Happy New Year

    As we come to the end of another year we also reach the end of our Heritage Walk around Derby. We have been visiting the city on a regular basis since January 2010 to take photos for the Latest Images page at Ilkeston Cam where a new part to the series was added on the last weekend of each month. This week sees the 36th and final part of the walk but now we will have to think of somewhere else to go before the end of January. In the meantime we wish you all the best for 2013 and hope it brings all you wish for.

The Result

I must start with a thank you to all those who participated in the vote for the next monthly series on the Ilkeston Cam (www.ilkcam.com) site. To be perfectly truthful the vote was somewhat flawed in that it pitted one city walk against two town walks, a number of individual village trails and numerous country walks. On face value the country walks topped the poll with the city walk a close second but if all the votes cast for the town and village trails are added together, then the the vote share was roughly equally spread with about a third for each category.


From a practical point of view the city walk is the easiest to plan for and better suited to a monthly series than the country walks so my plans for 2010 mean that I have opted for the Derby Heritage Walk which will feature on the site during the third or fourth week of each month. I will continue to cover the usual annual events like the Walk of Witness at Easter, Carnivals and Fairs etcetera but will pull in as many country walks as possible on an ad hoc basis. I may also add a town walk with Long Eaton being the most likely or perhaps a village trail around Little Eaton which attracted most votes from the villages listed. I also hope to continue with the First Impressions series which has presently stalled at the end of Millership Way.

All in all it looks as though I have a busy year ahead, planning routes, researching information and taking the photos but I'd like to think you'll join me each week as we explore more of the East Midlands in and around Ilkeston. So with that in mind let me wish you all a happy, healthy and prosperous 2010.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary. - Steve Jobs (1955 - )

Villages

The decision so far for a new monthly series has been fairly straightforward between the heritage of Derby or a town walk through either Long Eaton or Belper. Now the choice becomes much more difficult with the inclusion of a number of village trails. A village to quote Wikipedia is a "human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet, but smaller than a town or city."


There are already a number of Village Trails on the Ilkeston Cam site and several of them are based on a series of leaflets produced a number of years ago with funds from the Groundwork Environmental Fund supported by the Department of the Environment. Villages in this series that I have not yet covered include Little Eaton (above), Morley (left) and Draycott and Wilne.

Also to be thrown into the mix are Milford (near Belper); Darley Village just to the north of Derby and in the Derwent Valley Heritage Corridor; a cluster of villages to the north of Ilkeston with a rich industrial heritage centred on Riddings (right), Ironville and Jacksdale to say nothing of Shardlow and Breadsall in the opposite direction.

Cities, towns or villages and that's not the end of it - there's more to come.

I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment, while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance that I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn. - Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862)

The Second Option

Last week I started to outline some of the choices and options for a new monthly series and suggested a look at Derby's heritage as the first possibility. The second option is a photographic tour of a local town similar to the Ilkeston Town Walk I conducted a few years ago.


In this category there are two contenders - Long Eaton and Belper. Among all those leaflets I mentioned last week, I have one first published in 1995 detailing a route and identifying places of interest for Long Eaton, the second in a series of which the first was the "Ilkeston Town Walk". Although this is nearly fifteen years old and there are bound to be some changes, much of the information contained in the leaflet is still current and would easily form the basis of a series.

For Belper I have two "Heritage Walk" routes published in 2006 as part of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site and these could easily be combined to form a circuit around the town.

So that's Derby, Long Eaton or Belper and next week I'll outline some of the villages that also come into the equation.

Everything you do in life, every choice you make, has a consequence. When you do things without thinkin', then you ain't makin' the choice. The choice is makin' you. - Mark Steven Johnson

Choices & Plans

This week sees the conclusion of the "Lock To Lock" series on the Latest Images page at Ilkeston Cam. Apart from the "Trees of Victoria Park" which is also nearing completion, the only other outstanding series is titled "First Impressions" and this is really a stop gap or fill in strategy for when there is nothing else of interest taking place. I am therefore looking for a new subject for a monthly series to add to the site.

Over the years I have accumulated a number of leaflets and brochures which have in the past provided me with the basis for the "Special Features" section of this site. These have included Village Trails, Town Walks and many other miscellaneous items. I now have several options so I decided to make a list before devising a plan of action, I was surprised by the amount of choice open to me. I will summarise some of the options here as time goes by. Any feedback or suggestions would be welcome either by email, in the guestbook or by comment here on the Blog.

Among those leaflets and brochures there is a fistful from the county town of Derby (above) detailing its heritage buildings, several city centre walks and a mini-guide. I would hope to combine all of these into a route to encompass most of the places of interest similar to the already completed "Historic Nottingham" series.

Next week, I'll list some of the possible Town Walks for your consideration and follow that with some Village Trails but if you have any ideas in the meantime, don't hesitate to contact me.

Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood...Make big plans, aim high in hope and work. - Daniel H. Burnham (1846 - 1912)