Best wishes to Hartington community champion as she steps down as prominent group chair

Good wishes are being sent to a community champion in Hartington after she’s stepped down as chair of a busy local organisation.

Liz Broomhead MBE has been at the helm of the Hartington Community Group (HCG) since it was formed back in 2011.

HCG provides advice and funding to local causes, as well as supporting over 30 groups and activities in the village including for sport, music, history, art, crafts, and community initiatives such as litter picking, the village trail and the environment.

The team of volunteers also coordinates celebrations for events across the village including national Royal commemorations, and provides support to others such as the wells dressings, harvest festival and Christmas.

Liz said: ‘It is not who you are but what you do! And there certainly a lot of “doers,” and always has been, in this far-reaching community. Doers get rid of barriers, create opportunities and share knowledge; people are the key not money.’

Keith Quine, member of HCG and chair of trustees at the Village Hall, said: ‘It has been heart-warming to see the steady growth of the Community Group to the current point in time where an unusually wide range of activities are available to our community of 300. Such a diverse range now reflects our community needs, reducing the need for residents to travel to urban centres, and brings together the range of experiences and skills of volunteers.

‘Liz, as chair, has provided inspirational and energetic leadership and will continue to play a significant part in the life of our community. All within our community owe her a deep sense of gratitude for her commitment to help others.’

Liz stepped down from her role during a meeting on Wednesday 8th February, where she passed the baton to Phillip Neal.

Phillip commented: ‘Liz leaves a tremendous legacy, and one that I hope I can continue to build upon. I’m personally grateful as the new chair for all of the help and guidance Liz has given to me and will continue to ask for that guidance I’m sure on a regular basis!’

Find out more about HCG.

Hartington voluntary group honoured with district award

Martin Townsend, chair of trustees for Derbyshire Dales CVS presents the award to Liz Broomhead MBE, HCG’s chair – photo taken by Stuart Hitch

A group of volunteers in Hartington working to bring people together with activities and events has been awarded for its efforts.

Hartington Community Group (HCG) received the Derbyshire Dales Council for Voluntary Service (CVS) Annual Award in celebration of its achievements and commitment.

Since it was founded in 2011, HCG has provided advice and funding to community causes, as well as supporting over 30 local groups and activities including the Rural Social Group; Wriggles and Giggles for pre-school children and their parents; and chair Pilates.

HCG also coordinates village-wide activities such as the Platinum Jubilee celebrations in 2022, and the King’s Coronation this year.

More than 40 people attended the monthly Rural Social Group on Tuesday 24^th January to see Martin Townsend, chair of trustees for Derbyshire Dales CVS present the award to Liz Broomhead MBE, HCG’s chair.  

The Rural Social Group is for rural residents including retired and semi-retired farmers and family members, to meet for tea and a chat with meals out and guest speakers. It’s hosted in partnership with The Farming Life Centre in Bakewell, and part funded by CVS.

Martin said: ‘We were first introduced to Hartington Community Group via the Farming Life Centre as they had set up rural social groups in the area to offer somewhere to meet for a chat and a brew with others from a farming or rural background.

‘We had met Liz before, through contact with the Hartington Young People’s Activity Club and we soon discovered what a key contact she would prove to be! Hartington is very lucky to have such a good network of organisations in the village and such a great group of people: real do-errs in their community – and Liz is one of those.

‘The Hartington Community Group continues to be very popular which is testament to the effort that goes into running it by all volunteers – they must be doing something right!’

Liz commented: ‘We are absolutely delighted and very proud to have received this award from the Dales CVS. We look forward to continuing our fantastic relationship with the CVS to ensure we can support events, activities and groups that local people care about and love, long into the future.’

Derbyshire Dales CVS exists to promote strong, sustainable and healthy communities through voluntary and community action.

For more information: 

• Hartington Community Group
• Rural Social Groups in Hartington, Boylestone and Ashford in the Water
• Derbyshire Dales CVS

Community spirit! National Lottery grant sees Hartington people coming together again after Covid-19

A grant of over £1,000 has supported the revival of community activities and games in Hartington, following the Covid-19 pandemic.

Trustees from the village’s Community Group were delighted to receive £1,180 from the National Lottery Community Fund.

The financial support has allowed local people to get together again following 18 months of restrictions and lockdowns, at community sessions at the Village Hall on Hyde Lane.

Activities include chair-based Pilates, and games afternoons utilising table tennis, new age curling equipment and indoor bowls.

The rural social group has also resumed, which hosts a range of speakers to stimulate memories of local traditions including dry stone walling, cheese making and a historical feature based on ‘who lived in my house.’

Liz Broomhead MBE, chair of the Community Group, said: ‘We were absolutely delighted to receive news of our successful grant application, to restart community activities safely in the wake of Covid-19. Over the past year, the trustees and management group have worked hard to renovate the beloved 100-year-old Village Hall, with a new roof, heating system and decoration. We were all set to show off the improvements at the community facility; for the return of our previous groups, and to welcome new ones. This generous funding has made this all possible, and we are so grateful to the National Lottery Community Fund for supporting the village.’

Theresa Hannan, chair-based Pilates instructor, said: ‘Those who have attended my group have improved their technique, strength and stability, and they take on different movements and balances each week. The classes are very adaptable and everyone works to their own level, with pieces of small
equipment to add extra challenge and fun.’

Penny Jones, a participant, added: ‘I have felt the benefits of these sessions both physically and mentally. We enjoy the session which is delivered in such a positive way; we feel confident and are encouraged to achieve more.”

Kath Bassett, a long-standing member of the rural social group, commented: ‘I look forward very much to these Tuesday sessions – it is so good to see people, have a good natter and a laugh. The cake isn’t bad either.’

Find out more about activities and sessions at Hartington Village Hall.

The National Lottery Community Fund distributes over £600m a year to communities across the UK, raised by players of The National Lottery. Learn more.

Hartington volunteer gives thanks after scooping special county award

A charity trustee in Hartington has passed on his sincere thanks to fellow volunteers and local residents, after winning a Support Staffordshire award.

Keith Quine, chairman of the trustees and management group at Hartington Village Hall, won the Trustee of the Year accolade in the Staffordshire Moorlands virtual awards ceremony on Tuesday 8th June.

Volunteer Keith has donated hundreds of hours of his time to improve facilities and activities at the much-loved Village Hall on Hyde Lane, including creating a community hub with books and IT equipment, and fundraising to restore the building’s leaky roof.

Liz Broomhead MBE, fellow volunteer and neighbour, nominated Keith for the award. Liz explained: ‘Keith has worked tirelessly to make the Village Hall an even better space for local people to meet, work and enjoy clubs and sessions. He thoroughly deserves this award and I am delighted that his hard work for our community has been recognised.’

Keith said: ‘I am shocked and humbled to have won the Support Staffordshire award, and I am grateful to Liz for nominating me. However, what we have achieved in Hartington in recent times has been very much a team effort and we could not have done it without the dedication, passion and enthusiasm of dozens of local residents and their incredible teamwork.

‘Sincere thanks to our main sponsors who have enabled projects to go ahead by providing grant funding, including the South West Peak Landscape Partnership, National Heritage, the Bingham Trust and Duke of Devonshire’s Charitable Trust. Mostly, thank you to everyone who has supported our drive to make our Village Hall a fit place for our community.’

Upcoming events and projects at the Village Hall include ‘Hartington Celebrates!’ on Saturday 21st August, and the replacement of the 50-year-old heating system before the end of the year. Find out more.

Support Staffordshire is a membership organisation for the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector across the county. Find out more about other local award winners.

Wild about the community in Hartington! New intergenerational project to see wildlife habitat created

Schoolchildren in Hartington are working alongside older members of the local community to create new wildlife and insect habitats.   

Pupils from Hartington C of E Primary School are taking part in the Archbishop of York Youth Trust Young Leaders Award, aimed at building leadership skills and character, growing confidence and empowering youngsters to serve their communities.   

Children are working closely with local residents as part of the inter-generational project, to plan and deliver two community action projects within Covid safety guidelines.   

Two new wildflower and insect-rich habitats are being created within the school grounds on The Dale, and in the village. Displaying the school’s vision and ethos of ‘loving our neighbour as we love ourselves,’ children chose to dedicate one of the wildflower areas to Bel Kerr, a late and much-loved resident of the village. It has affectionately been named ‘The Blue Bel Garden.’  

Pupils are also taking part in a programme to support the wider community’s commitment to tackling litter and fly tipping.  

Tracy Blackwell, head teacher, said: ‘The connectivity with our amazing village community always has been an essential part of school life, but it’s been so vitally important during the past year of the pandemic. 

‘During lockdowns, the children thought of imaginative ways to keep in touch with local residents including writing letters, making activity cards and videos, and turning our annual fundraising event for Macmillan into a virtual afternoon tea where residents received a box of treats delivered to their door and a personalised card from pupils.  

‘Since January, we’ve been thinking about opportunities where we can start to establish some safe ways of reconnecting with our local village by being actively involved in community projects.  

‘The Blue Bel Garden in memory of Mrs Kerr was a spontaneous act of remembrance and it demonstrated the children’s genuine affection for this much-loved and respected member of the local community. 

‘We’re really excited to be taking part in the Archbishop of York Youth Trust Award and look forward to working with knowledgeable, passionate and kind local residents to make sure that Hartington remains an inspirational location to learn, live and visit.’  

An older pupil commented: ‘We have enjoyed working with members of the community prior to the pandemic and keeping in touch with them via letters during the lockdowns. This helped to ensure everyone’s mental health and wellbeing. Being in isolation from our friends and families was very lonely, sad, and sometimes depressing, so we are all really excited and looking forward to working with our community again.’  

Find out more about school activities and keep in touch.

‘Don’t be a tosser’ – Hartington volunteers urge people to stop littering as they pick up items including a fire extinguisher and walking boots!

Volunteers in Hartington are pleading with the public to pick up their dog mess and not to drop rubbish, as they crackdown on littering across the village.

Twenty-eight volunteers from the village’s Community Group decided to take action and organise a litter pick. They are raising real concerns for the potential of serious diseases to be transmitted to animals and people because of dog faeces.

Five pairs of volunteers collected 14 sacks of litter in a mere 24-hour period along a section of the B5054 route, which runs from the A515 Buxton to Ashbourne road, through the village.

The team has also erected emotive signage to ask people ‘why are you tossing your litter around here?’ With answers including ‘I’m lazy, I don’t care about the community, I think other people should pay to clean up after me.’ There are also new signs to request that dog owners pick up their pets’ faeces.

Keith Quine has been involved with the efforts and explains: ‘Local residents and members of the Community Group were already collecting litter during their daily walks, and so this initiative gives extra stimulus knowing that many people from the community share a concern for the quality of our environment.

‘While much of the litter is historical, sadly there is plenty of evidence of recent littering. The vast bulk of rubbish is discarded drink cans, plastic bottles and crisp packets, though a mobile phone, fire extinguisher, two right foot walking boots, many broken bottles, discarded tyres and other vehicle parts were also collected.

‘The verges of the main thoroughfare, the B5054, showed the greatest concentration of litter, but surrounding roads near popular walking routes including Leisure Lane, Reynards Lane and Long Dale were also unpleasant, and there has been an alarming increase in dog poo.

‘Apart from the litter and dog faeces detracting from the appearance of our environment, there is a significant health hazard to both domestic and wild animals as well as to children. Dog mess can lead to parvo, a potentially fatal disease that is transferred between dogs, but the key health issue is that it can lead to toxocariasis in humans. This can result in seizures, stomach upsets, sore throats, breathing difficulties such as asthma, and eye problems. Typically it leads to a very red and painful eye, and clouded vision. If it isn’t treated, it can lead to permanent blindness in the affected eye.

‘There is rightly concern amongst the community that once lockdown is lifted, the village will see a surge in visitor numbers, like it experienced in-between restrictions last year, and that sadly this will be an ongoing issue. We are politely pleading with people to please think about the countryside and the residents who live there during their next visit, and to take their litter home!’

Find out more and support the Community Group.

New community hub in Hartington thanks to amazing volunteer efforts

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Residents in Hartington are set to enjoy the benefits of a brand new community hub, making use of a recently renovated area of the Village Hall.

The Lower Bakehouse, linked to the 90-year-old Village Hall, had effectively become a storage room for equipment that didn’t have a home elsewhere.

Local volunteers set to refurbish the stone building, turning the ground floor into a community space for everyone to enjoy- stripping plasterwork, decorating the walls and building bookshelves. The first floor houses a meeting room and a large collection of historical resources about the community.

The project was awarded a grant worth over £1,460 from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport in partnership with the National Lottery Community Fund earlier this year. This cash boost has enabled the installation of computer workstations, more bookcases, a coffee table, heater and projection facilities.

Keith Quine, who has been involved with the project, said: ‘We are so proud that the community hub at the Lower Bakehouse is now a warm and friendly space for villagers to meet for a chat over a cup of tea, to browse magazines or access IT facilities –when it is safe to do so of course!

‘This new space will benefit well-established groups such as Hartington Young Peoples Activity Club (HYPAC) and the History Group. Recently, the community Facebook page has seen considerable interest in the posting of images from the halcyon days of the Cheese Factory, as well as other buildings in and around the village. One new opportunity will be for villagers with long memories to view these and other resources in comfort, and to build on the social history of the community.

‘We hope that local residents who do not have IT facilities will become increasingly familiar with the technology and, with the support of members of Digital Hartington, become able to use IT for a range of purposes such as using Zoom to have regular contact with distant family members.’

‘None of this would have been possible without the involvement of volunteers who have given their time and expertise to bring about the transformation of a neglected space, together with the numerous families who have donated books and CDs. My sincere thanks to everyone involved.’

Keep up to date with what’s going on in Hartington.

Raising the roof in Hartington

Residents in Hartington are celebrating the completion of work to repair the roof of a much-loved local building.

Local volunteers first came together in January 2018 to start discussions about the need to restore the leaky, asbestos roof tiles on the 90-year-old Village Hall.

More than £30,000 was raised to fund the project. The community of just 300 residents itself raised £14,000 in just 18 months, through a number of fundraising initiatives including Open Gardens; supper and auction evenings at the Charles Cotton Hotel; a disco event; and a lottery with a prize total of £1,800.

Trustees were also delighted to receive grant funding of £10,000 from the South West Peak Landscape Partnership supported by The Heritage Fund; £5,000 each from The Duke of Devonshire’s Charitable Trust and The Bingham Trust; and £200 from the Alstonefield Leaden Boot Challenge.

The roof work was completed last month and volunteers are already seeing the benefits, including saving money on energy bills, and more people wanting to use the hall for their community groups and activities.

Keith Quine, chair of trustees, said: ‘After a protracted period of discussions with planners, and a further delay because of COVID-19, construction finally started with Ashbrook Roofing and Supplies in July and work was completed late last month. It was not without incident, as it was discovered once the tiles had been stripped that the underlying timbers had been badly affected by water penetration, so the decision was made to replace the tongue and groove ceiling boards. A Business Interruption grant of £10,000 plus all the reserves had to be committed, to meet the final cost of £44,800.

‘The benefits have been considerable. Not only does the Village Hall now have a robust roof, but also the community has come together so closely to support the huge project. We’ve seen more volunteers assisting with cleaning, painting and decorating; and just over 100 local people subscribed to the annual lottery, with fundraising events being exceptionally well attended. Without the match funding raised by the community we could not have secured the grant awards that we did.

‘The project has served to bring the community together and show the initiative, creativity and resilience needed to make things happen. In recent months, a significant amount of internal decoration has taken place and work has already started on fundraising to update the heating system.’

After a prolonged closure due to the international pandemic, the Village Hall is now starting to welcome groups back. Find out more about the hall, including booking it for your activity or event.

Hope is the theme for Harington this wells week

The end of World War Two and Noah’s Ark are the hopeful themes for this year’s wells dressings in Hartington.

Local residents and school children have worked safely and in-line with Government guidelines to create the two special dressings, commemorating VE and VJ Days, and the Bible story of Noah and the great flood.

The wells will be on display until Saturday 19th September, with any money raised through a collection going towards the £40,000 cost for a new roof and heating system at the much-loved Village Hall.

David Annat, Chair of Hartington Town Quarter Parish Council, said: ‘Due to Coronavirus regulations restricting large gatherings, there was no official well blessing ceremony this year. Instead, the well was blessed on Friday 11th September, by the small team who have been creating the design. Many thanks to volunteers who have worked hard to complete the well safely.’

Tracy Blackwell, head teacher at Hartington C of E Primary School, added: ‘Rather than natural materials, paint was the medium to be used this year. The school’s theme was linked to the Christian Value of hope, and was portrayed through the story from the Old Testament of Noah’s Ark. With the symbol of the rainbow being synonymous of this value whilst also being linked to the NHS and global events which have occurred this year. It was felt that the content of this story is contemporary and relevant within the current climate.

‘Each child was provided with a canvas block which they painted independently to create the overall mural. This year the dedication of the well was carried out on the school premises during the children’s daily act of Worship. The well will be on display at the Village Green by the pump during Wakes Week, and its permanent home will be in the school.’

The custom of dressing wells began in the Derbyshire Dales, with reports suggesting it developed from a pagan tradition of ‘making sacrifice to the gods of wells and springs to ensure a continued supply of fresh water.’ Find out more.

Blizzard of Christmas events to sweep across Hartington

Volunteers in Hartington are busy preparing for a December that is set to be fuller than Santa’s sleigh.

A whole host of events is set to take place throughout the festive season, and everyone is welcome to enjoy them, from local residents to village visitors.

A free lantern making workshop, in the Village Hall, is due to happen from 11am to 4pm on Saturday 7th December, for people to make their very own willow lantern ready for a special parade the following Saturday, 14th December which coincides with the Christmas light switch-on.

Alongside the parade, there will be free tractor and trailer rides with Santa, carols, and festive refreshments alongside the Christmas tree switch-on at around 5pm. Everyone who brings along a lantern made during the workshop will be entered into a free prize draw.

Both residents and businesses are also getting involved in decorating their windows with advent displays for people to enjoy throughout the month; maps and information will be available in village businesses and on Facebook.

Other festive events include a Christmas wreath workshop, carols by candlelight in the Royal British Legion, Celebration Worship, Hartington C of E Primary school nativity play and festive quizzes

Liz Broomhead MBE is one of the volunteers involved in organising the seasonal shenanigans. She said: ‘Year on year, our close-knit local community come out in force to make Christmas in Hartington bigger and better than the previous year. Next month’s celebrations are no exception; with a whole host of activities for all ages, we hope to see many faces joining the festivities and enjoying all that Hartington has to offer at this very special time of year.’

For all dates and details of events throughout December find Hartington Village or Hartington Community Group on Facebook, or visit the village website.