Christmas Newsletter

20 December 2017

Christmas Newsletter

Happy Holidays from the South West Peak!

With snow and ice and the holidays upon us the South West Peak Landscape Partnership continues to work towards ensuring that we enter the new year with a full team and on track for a great start to 2018.

We’ve been busy since our last newsletter, so take a look below and check out what we’ve been up to!

Welcome to our new Cultural Heritage Officer!

The close of 2017 sees the welcome addition of Dr. Catherine Parker Heath to the South West Peak team. Catherine is responsible for managing our Barns and Buildings and Small Heritage Adoption projects, both of which start in January. She will be working with landowners, communities and volunteers in the South West Peak to identify, record, research and where possible, repair, conserve or consolidate barns and other heritage features in the area.

With qualifications and experience in archaeology and teaching, Catherine recently worked as project manager with the Tudor Farming Interpretation Group on Peeling Back the Layers: A Community Archaeology Project, based at Under Whitle Farm, near Sheen in the South West Peak. The project was given a special commendation at the recent East Midlands Heritage Awards. Alongside this role, she worked for Sheffield Industrial Museums Trust developing and delivering workshops. Whilst studying for her doctorate in archaeology, she was an Adult Education Tutor teaching the Archaeology of Britain and the Peak District.

Goals of Barns and Buildings:

• Preserving a charismatic feature of the landscape which is in danger of disappearing.
• Tracing the history of land use through its buildings.
• Training local people in the skills they need to repair field barns.
• Exploring alternative uses for field barns.
• Recording barns across the landscape.

Goals of Small Heritage Adoption:

• Providing volunteers with the tools and techniques needed to be stewards of local history.
• Identifying and monitoring local history assets.
• Raising interest and knowledge about the hidden history of the South West Peak.
• Ensuring the next generation of SWP residents and visitors can enjoy a rich local history.
• Providing funding for the repair of local heritage assets.

If you are interested in volunteering with either of these projects you can click here or read more about our volunteering programme below.

New South West Peak Website Coming Soon!

Keep your eyes peeled for our shiny new South West Peak website as 2018 begins! This new platform will allow us to present information in a more efficient way and offer many more opportunities for interaction from all you folks who are passionate about the South West Peak.

If you are interested in helping out as a tester for the site you can get in touch with our Communications & Interpretation Officer below. You don’t need any special technical skills to be a tester; just a willingness to help us make sure that our new site is running smoothly, efficiently and is easy to understand.

To volunteer as a tester contact Andy Tetlow at:

Email: Andrew.Tetlow@peakdistrict.gov.uk
Phone: 01629 816220

Crayfish in Crisis given new homes in the South West Peak

While it may seem small to us the white-clawed crayfish is the UK’s largest native freshwater invertebrate and is an important component of our waterways. This often hidden and largely defenceless species is now globally endangered due to non-native competitors, disease and widespread habitat loss.

However, with funding from the Environment Agency, the Crayfish in Crisis project, part of the South West Peak Landscape Partnership, (supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund), is doing something about it. The goal of the project is to eventually re-establish permanent and stable populations in the South West Peak. The project team is surveying isolated headwaters in the Peak District to identify the best locations for white-clawed crayfish to call home. Once suitable new homes are found, then crayfish need to be sourced from so-called ‘donor’ populations which have good numbers of healthy native crayfish at present, but which may be at risk in the future.

Nick who is leading the project said: “We are delighted to announce that the conservation partners were able to establish our first two ‘Ark’ sites during the first year of the project. Together with future translocations, we hope that they will form the nucleus of new breeding populations in this area. The sites were selected with great care and our aim is to protect them into the future. The biggest threat remains the spread of American signal crayfish and the ‘crayfish plague’ they sometimes carry.”

To help protect the white-claws, we have an important message for visitors to watercourses in the Peak District: please always Check, Clean & Dry your wellies, fishing gear or dogs before you enter the water. Please do the same at the end of your day.

For more info about Check, Clean & Dry visit: www.nonnativespecies.org/checkcleandry/

For the full text of this article please visit: www.southwestpeak.co.uk/endangered-white-clawed-crayfish-given-new-homes-in-the-south-west-peak/

Volunteering in the South West Peak

Do you love the South West Peak? Is there a particular area that you think could use some improvement? Our projects span a wide variety of interests and all of them are looking for enthusiastic volunteers to help ensure their success.

Whether you’re interested in cultural heritage or natural heritage or working with people or wading birds; we’ve got a project for you! We are looking for folks of all skill levels and availability. If you have the time to volunteer regularly that’s great! But if you want to only volunteer for specific events as they come up we’d love to have you as well. We appreciate the time folks give to our projects and are grateful for the support; as such we want to be as flexible as we can.

If you’d like to learn more about volunteering with us please get in touch with us at:

www.southwestpeak.co.uk/how-to-get-involved/interested-in-helping-out/

We’d love to hear from you and thanks for doing your part to help out the South West Peak!

Upcoming Community Grants Deadlines

Our Community Grants project continues to receive and fund applications and this will continue into 2018. These grants are available to constituted community groups, registered charities, social enterprises, parish councils and schools who are working on projects that enhance, protect or celebrate the heritage and countryside of the South West Peak Landscape area.

Eligible projects are those that are working to address one or more of these South West Peak objectives:

1. Conserving, protecting and/or enhancing natural, built or cultural heritage
2. Helping people learn about their natural, built or cultural heritage
3. Helping communities celebrate the natural, built or cultural heritage
4. Increasing people’s awareness and enjoyment of the SWP for residents and/or those working in or visiting the area.

Who can apply?

You can apply to the scheme if you are a ‘not for profit’ organisation that falls into one or more of the following categories:

• Local community/voluntary group/organisation
• Registered charity
• Parish Council
• Social Enterprise
• School

New or existing groups and organisations operating in, or benefiting the South West Peak area are also eligible to apply.

What can we fund?

• Capital costs e.g. equipment, building costs
• Revenue costs e.g. training, room hire, event costs

All projects must be benefiting the South West Peak area and meet at least one of the South West Peak objectives.

Community Grants that have been funded thus far:

• Re-roofing 18th century St Luke’s Church in Onecote.
• Sheep to Craft: A project involving women from various backgrounds, including elderly and those escaping domestic violence, learning the process of preparing sheep fleeces, spinning and weaving them to produce art and craftwork.
• Publishing a survey of the graveyard in Sheen.
• Restoration of Waterfall Parochial Hall using traditional materials such as lime plaster.
• Arts based activities inspired by the landscape to benefit people with mental health issues.

How much do we give?

Groups need to be able to provide match funding for their projects, as the scheme will only fund up to 50% of the total project costs to a maximum of £10,000. We do ask that you please do not make applications for less than £500 and generally grants must be spent within one year.

How to apply

All applications must be made on an application form and submitted alongside requested supporting documents.

Current Funding round deadlines:

• 15 Jan 2018
• 10 April 2018
• 2 July 2018

These projects are selected for funding by Community Grant Panels, which are composed of local folks with an interest in helping to ensure a bright future for the South West Peak.

Upcoming Grant Panel Meetings:

• 1 February 2018
• 26 April 2018
• 19 July 2018

To find out more information about applying for a grant or about volunteering to sit on the Grant Panel please contact Sally Bentley, our Community Grants Officer at:

Phone: 01538 381356

Email: sally.bentley@supportstaffordshire.org.uk

Fresh Start Uplands Farm Business Academy

The Fresh Start Uplands Farm Business Academy is based around learning key principals needed to help run a successful farm business. We bring in a range of professional speakers both from local and national levels such as bankers, accountants, solicitors, environmental advisers and land agents. We then combine this alongside real life farming and business case studies and visits to help provide information and support. The academy is designed to build confidence and knowledge, create unique networking opportunities and introduce new ways of thinking and working.

With an emphasis on upland enterprises, we introduce complementary business sessions such as a full ‘tenancy exercise’ including interview practice and developing a business plan and presenting it. Diversification and establishing a range of income streams is also very important for the Uplands and we look at this in more detail, along with the complex planning issues often encountered in these areas and associated environmental schemes.

So if you are looking for inspiration in a supportive environment – It’s time to put your business ideas into action!

The proposed Academy dates are:

27 February: Evening session

6 March: Full Day (2 sessions)

13 March: Evening session

17 April: Evening Session

24 April: Evening Session

1 May: Full day (2 sessions)

8 May: Evening Session

15 May: Evening Session

22 May: Evening session

Application Deadline 11 February 2018

The South West Peak Landscape Partnership Area

South West Peak staff and volunteers always look for a reason to get out and get muddy!

Keep up to date with what’s happening by clicking on our Facebook and Twitter feeds below.

Facebook: facebook.com/swpeak

Twitter: twitter.com/SouthWestPeak