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Featured

Cosy Garden Rooms & The rise in outdoor living

April 4, 2024 VickyP 0

A noticeable trend has emerged in recent years – the rise in popularity of outdoor living. To some extent the pandemic taught us the importance and value of fresh air, nature and outdoor spaces. For the best part of two years our homes and gardens came under scrutiny like never before; our gardens and outdoor spaces […]

Featured

The Historic Core of Derby

April 2, 2024 VickyP 0

by Maxwell Craven People often quite reasonably assume that Derby’s Market Place was the original historic core of the borough, but appearances can be deceptive. When King Edward the Elder founded the city as a defended settlement c. 928, the actual core was the area between the Cathedral and old St. Alkmund’s (now part of […]

Walks

Walk Derbyshire – A Walk Between Monyash & Flagg

April 2, 2024 VickyP 0

If you were living in the Peak District countryside around a hundred years ago, the chances are that you would be following a dual working schedule. Part of your working day would be tending the needs of a dairy herd and maybe carrying out a little ploughing and growing feed crops for those valuable cattle. […]

Celebrity Interviews

Celebrity Interview – Billy Ivory

April 2, 2024 VickyP 0

Imagine you’re writing a film and you’re asked who you would ideally like to play the two lead roles. That happened to Nottinghamshire-born screenwriter William Ivory on his last project and he had no hesitation: Michael Caine and Glenda Jackson. When approached both actors astonishingly said they wanted parts in The Great Escaper which was […]

Lost Houses

The Lost Houses of Derbyshire – West Hallam Hall

April 2, 2024 VickyP 0

No native West Hallam resident, of course, would acknowledge being resident of Ilkeston – they are fiercely independent folk – but the loss of the hall caused this unexpected expansion, and the man responsible was bullish Nottingham developer and bigwig, Alderman Sir Albert Ball (1863-1946), as with one of two other lost Derbyshire houses (not […]

Dining Out

Dining In Derbyshire – MEZZO, Derby

January 12, 2023 VickyP 0

To the south east of Derby, sandwiched between the River Derwent and the old A6 London Road is a vast area of former industrial land that had been part of the larger railway yards. An ambitious project by Derby City Council has transformed the once derelict area in to a thriving business park. The site […]

Female

Product Test – Odile Lecoin

January 25, 2022 VickyP 0

This exclusive skincare line is carefully curated to provide maximum results, with minimum effort. The luxurious products contain unique natural ingredients, all of the highest quality, to rejuvenate, nourish and smooth even the most delicate skin. OR, j’illumine The Divine Cleansing Milk 200ml £35 For clean, soft, supple skin look no further than the OR, […]

Walks

Walk Derbyshire – Where Izaak Walton Fished – Hartington

January 25, 2022 VickyP 0

Izaak Walton, seventeenth century author of ‘The Campleat (sic) Angler – The Contemplative Man’s Recreation’ would have been familiar with at least half of this walk. The Dove was one of his favourite places to cast a fly, along with his younger friend, the impecunious Hartington landowner, Charles Cotton. They regularly fished the river’s clear […]

Celebrity Interviews

Celebrity Interview – Michelle Collins

January 25, 2022 VickyP 0

She played Ian Beale’s wife in EastEnders for eight years and the landlady of the Rovers Return in Coronation Street. Now Michelle Collins is taking on what she describes as the role of a lifetime. Michelle will be getting dolled up for the role of Miss Scarlett in Cluedo, a new play based on the […]

MC JAN 22 MAKENEY VIEW FROM DARK LA 14 11 21

Featured

Places Pevsner Forgot – Makeney, Derbyshire

January 25, 2022 VickyP 0

As we wandered round sunny Makeney, we wondered how Pevsner could ever have forgotten to include the place, for although historically a miniscule hamlet within the huge parish of Duffield, it gained in importance in the 19th century through its proximity to the various expanding Strutt family enterprises at Milford and gained two important houses […]