an old tea towel, was the holy grail of what an auctioneer can expect only in their wildest of dreams - not one, but two, Fabergé flowers. The two botanical studies, created by Fabergé in Imperial Russia, were crafted in the early 20th century, circa 1907-1910, and are six inches long. These are ‘objects de fantaisie’, simply made for guests to admire.

Only about 80 of Fabergé’s botanical studies are known to have survived with the majority in the Queen’s Royal Collection. One of the flowers, a Fabergé barberry bush with purpurin berries and jade leaves, demonstrates breathtaking luxury. It’s chased and engraved gold stem sits within a carved rock crystal vase appearing to be half full of water. It is extraordinarily delicate with rich, soft red berries so real they could drop any time on ripening. The other flower takes the form of a highly naturalistic morning glory blossom on a jade jardinière and aventurine quartz stand. The gold flowers, enamelled white with shades of pale pink and lilac, are inset with ‘dew drops’ of diamonds. A bud is bursting to open and flower. The leaves are carved Siberian jade nephrite. Fabergé’s creations are truly still-life jewels.

The flowers sold by Hansons were once the property of Lady Juliet Duff (1881-1965). Her mother, the Marchioness of Ripon (1859-1917), was a notable customer at Fabergé in London. Owing to her noble heritage Lady Juliet was a well known figure in royal, artistic and music circles. She was a friend to playwrights Oscar Wilde and Terence Rattigan, the poet Maurice Baring, the author Hilaire Belloc and the Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill. Lady Juliet was also a familiar face at court and was a close friend of King George V and Queen Mary. The two Fabergé flowers were sold on June 11 at 7.30pm at Hansons London saleroom, the Normansfield Theatre, 2A Langdon Park, Teddington, TW11 9PS. To find out more about the sale, email enquiries@hansonslondon.co.uk. Hansons London holds free valuation days every Saturday at the Normansfield Theatre, from 9.30am-12.30pm and at its offices at 77 Bridge Road, Hampton Court Village on Wednesdays, 11am-3pm, and Fridays, 10am-4pm. . To find out more, email enquiries@hansonslondon.co.uk.

Fabergé is a name renowned throughout the world for quality, craftsmanship and ingenuity. Peter Carl Fabergé, a Russian jeweller born in 66 | CountryImagesMagazine.co.uk

1846, crafted items that were so ingenious they dazzled and delighted royalty in Russia and around the world. He is universally renowned as the greatest Russian jeweller and goldsmith of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Such was the creativity and intricacy of design, the astonishing use of the finest materials and gem stones, no one had seen anything like them before.

Moving away from traditional jewellery, he created ‘Objects de Fantaisie and, of course, the famous Faberge eggs. In 1885 Russian Tsar Alexander III wanted to surprise his wife, Empress Marie Fedorovna, with something special. At Easter, he presented her with a deceptively simple-looking egg that started, the Hen Egg.

The two Fabergé flowers sold

by Hansons.

It cracked open to reveal a golden yolk. Inside the yolk nestled a pure gold hen, giving the Hen Egg its name. Within the hen was a tiny diamond replica of the royal crown and a miniature ruby egg pendant. Thrilled by her reaction, he subsequently presented Marie with another egg every year thereafter. Their son, Tsar Nicholas II, continued with the tradition, giving eggs to his mother and his wife every Easter. But after 32 years, the glittering gifts stopped abruptly with the murder of Nicholas II and his entire family during the Russian Revolution.

Fabergé Flowers Bloom Two Fabergé flowers uncovered in a shoe box realised £400,000 in our recent sale

Entries invited for our Autumn Jewellery & Fine Art Auction Thursday 27, Friday 28, Saturday 29 September & Monday 1 October

Closing date for entries: Friday 7 September Please contact: Adrian Rathbone BA (Hons) Associate Director arathbone@hansonsauctioneers.co.uk 01283 733988 The Auction Centre, Heage Lane, Etwall, Derbyshire DE65 6LS www.hansonsauctioneers.co.uk Regulated by RICS

we do degrees... we do hnds... we’ve got low fees there’s no need to go to notts, derby or sheffield... we’re the

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Visit www.chesterfield.ac.uk CountryImagesMagazine.co.uk | 67

Country

PRIZE CROSSWORD

Win a Family Pass to Matlock Farm Park.

Open all year round. Enjoy a wonderful visit in the fresh air and tranquility of the countryside. Pass valid until 2019. T&C’s apply.

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JUNE answer: Ashover

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Across: 1 Spasmodic contraction 4 Outgoing 9 Sudden rise to power 10 Pierced 12 Make merry 13 Truce 16 Eton pupil 18 Three way joint 19 Public relations 20 Egyptian god 21 Outline clearly 23 Anno Domini 24 Short overcoat 27 Kip 28 Knock Out 29 Bike bag 31 Sacred enclosure 34 Climbing vine 35 Make of appliance 36 Ledge 39 Mean 40 Fuel 42 Open out 43 Type of bend 45 Mount? 46 Packing case 47 Single

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Just find the Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire village in the crossword below and send the place name on a postcard to: Crossword Comp.

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W

taste derbyshire hen it comes to curry, I adopt a relaxed ‘Jamie Oliver’ approach and simply chop, chuck, dice and drizzle the contents of my entire store cupboard into a pot until I have something runny enough to stick on some rice.

I draw the line at using the nine-year-old tin of fruit cocktail. I stopped putting fruit in curry after realising tangerine was no substitute for lemon and that banana curry does not appear on your average takeaway menu for a reason. My husband still goes the colour of an unripe banana at the thought of it, 35 years on.

Veena Gost and her spice sister Nilam Wright are behind the Curry on Cooking spice kit - formulated to give British ex-pats their curry fix. They promise that just one masterclass will banish my ‘throw it in and pray’ approach to Indian cooking for good.

It was Veena and Nilam’s flair for cooking – and sense of fun – which made them such popular guests at BBQs in the Murcia region of Spain where Nilam and her family now live.

Veena and Nilam would take along things like pakoras and bhajis and curry-starved ex-pats would grill them about where to buy the spices. One ‘light bulb’ moment later and sisters came up with the idea for the ‘curry kit’ – a spice mix with ‘no hidden nasties’ (chemicals or colours) which comes stapled to a recipe card.

Self-confessed ‘foodie’ journalist Amanda Volley showcases all that is great about food and drink in Derbyshire.

Thcee Sisters

Spi “It was funny we ended up launching a food business as Nilam and I didn’t want to learn anything about cooking as children,” laughs Veena. “My mum is one of the best cooks I have ever come across. The house was always full of people and mum would spend hours preparing a feast inspired by her Northern Indian heritage.

Friends and family were always asking mum for recipes but Nilam and I were focussed on education and careers. From the age of nine, I

wanted to become a journalist – not a housewife.”

Veena says she and Nilam sometimes felt selfconscious about eating different food from their schoolfriends. “Nilam and I were only talking the other day about our trips to Skegness when we’d often be the only Asian family on the beach,” she recalls.

“Mum would be up at 5am to make the most amazing picnics. She’d make things like spicy

pickles and stuffed parathas but Nilam and I wanted to eat fish and chips like everyone else.

Now we appreciate how hard she worked. Spices and other Indian staples were so hard to get in Derby in the 70s – we’d often go to Birmingham or London to stock-up. If anyone offered to bring something from India, mum would ask for something ‘exotic’ like a mango.”

Mum’s cooking was the first thing Veena missed CountryImagesMagazine.co.uk | 69

after starting work in Southampton; “I lived on Derby Road which is fitting because I was always running to the phone box on the corner to ring home,” she recalls. “If I wanted a make a tarka which is a mixture of spices fried in ghee or oil – I’d have to ring my mum and she’d talk me through the processes. Mum couldn’t read me a recipe because she has never written anything down. There’s no teaspoon or tablespoons, just a case of a ‘sprinkle of this, a sprinkle of that’.”

Whatever she says, an instinct for cooking is in Veena’s DNA. As I begin my chicken curry, Veena whips up ‘the best and quickest’ vegetable side-dish of courgette fried in spices. It’s made before I have time to chop a pepper. But what’s truly fascinating is watching Veena ‘fine-tuning’ the flavour. There’s no recipe or measuring; Veena simply stands over the dish holding her spice tray like an artist’s palette - adding the odd pinch or two – until the masterpiece is complete.

Small wonder Veena’s cooking skills were often required when her sister Nilam, husband Darren and son Josh (14), emigrated to Spain in 2009.

“After a short time living in Malaysia, they finally settled in Murcia,” Veena explained.

“I was working for the BBC at the time but would visit them a few times a year. As spices are hard to get in Spain, I’d have to pack a load in my suitcase.

For years, all my holiday clothes smelled of curry.

We’d cook Indian food for our ex-pat friends and they’d tell us how much they really missed it.

People started asking us to cook dishes for them.”

Although the number of Indian restaurants in Spain has increased in the last five years, Veena says they are often too expensive for ex-pats. As for home-cooking, while the Spanish supermarkets and shops stock saffron, paprika and cinnamon; things like coriander, cumin and fenugreek are much harder to get because they are not traditionally used in Spanish dishes.

The sisters suddenly realised that - instead of cooking for friends – they could formulate a few spice mixes to help them cook popular Indian dishes.

“Inspiration struck while house-sitting for someone who had the most fabulous kitchen. Nilam and I don’t travel anywhere without our spice trays and we couldn’t resist the urge to cook” recalls Veena.

“As we started cooking we decided to create a spice mix which could be used by ex-pats to make dishes like Balti and Aloo Gobi. We did little packs of spice, wrote the recipes out in long-hand on a A4 pad and gave them out to our friends for feedback.”

The feed-back was so encouraging, the sisters started to approach traders. “I don’t think the irony hit us at the time but we were Indian girls from Derby looking for ‘English’ corner shops in Spain,” she laughs.

“We also gave a korma curry kit and our instructions to all the foodie friends of ours and 70 | CountryImagesMagazine.co.uk

said we wanted totally honest feedback. One of the most useful comments came from my nephew Josh, who was ten at the time. He did our ‘Bombay potato’ blend and the chunks of potato were far too big and he didn’t wash them. Quite rightly, he said there was nothing about preparing the potatoes in the instructions. We took all the feedback and spent months refining the ingredients and the branding.”

Veena and Nilam both agreed to go easy on the cook – no complicated recipes or hours of preparation required.

“Mum would often spend all day in the kitchen but our motto is ‘KISS’ which stands for ‘Keep it simple sister,” she laughs. “That also applied to our brand and packaging. Nilam and I grew-up in Stenson Fields in Derby. We didn’t want traditional images of women, elephants or swirling paisley patterns on our packaging. We wanted it to be modern and fresh – no gold or pink. Our logo features a crown for our Britishness, on top of a wok which represents our love of Indian food.”

The only thing Veena is strict about is the ordering of the kits. “I have been known to reorganise shop displays as our curries go from mild to medium hot which means the kits should start with Korma and end with Madras,” she laughs. “Just as Ant and Dec always stand in name order – so do our curries.” Veena admits the venture wasn’t without risks. She’d already put money into an organic food delicatessen, while she was living in Manchester, only to see it fail in 2001 due to pressures of the recession.

“After we sold the shop, I did some freelance radio work including part-time shifts at Radio Derby which meant I divided my time between Manchester and my mum’s house in Repton,” Veena explains. “Nilam was breaking into more outlets in Spain and, as we were getting approached by businesses in the UK, I decided to make the curry kits my full-time job. I put my house in Manchester up for rent and moved in with mum.

People sometimes ask how I could bear to give up journalism. I tell them I have had two loves in my life; food and the media. I’m currently working on a cookery book with Nilam which combines both my passions.”

Veena certainly puts her journalistic talents to good use when she’s promoting the products. “I do the press releases, I write columns and recipes in magazines both here and in Spain,” Veena says.

“I recently did a feature on afternoon teas with an Indian twist for the Women’s Institute magazine.

I did things like ‘salmon masala’ and ‘chai tea loaf ’.

We do like to put a bit of fun into our business and even put little messages like ‘that’s a bit saucy’ on our labels. I think that’s why a friend of ours recommended us to a TV company making a reality show in Spain.”

The friend was fitness instructor Anthony ‘Ant’ Horadada, a regular on Channel 5’s reality programme ‘Bargain-hunting Brits in the Sun’. The programme follows various ex-pats who have made a new life in or near Benidorm.

“Nilam lives about an hour down the coast from Benidorm but we knew Anthony as he used to live nearby and we’d drive over to his aqua classes when I was in Spain,” Veena explained.

“Ant is one of our biggest supporters and he told us we had ‘got to do’ the programme. The TV company interviewed us for one day and then filmed us going about our business over three days. The main story thread involved some of Ant’s Fat Fighters coming over to make a curry and some chapatis. It was funny because one of Ant’s ladies said she couldn’t stand hot food – and she had to be dragged away from the table in the end.”

The programme, which was screened in March, gave the sisters’ business an unexpected boost.

“For 48 hours after the screening our on-line sales went through the roof,” smiles Veena. “We were also approached by bars and restaurants in Spain to do cookery demonstrations. The tikka masala masterclass sold 40 tickets straight-away. It’s odd because people keep approaching me to ask for a photograph. The last time I went to see Nilam, I was even asked to pose for a ‘selfie’ on the plane coming home.”

The surge in interest inspired the sisters to expand their business. They are currently adding two new products – Pakora mix and Biriyani rice – to their range.

Talking from Spain, Nilam says she is rushed off her feet; “We are getting some amazing feedback and reviews about our ‘currilicious’ kits,” she laughs. “I am doing a lot of markets and I have great fun myth-busting about curry being unhealthy and fattening. There can be a lot of hidden sugars and fats in the ready-meals, jars and take-aways so it’s rewarding introducing people to a ‘proper’ curry mix which contains no additives, gluten, sugar and certainly no oil slick.”

instruction from Veena, my curry is a world away from my usual ‘nice but bland’ dish. But, as good as it is, Veena’s five-minute curry is the real star of the show. It has that enviable mix of experience, instinct and indefinable ‘magic’ which turn ordinary ingredients into something quite special.

“My dad used to believe in ‘mood food’ which meant eating things to improve your health and well-being and that’s how I cook today,” Veena says.

“Take garlic, did you know it is an aphrodisiac? It will put the va va voom back into your love life.”

“What did you learn?” my husband asks when Veena finally manages to escape from my kitchen.

I avoid all talk of garlic and tell him about how ridiculously easy chapati is to make. I also tell him I ‘may’ invest in my own spice tray.

Or maybe not.

Making two curries (Veena always prepares a wet and dry curry), raita, lemon chilli pickle and flat breads might be a fun way to spend an afternoon.

But, on reflection, popping one of the spice sisters’ mixes onto some meat and adding it to a pan of tinned tomatoes is a much smarter move by far.

For more information about cookery courses and stockists, visit www.curryonccoking.com Email; keepcalm@curryoncooking.com or ring 07884188764

Chicken Curry This is a basic Punjabi style curry – quick and easy for a midweek meal. The cream can be replaced by yoghurt.

This November, the sisters will host their first ever week-long cookery retreat at the up-market Akinon Spa and Resort in La Nucia, near Alicante, Spain. They are also keen to offer cooking demonstrations to groups, private parties and keen individuals.

I can heartily endorse the classes. Although Veena does like to keep her chapati rolling pin in her hand – it’s not used for chastisement; her classes are fun and relaxed. She doesn’t even disapprove of my ‘throw it all in’ and see what happens approach to cookery.

“We all adapt recipes to our own taste,” says Veena.

“The curry I love will be different from my mum’s and my sisters. Also, our spice trays will be personal to us too. Most contain seven spices we love but three or four we cannot live without – mine are black pepper which I often use instead of chilli, fenugreek, my blend of garam masala and halde or turmeric. It’s important to cook with the things you love – although perhaps not tangerines.”

Which is why – other than frying a base sauce from onion, ginger, chilli, garlic and spices and plopping it in a pan with some tomatoes – Veena turns the refining process over to me.

“What is it missing?” she asks repeatedly after urging me to keep tasting, tweaking, perfecting and ‘layering’ the sauce.

The answer is – not much. After a couple of hours

TIME: 30 -40 minutes Serves: 4 Ingredients 750g chicken, diced 3 tablespoons oil 2 garlic cloves finely chopped 2 medium onions chopped 1 inch ginger chopped (optional) ½ can of chopped tomatoes 1 teaspoon turmeric ½ teaspoon black pepper 1 teaspoon of salt 1 teaspoon of garam masala 2 chopped chillies (optional) 8 tablespoons of single cream 3 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice Chopped fresh coriander to garnish

Instructions In a large saucepan heat the oil until hot. Fry the onion and garlic until golden brown, add the fresh ginger along with the tinned tomatoes. Mix and cook for a couple of minutes.

Next stir in the spices, turmeric, salt, garam masala, black pepper and chillies. Cook for 1 minute.

Add the chicken, turn the heat low, mix well and cook the chicken until it turns white and can be shredded with a fork.

If using, stir in the cream and mix well.

Add the lemon juice and cook for a further 3 minutes.

Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.

Garnish with coriander and serve.

CountryImagesMagazine.co.uk | 71

Live Life on the Veg With Riverford Organic Farmers

For working mums, how to balance a healthy lifestyle with the demand of a busy life can be an ongoing anxiety. We are constantly being alerted to the importance of healthy balanced meals both for ourselves and our families. Yet regularly shopping for fresh ingredients, trying to source organic products and even coming up with new and imaginative recipes can take time and quite frankly put us under pressure. So, is there an answer? If so is it practical? Does it work?

Follow me please through 2 days last week as I set off from work and you can draw your own conclusion; I will be brief as I know time is precious.

but worth reading slowly and carefully through before you begin (I added the olives too soon, but it didn’t really matter).

Day 2.

Day 1.

5:00 - left work, it was a pleasant sunny evening and we wanted to spend some time in the garden later.

5:20 - arrived to find a Riverford organic farmers recipe box tucked neatly into the porch.

5:25 - unwrapped the chicken and beef which was ice packed and wrapped in insulation (plastic wrapped sheep’s wool). Put the beef in the fridge and chicken next to the hob with the appropriate box of fresh vegetables, herbs etc.

Had a quick read through the instructions.(This was a mistake, I guessed and should have taken a couple of minutes to read through more thoroughly!)

5:30 - I got all the cooking implements I needed out and began.

5:55- I shouted someone to come and lay the table while I began to dish up 6:00 - We all sat around the kitchen table to enjoy our ‘frying pan Provençal chicken’.

I even had time to load the dishwasher as I served up, and tidy away as I worked.

Comments: The timing on the instructions was spot on. The chicken was already conveniently sliced into strips. White wine, Passata already measured out. Bay leaf, fresh basil, rosemary, garlic, all the things that really make a difference were there ready for you. Clear instructions, 72 | CountryImagesMagazine.co.uk

5:15 - home a little earlier and everything already unwrapped and in the fridge ready to go.

5:45 - ‘Spiced beef and middle eastern quinoa’ successfully prepared and on the table (no mistakes today!).

Comments: This recipe took me out of my comfort zone using herbs and spices that were new to me, so I really enjoyed doing something different and so did the family. The portion sizes too are generous, and even my husband (who I’m sure thinks I’m starving him) was well and truly satisfied.

6:45 - off to aqua-aerobics now.

Day 3.

Checking the website out (this changes regularly so no fear of getting bored) to see what we fancy for our next order, why don’t you do the same?

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CountryImagesMagazine.co.uk | 73

R IC H MOND ASTON-ON- TRE N T RE TI RE M E N T VI L L AGE

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Buying a one- or two-bedroom Village Suite at Richmond Aston-on-Trent means more than just a new home – it means enjoying life in a safe, caring and socially active environment. All of our Village Suites come with a hotel-style package including all meals, daily maid and laundry service leaving you free to enjoy your retirement to the full.

Try Before You Buy From £99* Call our Village Advisors to find out more * Terms and conditions apply

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FACILITIES INCLUDE • Fun, caring & friendly community • Restaurant, bar & café • Wellness Spa & pool • Activities & events team • Landscaped gardens & croquet lawn • Transport service • Care team on site 24 hours a day

14 carefully selected walks around Derbyshire Walk Derbyshire 4 is available through selected outlets around the County for only £2.99!

Wheathills House RESIDENTIAL CARE HOME Just 2 Miles from Mickleover

Located in rural Derbyshire, just 4 miles from Derby city centre and 9 miles from the quaint market town of Ashbourne.

We are very proud to be celebrating our service since 1984 and are devoted to providing “Care, Comfort and Security” for all of our residents.

For more information, contact us on 01332 824600 or by emailing info@wheathillshouse.co.uk

Wheathill House, Brun Lane, Derby. DE6 4LU

or buy on-line at www.walkderbyshire.co.uk

www.wheathillshouse.co.uk

CountryImagesMagazine.co.uk | 75

Styles

to see you through

the season

Staple summer essentials are sunglasses and Frox located in The Courtyard, Draycott Mills, have a great range to suit all tastes. With prices at £22.00 they are perfect for holidays plus a super way of adding the finishing touch to an outfit. For more details regarding their range of summer accessories visit the shop or telephone 01332 875572 www.froxshop.com

The latest style of dresses, tunics, knitwear, tops and t-shirts from Mistral’s UK design team. Beautiful eye-catching prints for your summer wardrobe. Available from Clarkes of Ripley and Belper.

76 | CountryImagesMagazine.co.uk

Situated in the beautiful market town of Ashbourne, Derbyshire is the smart woman’s choice when shopping for great clothes. Second Chance Dress Agency is packed with pre-owned designer labels at a fraction of their original price.

At Second Chance Dress Agency you will find everything from ball gowns to handbags by Marc Jacobs, Jimmy Choo shoes and Moschino Jackets to Valentino cocktail dresses and many exclusive designers from the high street.

Ideal for warm days, Emrico cool summer tops available at Jillian Hart Fashions and now reduced in the Summer Sale with 25% -50% off. For more information regarding the Emreco collection call into the shop at 40-44 Babington Lane, Derby. Telephone 01332 347647

Here Comes Summer

Pre-loved designer ladies clothing and accessories for every occasion

The shop you do not want your friends to find

Always required: Clothing, hats, handbags and accessories. Top commissions paid ring for more details.

DERBYSHIRE’S PREMIER DRESS AGENCY Est. 2006

Tel: 01332 875572 www.froxshop.com

THE

Summer Sale Starts Thursday 5th July 2018 Doors open at 9am

Preview Event Wednesday 4th July. 12pm - 6.30pm

RIPLEY STORE: 8-18 Grosvenor Road, Ripley Tel: 01773 742151

SALE NOW ON Up To

75% OFF

Bargain Rails in all departments, including wedding outfits and evening wear.

Summer Tops from £14.99.

40-44 Babington Lane Derby t: 01332 347647 Opening Times: Monday - Saturday 9.30am - 5.00pm

Two floors of bargains Celebrating over 100 Years

up to

70% off BELPER STORE: 30-32 King Street, Belper DE56 1PS T: 01773 525358 CountryImagesMagazine.co.uk | 77

Soothe and protect sensitive skin with Almond

Almond Sensitive Skin Body Lotion 200ml £16.95 The range is specifically formulated to soothe very sensitive skin, calm skin prone to irritation, provide long-lasting moisturisation and reduce that uncomfortable feeling of tightness. Plant oils from seeds and kernels are precious gifts from nature. The fine almost transparent oil absorbs fast, leaving no feeling of greasiness. Almond oil is renowned for being well tolerated by all skin types, and has a calming, healing effect on skin. The high content of unsaturated fatty acids improves the skin’s barrier function and protects skin against moisture loss.

Soothe, protect and nourish your skin with Weleda’s new bodycare trio: Almond Sensitive Skin Body Lotion (rrp £16.95 200ml) Vegetarian. NATRUE-certified Organic. This fast-absorbing lotion calms skin prone to irritation and helps reduce redness. It provides long lasting moisturisation. Protective organic beeswax sourced from Africa helps strengthen the skin’s own natural barrier, leaving skin with a beautiful soft sheen.The range is free from synthetic ingredients of any kind, mineral oils, artificial additives, preservatives, parabens.

Citrus Hydrating Body Lotion 200ml £16.95 The genuinely natural cleansing agents are made from sugar and coconut, quickly and entirely biodegradable and ecologically-sound even for aquatic life. Free from artificial preservatives or additives of any kind. This refreshes and hydrates skin with organic aloe vera, coconut oil and sesame oil. This cooling lotion is bursting with freshness and moisturisation for supple, beautiful skin, whilst the zesty fragrance of sun-ripened lemons awakens the senses and invigorates the spirit. The warmth of the Mediterranean sun and the nutrient-rich volcanic Sicilian soil produces a truly top quality citrus oil for a top quality lotion.

Evening Primrose Age Revitalising Body Lotion 200ml £24.95

(92% organic Vegan) – evening primrose oil helps smooth and nourish skin, while organic olive and sesame oils protect, and replenishing shea butter helps soften skin. Centella asiatica extract boosts cell regeneration.

For local stockists call 0115 944 8200 or visit www.weleda.co.uk TRIED & TESTED ● TRIED & TESTED ● TRIED & TESTED ● TRIED & TESTED ● TRIED & TESTED ● TRIED & TESTED ● TRIED & TESTED Age Revitalising Body Lotion.

This is rich but not oily, and I liked the hint of sandalwood fragrance which diminished the shea butter. A great pump applicator which is very user friendly. Made my skin feel soft and hydrated especially after being outside in the garden. JP

Almond Body Lotion This glides on easily and absorbs quickly. It left my skin feeling pretty much hydrated for all day which is great. The scent is subtle. I really like this. VP

Citrus Hydrating Body Lotion Weleda Citrus Hydrating Body Lotion has a beautiful fresh scent perfect for spring and summer. It quickly absorbs and is great as a cooling after sun moisturizer. CB

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78 | CountryImagesMagazine.co.uk

Sirdar No1 is an unbelievably soft double knitting crepe yarn, in an amazing palette of 18 shades. It is a double knitting yarn that is perfect for a whole host of knit and crochet projects, and Sirdar have a great range of patterns and designs for each of these. Yarns and patterns from a wide selection of hand craft products at U-duit Creative, Church Street, Ripley.

Styles

Second Chance Dress Agency

to see you through

the season

Established 1977 Designer labels at bargain prices Day wear, occasional wear and accessories stock changes daily No appointments necessary Wed 10-1. Tues,Thur,Fri 10-4.

Saturday 10-5.

Glendair Dental Practice started life in 1910, founded by Albert Bancroft. The name comes from the Scottish word ‘Glen’, a long valley that appears to vanish into the air. It’s also the name of the house on Mansfield Road where the practice originally opened. After Albert Bancroft retired, Glendair had many owners including Ian Hesketh, Liam O’Flynn in 1955, Arthur Michaelson and Denis O’Sullivan. Liam sadly passed away and in 1981, Roger Jenkinson bought out Arthur.

Glendair continued to grow with Bev and Matt joining over the years. Roger Jenkinson and Denis O’Sullivan decided to expand, opening the practice on High Street, South Normanton in December of 1985.

Following Denis’ retirement, the Mansfield Road practice closed. In 2013, the team moved to a former doctor’s surgery on Limes Avenue in Alfreton.

Bev and Matt became the proud owners, taking us to new state-of-the-art premises which now offers our dental patients cosmetic treatments such as teeth whitening, dental crowns, veneers, adult orthodontics, clear braces and dental implants, that can deliver a confidence boosting smile transformation.

19 Church Street Ashbourne Tel:01335 343025

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Dental implants replace missing teeth allowing you to eat and smile with confidence.

Nervous patients welcome. Call us now to book your FREE consultation. * Interest free credit available *

Glendair Dental Practice Limes Avenue, Alfreton, DE55 7DW

01773 832164

www.glendairdental.co.uk CountryImagesMagazine.co.uk | 79

All Aspects Of Plastering Re-Skimming • Dry Lining • Rendering • Artex Removal •Small Repairs to Full Renovations

Patrick O’Neill Plastering Tel: 0780 701 6747 or 01773 434258 Clean Reliable Service

Directory Call 01773 830344 out our Ask ab

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It’s so easy! Not only will a Dream Doors makeover save you £1000s, but you will not have to suffer the stress, upheaval and mess that comes with a traditional refit.

NEW LIFE FOR OLD KITCHENS

Call Steve for your FREE survey & quote on 01332 290600 Showroom Now open at 20 The Strand, Derby, DE1 1BE www.dreamdoors.co.uk

All work carried out by our own skilled craftsmen with over 20 years of experience.

Home visits a pleasure for a Free Quotation for re-upholstery or furniture repair.

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Boasting the latest assistance systems, some of them appearing for the first time in a Volkswagen, the Touareg also offers the option of the new Innovision Cockpit which comprises an intuitive digital operating, information, communication and entertainment unit that can be fully personalised.

Participating Volkswagen Retailers across the UK will offer the New Touareg with a compelling finance offer from launch.

Customers that opt for the Touareg R-Line with a 3.0-litre 286 PS TDI V6 through Volkswagen Financial Services’ Solutions Personal Contract Plan¹ will receive a deposit contribution of £3,000 at 3.3 per cent APR representative. That results in a monthly payment of £499.00.

The 2018 Touareg is the latest milestone in the largest product offensive in Volkswagen’s brand history. The global SUV range, led by the new car, now consists of the new T-Roc, the Tiguan, and the new Tiguan Allspace.

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