feathered visitors to looking ahead to a big anniversary, and audio soundscapes perfect for long winter’s evenings

Snow is on the way

Snow, the second chapter of audio artwork Voices From The Peak is to be launched online in December. Voices From The Peak is the poetic soundscape that is being created to celebrate the upcoming 70th anniversary of the Peak District National Park, on 17th April, 2021.

Recording artist Mark Gwynne Jones says: “The first chapter, Burning Drake, tells the story of forces underground that have shaped not just the landscape but also its people. It includes the story of lead, how miners tracked and found lead through ancient methods such as plant lore and dowsing, and occasionally by spectacular means such as a ‘Burning Drake’ or shooting star.

“Chapter two is all about snow and features people’s stories and memories No moor fires A Moors for the Future Partnership case study has calculated the carbon cost of an accidental fire at the Roaches, Staffordshire which happened in August 2018. The blaze was started by a campfire that got out of control and burned 61 hectares of precious blanket bog habitat and a deep layer of carbon-rich peat. It burned for days and required 12 fire appliances and a helicopter to put it out. It is estimated that the fire released over 11,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2), equivalent to running 1,426 homes for one year – that’s about the size of a town like Bakewell. You can read more here

https://bit.ly/3nUpFKv

Unfortunately accidental moorland fires have occurred too often, with devastating impacts on the peat and wildlife. With the National Park receiving hundreds of thousands of visitors since lockdown eased, and many people visiting the countryside for the first time, we need everyone’s help to keep the moors safe from fires.

Here are three easy rules everyone should follow to prevent fires: 1. Do not light campfires or barbecues in the countryside. 2. Do not drop lit cigarette ends or throw them from your car. 3. Do not leave glass bottles. Take your litter home.

For more advice on visiting the National Park, go to www.peakdistrictproud.co.uk and be #PeakDistrictProud of big winters in the Peak. Such as the Big Freeze in ’61 when Fernilee Reservoir froze feet deep for weeks on end; or the massive snowfalls of ’48 when livestock perished. We also hear how some were forced to access their homes through bedroom windows: ‘sliding down drifts into the yard ‘cos all around the house was buried’. We hear how people survived, what they did and what resources they drew upon. So get your scarf and gloves, this is going to be a winter adventure!”

The work is supported by Arts Council England, Peak District National Park Authority and Derbyshire County Council.

You can listen to chapter one: Burning Drake at www.peakdistrict.gov.uk/ voicesfromthepeak Headphones recommended! Chapter two: Snow will

Highways England wants to hear your views on the A57 Link Roads scheme, part of the Trans Pennine upgrade to improve journeys between Manchester and

Sheffield.

The wider Trans-Pennine Upgrade project aims to improve key bottlenecks on the existing route connecting the M67 at

Mottram, in Longdendale, to the M1, north of Sheffield. This consists of the Westwood roundabout and technology scheme near

Sheffield, which is already being delivered, and the Trans Pennine Upgrade – A57 Link

Roads, which includes the creation of a new single carriageway link from the A57(T) at

Mottram Moor to a new junction on the

Voices From the Peak chapter 2 Snow audio artwork is available in December.

be available to download in December. Chapter three: Kinder will be available in April 2021.

To contribute a story or audio clip to support the new chapters of the Voices From The Peak, or to be informed when they are released and future performances, please

You can comment on proposed plans to improve traffic flows.

Have your say on A57 link roads

email: alison.riley@peakdistrict.gov.uk A57 at Woolley Bridge.

The community-wide consultation will take place from 5th November to 17th December, 2020. It will focus on changes to the A57 Link Roads scheme since the last consultation in 2018, including: improvements to the design and anticipated environmental impacts.

The Highways England preliminary environmental information report will be available online as part of the consultation material to assist well-informed responses to the consultation.

For more information visit:

www.highwaysengland.co.uk/ A57-upgrade

The Trespass Walking Group.

It’s our milestone birthday – help us celebrate!

Next year will mark 70 years since the Peak District was designated as the first of the UK’s now 15 national parks. Whilst we’ll be blowing out the candles ahead of anyone else on 17th April, we share our anniversary accolades with the Lake District, Snowdonia and Dartmoor national parks too.

To help us reflect on the last seven decades, we’ll be celebrating this milestone birthday with a series of monthly themes across the year and by bringing together a very special range of stories from the people behind the Peak District.

Although there remains some Plans to trial a ‘virtual supermarket’ in the Hope Valley have been supported with a £550 Communities Small Grant through the Peak District National Park Authority.

The ‘virtual supermarket’ is being planned by Hope Valley Green Ventures uncertainty over the type of events we may be able to hold in the months ahead, we hope to meet with as many of you as possible throughout 2021.

GET INVOLVED

As we head towards our birthday celebrations, we’d love to hear your stories from the last 70 years of the Peak District; maybe your memorable first visit, a job you loved, a thrilling wedding proposal or a treasured family photograph. Send your stories to media@peakdistrict.gov.uk (please note we may be unable to receive very large attachments by email, so please

Grant supports plans for ‘virtual supermarket’

use file drop services where possible). to help traditionally shopfront-based local businesses provide a new combined shopping and delivery service, using electric vehicles.

Hope Valley Green Ventures is a Community Benefit Society.

OBITUARY: JOHN FOSTER CBE

John Foster CBE, former Peak District National Park Director and Planning Officer (equivalent to Chief Executive today) died aged 99, on 6th July, 2020. He worked for the National Park from 1951 to 1968. John Foster CBE. Here is an extract of an interview with John Foster (ParkLife, 2011):

“In the 1950s we were national park pioneers, breaking in new legislation that had never been used before. Rural car parks, picnic sites and information booths were all new and important, as even then the Peak District was a busy place. National park visitor centres were unheard of until Fred Heardman set up a big table and filled it with information in the best room of his pub, the Nags Head, in Edale in 1954. ‘People management,’ as it was called, had never been used before in the countryside; we take it for granted now and expect certain facilities to a standard, but then it was new.”

John Foster left the Peak District National Park to become the first Director of the Scottish Countryside Commission, where he remained until he retired in 1985.

Tree felling to tackle disease

Visitors to the Goyt Valley are being asked to observe any temporary closures to footpaths as work gets underway to remove trees affected by Phytophera.

The disease – which has impacted both larch and sweet chestnut trees – cannot be treated, and infected specimens must be felled and removed or cut-back to avoid future damage to adjacent healthy trees.

The work is a legal requirement under a Statutory Plant Notice, and will be undertaken by Forestry England, with the National Park Authority working with teams to minimise impact on the area and support re-planting schemes that continue to compliment the landscape features of the area in the future.

As other areas within the Peak District are surveyed, additional felling to safeguard local woodlands from Phytophera may also get underway.

More information can be found at

www.peakdistrict.gov.uk/faqs

RAPTOR REWARD

OFFERED

We’ve joined Staffordshire police, the RSPB, Natural England and others in calling for information from the public that will support a police investigation after four separate bird of prey poisoning incidents in and around the National Park earlier this year. Following the cases, involving peregrines (pictured) and a buzzard, the RSPB have also offered a £1,000 reward. Analysis of the birds affected in the incidents found all four were illegally killed with the same pesticide - with at least two of the incidents involving pigeon bait laced with the poison.

Condemning the actions of those responsible, Peak District National Park chief executive Sarah Fowler said: “The nature of poisoning witnessed in these cases is deeply worrying for species both within and outside our National Park boundary. These incidents are particularly concerning in a year where many birds of prey – including the peregrine falcon – have successfully bred in other areas.

We will continue to support the police in their investigations, and welcome any information from the public that may help capture those involved and bring them to justice.” Anyone with information is urged to contact the police via Crimestoppers on

0800 555 111.

Raising the roof at Millers Dale station

Despite the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, work has continued on the Millers Dale Goods Shed renovation, with the roof structure now fully installed and the painstaking work of bringing the stonework back to its former glory almost complete.

The coming weeks will see the reinstallation of the huge access doors, as the building finally begins to enter a new chapter that echoes to the sounds of its past as a crucial part of the bustling Millers Dale railway hub. Although some uncertainties remain due to Covid-19, we hope to welcome visitors to the Goods Shed once again during 2021, as we celebrate our anniversary year.

Junior Rangers hard at work building a stone wall.

Looking after landscapes with our Junior Rangers

Covid-19 restrictions may have limited their work this year, but the Peak District’s junior rangers have still played a part in looking after our landscapes.

During the summer, two junior rangers were in consultation with the Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA), giving feedback on potential messaging. The junior rangers gave valuable input about litter. Their suggestions included: • Teaching about litter and respect for the environment as part of the National

Curriculum in both primary and secondary schools; • Revitalising/improving the popular 1970s

Wombles anti-litter messages; • Encourage families and young adults to take their litter home. The Peak District Bird of Prey Initiative’s (BoPI) interim report of September announced encouraging news on the 2020 nesting season for several species in the National Park’s uplands.

Collaboration between landowners, gamekeepers and raptor workers saw peregrine falcons record their best year in a decade with 14 fledged young, including at new sites. Up to 17 fledged goshawks was a rise on 12 young from 2019, whilst merlin numbers continued to remain relatively stable.

Despite having a breeding presence in

Junior rangers also joined Peak District National Park ranger Rob Kenning for a socially-distanced walk and talk event above Monksdale, enjoying views across Chee Dale.

Meanwhile, a Junior Ranger Plus event gave teenagers an introduction to dry stone walling and the chance to build a practice wall at Marsh Farm at Meerbrook, near Leek.

Junior Ranger Plus brings together junior rangers, aged 16 to 18, from Peak District National Park and partner organisations to increase their knowledge, widen experiences and look at leadership skills.

Find out more at:

https://www.peakdistrict.gov.uk/

VISITING VULTURE PROVES A HIT

learning-about/junior-rangers

the Peak District in recent years, hen harriers were not recorded as nesting during the summer this year.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the season, however, was the arrival of a bearded vulture or lammergier – the largest bird of prey ever to grace Peak District skies. Understood to be a female from a breeding programme in the Alps who had made her own way to our shores, the remarkably rare visitor delighted crowds in both the Upper Derwent Valley and Longdendale, before finally making her away across to the east of the country in early autumn.