VickyP

Celebrity Interview – Sherrie Hewson

February 27, 2019 VickyP 0

Sherrie Hewson is feeling a little bit emotional. The Nottinghamshire-born actress is delighted to be returning to Nottingham’s Theatre Royal in a show that has provoked a “wild” reaction from audiences. But she’s also sad to be saying goodbye to a character she’s become synonymous with as well as a group of actors who she […]

Lost Houses

Lost Houses of Derbyshire – Breadsall Mount

February 27, 2019 VickyP 8

Breadsall was one of the villages immediately surrounding Derby that so far has escaped being absorbed by the ever-expanding city below it and to the south, although a considerable amount of land on the southern edge of the parish was absorbed in 1921 and is now host to the Breadsall Hill Top estate, created through […]

Featured

Local Collectibles – Classic Histories of Derby

February 27, 2019 VickyP 0

In 2013 I wrote an article in Country Images about collecting local books, and threatened to continue the theme with further examples at a later date. Since then, we have been concentrating on modern collectibles, but following three separate appeals from readers for me to continue with collectible old local books, I thought I might […]

Dining Out

Dining Out – The Curry Lounge, Somercotes

February 27, 2019 VickyP 0

They’re in every town centre and sometimes have the same names; that’s Indian restaurants. Somercotes is no exception. At the side of the parish church, on what remains of the Market Place, is the Curry Lounge; an independent restaurant, owned and skillfully managed by Ukeel. Susan and myself visited the Curry Lounge on a Saturday […]

Walks

Walk Derbyshire – Walking Above the Canal – Cromford

February 27, 2019 VickyP 0

The car park at the Cromford end of its namesake canal is a popular starting point for at least five walks to my reckoning. Most weekends and days in between, well-clad walkers will be congregating, busily pulling on their boots and at the same time, chatting to their friends. This walk starts, like all the […]

Featured

The National Stone Centre

February 27, 2019 VickyP 0

Travelling back in time a few millenia, Brian Spencer describes what the Peak District looked like when land that became the British Isles was part of a tropical island situated near the Equator. A series of small inter-connected abandoned limestone quarries off the road to Ashbourne, near the top of the hill marking the boundary […]

Featured

Taste Derbyshire – A Slice of Italy – Lambarelli’s

February 27, 2019 VickyP 0

The outskirts of Chesterfield on a grey and dismal morning seems an unlikely place to find la dolce vita. But follow your nose into Lambarelli’s Italian Caffé and Pasta Bar on Chesterfield Road and you’ll be instantly transported from North Derbyshire to Southern Italy on an aromatic cloud of fresh herbs, strong coffee and sweet […]

Featured

Taste Derbyshire – Spotted Calf Cafe

February 5, 2019 VickyP 0

There’s something a bit magical about the Spotted Calf café – the small but perfectly formed off-spring of the Spotted Cow pub at Holbrook. It’s not just the quality of the coffee – roasted to perfection in the Derbyshire Peaks – or the tanginess of the home-made lemon polenta cake. It’s the cosy, welcoming nature […]

Featured

Images of The North

February 5, 2019 VickyP 0

With an introductory splutter, the public address system announced, first in Norwegian, then in English and German, that we were summoned by King Neptune to assemble on the after-deck to receive our icy baptism. During the night a few hours previously we passed a small island at exactly 66°33’51’’ north, marked by a globe tilted […]

Featured

John Flamsteed England’s First Astronomer Royal

February 5, 2019 VickyP 0

-24

Brian Spencer follows the life of this Denby-born man who went on to be the first Astronomer Royal and set the stage for Greenwich to become the centre of time and space. John Flamsteed was a sickly child, being troubled by arthritic knees and ankles, weak legs, and frequent headaches – conditions that affected him […]