Four year old Christine from Furness Vale was excited to see the bauble she had decorated at Bridgemont Nursery. It helped to make the nursery’s all-white tree one of the star exhibits at the annual Christmas Tree Festival in Holy Trinity church, Whaley Bridge. The festival attracted many visitors, including Santa Claus with a real life reindeer on one of the three days.

Children in Whaley Bridge have been preparing a surprise for Santa Claus, who arrives this Friday night (Friday, 28 Nov) by narrowboat at the Canal Basin for the Christmas lights switch-on.

For the last few weeks, they have been making lanterns of all shapes and sizes, with the help of mums and dads. One dad, Lucas Jones, helped his daughters Eve, 9, and Lily, 7, along with their friend Jessica, 8, to construct a giant star (see picture). They held it up triumphantly, the tissue paper over the cane frame still wet from layers of glue.

On Friday night, they will spring their starry surprise on Santa. The children will walk in procession with their lanterns lit, starting at 5.15pm from Old Road outside Nimbus Antiques, and then going down the Whaley Incline. This is the former Cromford and High Peak railway line, now a walkway between Old Road, near the Shepherd’s Inn, with the Canal Basin.

Santa arrives at 6pm, then walks to his grotto in Footsteps drop in centre. The Christmas tree lights, in the Jodrell car park, will be switched on at 7pm. Carol singing by the crowd will be accompanied by Whaley Bridge Band.

There’s a new, vivid welcome in the entrance of St James’ primary school, Kettleshulme: a ceramic cross full of images and messages about the school’s place in the community, and the values and beliefs of this church school. The cross was the work of children from Years 5 and 6 – their ‘leaver’s project’ which has become a tradition at St James’.

The school called in the services of artist Jane Dixon from Shropshire last summer. At a three day workshop with the 15 children involved, ideas were discussed, sketches examined and models made in clay for Jane to take back to her kiln to be fired and glazed, and eventually put together on the cross. There are images of fellow pupils, local people (the school has a tradition of helping in the community) and animals and wildlife all around in the rural setting.

The cross was blessed by the Rev Margaret Jones, priest in charge of Whaley Bridge parish and a governor at the school.

The children also designed ‘patchwork’ pots and mobiles in ceramic. School head Paul Quirk and teacher Hazel Hindle, who headed the project, were full of praise for the children’s work: “When they come back years from now, their cross will still be here.”

Legal moves by the campaign group Whaley Bridge Matters (WBM) have succeeded in putting on hold controversial plans for a 107 home estate on a greenfield site. Campaigners are hailing this as an opportunity for High Peak Borough Council planners to look again at the application, giving proper consideration to the strong arguments against it raised by the local community.

The council’s planning department has indicated that it is their intention to present a report to the Development Control Committee in December 2014 or January 2015, addressing points raised by WBM. This is the committee which, in August, voted to give outline planning permission for the estate on a site off Linglongs Road, close to the National Park boundary. Campaigners were prompted to consult lawyers, who challenged the legality of the council’s decision and failures in the processes they had followed.

Francesca Read, who addressed the Development Control Committee on behalf of WBM prior to the vote in August, said: “We welcome the rethink. It gives the council an opportunity to look again at the way they disregarded strong community feelings, how they failed to look adequately at valid points being raised by local people. The community feel they were just swept aside.”

The legal challenge included
* concerns about highways safety around the site, especially Linglongs Road and Macclesfield Road, citing the danger to pedestrians;
* the council’s failure to take account of material considerations, including the impact of the development on residents and the ability of the site to deliver so many houses; and

* the council’s failure to properly assess the merits of the application in light of public concerns. Continue Reading →

If you go down to St James’ on Saturday, 27 September, you can be sure of a big surprise. Teddy bears on parachutes will be dropping from the 40ft tower of the ancient church at Taxal, to the delight of children and famIlies.

Last year 40 children brought along favourite teddies, all of whom survived the drop,before an impromptu ‘teddy bear picnic’ of tea and cakes.

Children bringing a teddy along will be given a square of material and string, and some guidance, to make their parachute. Dave Graham, a local potholder, will climb up the inside of the tower, then lower a basket on a rope to collect the teddies one by one. He will drop them into a waiting blanket below to be reunited with the owner.

One of the organisers Jean Oldbury said: “It’s a fun event, so we hope lots of children come along. We’ve never lost a teddy yet!”

The charge is £2 per child. The event lasts from 2-4pm. Last year part of the proceeds were sent to Manchester’s Royal Children’s Hospital

Heritage Sunday this weekend (14 Sep) is always special at St James’ church, Taxal, one of the most historic in the High Peak. Members of the public can drop in for a cup of tea and biscuits from 12.30 midday to 4pm, and examine the beautiful windows. Afternoon teas are also available at £3.50 each.

The Sunday Strollers, a group of walkers based at the Uniting Church in WhaleyBridge, will be supporting Heritage Sunday. David Frith will lead a group for what he calls “a gentle, three mile, two hour stroll in the Goyt Valley.”

Members of the public are invited to join them. Meet at St James at 2pm, back about 4pm in time for tea. David can be contacted on 01663 732 706.

St James is the venue for the annual children’s favourite, the Teddy Bears’ Parachute Drop from the church tower on Saturday 27 September, 2-4pm.

Whaley Bridge’s garden show, last of the town’s big summer events, was a great success. Good summer weather had provided some bumper vegetable specimens, with giant cucumbers and onions, well developed parsnips, some very fine dahlias and that Whaley favourite, monstrous marrows.

Tomatoes, too, were outstanding. They brought back golden memories for veteran grower Eric Townend. The 82-year-old, at Whaley Bridge bowling club to judge vegetable entries, remembered vividly a truss of 16 tomatoes he had grown to win a blue ribbon for best in show at the Whaley event 50 years ago to the day.

Eric, a machine operator at Ferodo for 35 years, brought along his carefully preserved blue ribbon from Saturday 5 September, 1964, when the Whaley show was held in the old parish hall opposite Holy Trinity church. In his winning truss were 15 red and one green tomato.

Eric recalls: “Home-grown tomatoes are much better than bought ones. You can put them in the fridge for a month, and they are still perfect. I was able to show my truss at Buxton a week later and a few days after that at Burbage. They won best of show two more times.”

A golden anniversary, indeed. Eric is still growing tomatoes at his Buxton home: in a plastic tunnel and a greenhouse.

Tomato man: Eric Townend with 2014 tomatoes on his golden day

Some white dahlias, winner of best in show, were admired by visitors. Gena Slater, the show’s treasurer, and committee member Loraine Coverley, took time out to enjoy the perfect blooms. The show also featured fruit – a good year for apples – and children’s inventive creations. Who would imagine a banana, with a strategic knife cut, could look like a dolphin? Home produced honey, jams and baking were a treat for the judge who naturally had to taste them all!

Enjoying the show-stoppers : Gena Slater and Loraine Coverley admire winning dahlias

Is it a banana, is it a dolphin?

Homage to the Bowling Club, home of the show.

A good year for Apples.

Whaley Bridge campaigners, still in shock over planning permission being given to a 107 homes estate on a greenfield site, are fighting back. Whaley Bridge Matters (WBM), the group set up in January to try to stop the development on fields bordered by Macclesfield Road and Linglongs Road, has taken legal advice which could lead to a Judicial Review over how the planning committee’s decision was reached.
The campaigners raised hundreds of pounds from a ‘whip round’ among nearly 200 supporters to seek the legal advice.

WBM chair Kevin Worthington said: “We were all disappointed with the committee’s decision, after all the hard work we had done since January. Our supporters were wonderfully generous in getting together the money for the legal advice.

“Our grounds for challenging the decision are linked to not only the process generally , but also problems of access to any new estate. The community has been very upset over the dangers from increased traffic, especially the latest proposed access on Macclesfield Road near a blind bend. If necessary, we are ready to raise more money should it come to a full Judicial Review with legal costs to be met.”

Gladman Developments, a large company from Congleton, announced their project just before Christmas last year.

The proposed estate on a greenfield site, used over the years as a play area for local children and a prime walking route to the Goyt Valley, provoked outrage. A protest march, which appeared on BBC TV, was followed by months of campaigning, with support from other areas in the High Peak. At one stage, the Whaley Bridge site only stayed in the council’s Local Plan for future housing needs by just one vote.

The Uniting Church Partnership in Whaley Bridge, Fernilee and Kettleshulme is to get a new minister. American-born Rev Keith Sandow will be welcomed at an induction service in the Whaley Bridge church at 10.30am on Sunday (31 Aug).

Keith is a native of Atlanta, Georgia. He achieved a BA in music at university in Cleveland. Later, at Emory University, he received a Masters of Divinity degree. At one time, he studied under the legendary Archbishop Desmond Tutu and was once an intern at the Jimmy Carter Centre in Atlanta. He received an award for volunteer work in the Ecuador rainforest.

Keith came to Britain in 1999 and served in the Sale Methodist circuit. He was ordained into the British Methodist Church in 2002, serving as a superintendent minister at Ashton under Lyne for eight years.

Keith is the second American to lead a church in Whaley Bridge in recent years. Rev Cheri Pinner was priest in charge of the Church of England parish until two years ago.

Whaley Bridge people are being invited by the local branch of the Royal British Legion to attend a candle vigil, between 10pm-11pm at the  Cenotaph in Memorial park on Monday 4 August, the centenary of the start of World War I.

“The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.”  Words spoken by Sir Edward Grey, Foreign Secretary in August 1914.

Everyone in the UK is invited to take part in LIGHTS OUT by turning off their lights from 10pm to 11pm on Monday, August 4– leaving only a single light or candle for this symbolic act of reflection and hope, to mark the 100th Anniversary of the date Great Britain entered the First World War.

You can take part in this national moment of reflection at the newly refurbished Cenotaph in Whaley Bridge Memorial Park.  Members of the Royal British Legion will be holding a candle-lit vigil around the Cenotaph to mark the Centenary between 10pm and 11pm on 4 August 2014.

You can bring your own candle or a special Centenary Candle, available from your local Marks and Spencer. All profits from the sale of Centenary Candles will support serving members of the Armed Forces, veterans of all ages and their families.

Come and join the event at the Memorial Park in Whaley Bridge and pay your respects to all those who sacrificed their lives during this conflict.

For more information:

http://www.britishlegion.org.uk/remembrance/ww1-centenary/lights-out

Candles will be lit and extinguished at 11pm. People are asked to bring a candle or torch.

Earlier in the evening, there will be another commemoration of the centenary. Muffled bells for mourning will ring out from St James’,  Taxal, from 7pm.

Mystery of the poppies in the park as Centenary approaches

USERS of Whaley Bridge’s Memorial Park are mystified by the sudden flowering of red poppies on a grassy bank in front of the Cenotaph, only days before the centenary of the start of World War I.

The distinctive white Cenotaph was controversially unavailable for Remembrance Day services last year and in 2012, because of extensive work in the park.  After restoration, it was rededicated in May.

A few scattered red poppies were first noticed in mid-July.  Since then, they have increased, to the amazement of walkers in the park.

Park ranger Paul Evans said: ” We can only assume that disturbance of the soil when the memorial was brought back has somehow awakened seeds in the ground.  Maybe years ago,someone planted red poppy seeds as a personal tribute, and they have been dormant in the ground, but not flowering until now.”

Local people have asked Paul not to cut the grass until the poppy flowering season is over.  Regular users of the park say they have never seen poppies there before.

The park was given to the people of Whaley Bridge in the 1920s by the Jodrell family, local landowners.