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COSY GARDEN ROOMS – THE BEST USES FOR A GARDEN ROOM

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Ashbourne’s Take on Football – (Temporary) Anarchy In The UK

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Lead Smelters of the Peak District

July 1, 2019 VickyP

The Derbyshire Peak was once the major supplier of lead in the world. There is the possibility of lead being dug from close to the surface in pre-Roman times, but it was one of the reasons why Rome decided to annexe Britain to its empire. There is a folk memory of a kind of concentration […]

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Modern Collectibles – Motor Car Club Badges

July 1, 2019 VickyP

Both my parents were keen motorists, and I was often as a child taken to events where like-minded people congregated. Whilst out driving with my mother, I was taught to recognise all the makes and models of cars on the road – this was early 1950s, I might add, when the roads were still littered […]

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Images of Donegal & Ulster

July 1, 2019 VickyP

Only a country like Ireland could have its most northerly point in the south, but as Brian Spencer discovered on a recent visit, that is part of the enjoyment of a visit to this delightful neighbour of ours across the Irish Sea. An early start from Slack’s Coaches at Matlock brought us to Holyhead’s seaport […]

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Stowe Gardens

June 4, 2019 VickyP

One of Capability Brown’s earliest works, Stowe Gardens in Buckinghamshire was looking at its best when Brian Spencer visited it during a recent autumn break. The gardens of Grade 1 listed Stowe House are the idyllic setting for Stowe School. The public school sits at the top of rising ground overlooking grounds that are, as […]

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Modern Collectibles – Wade Whimsies

June 4, 2019 VickyP

Wade is a manufacturer of porcelain and earthenware originally with its headquarters in Burslem, part of what is now Stoke-on-Trent. Its history is complex and tortuous, but goes back to 1867 when three family firms were set up by various Wades in the potteries, now Stoke-on-Trent. The firm which nearly a century later introduced these […]

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Taste Derbyshire – Yummy Mummies

May 1, 2019 VickyP

As childcare costs rise, two thirds of mums surveyed* said they would love to run a business from home. Taste Derbyshire spoke to three mums who have made the dream a reality by turning their passion for food into a family-friendly business. Sitting in a sun-drenched café in Derbyshire, Michelle Belsom and I are talking […]

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RHS Chatsworth Flower Show

May 1, 2019 VickyP

Brian Spencer looks back on 2018 when describing what will be on offer in 2019 Unlike Show Gardens at Chelsea, those at Chatsworth are far more practical, giving ideas for what can be created in the average domestic plot. Now in its third year at Chatsworth, the Royal Horticultural Society’s (RHS) newest Show, RHS Chatsworth […]

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Modern Collectibles – Royal Crown Derby Paper Weights

May 1, 2019 VickyP

The Royal Crown Derby (RCD) china factory on Osmaston Road had been going since 1878 and received a Royal Warrant to prefix its name with ‘Royal’ in 1890. In 1935 the firm absorbed the King Street China factory, thereby acquiring a virtually unbroken ceramic tradition going back to the foundation of the original factory on […]

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Stowe Gardens

March 26, 2019 VickyP

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Modern Collectibles – Shell Guides

March 26, 2019 VickyP

Being the sort of universal hack that I am (when it comes to writing history), in the days before the internet I always needed a handy guide to various counties which would give me a little local colour combined with compressed highly reliable fact. I always found Arthur Mee too cumbersome and The King’s England […]