On the mid-January weekend previously occupied by the Butlins Contest in Skegness, I organised Rolls-Royce Derby Band’s second annual “(not)Butlins” social weekend. This year we headed to the Peak District, hiring the YHA hostel at Eyam for our exclusive use. 

Heather met me at the bandroom after work on Friday and we travelled up together from there in my car, arriving a little before 4:30pm to find a few other early birds already unpacking provisions in the kitchen. We soon settled into our rooms, then the evening passed quickly, chatting over dinner (baked potatoes and toppings prepared by Helen), a few drinks and games. 

On Saturday morning, the majority of us headed to Hassop Station to take part in Monsal Trail parkrun, my second visit to this event. A cold but calm and bright morning made for ideal running conditions, and quite a few of the group ran times close to their best. I was happy to knock 30 seconds off my previous time for the course. 

After returning to the hostel for showers, and bacon sandwiches for brunch, we divided into two groups for the afternoon. Ashleigh led a shorter walk down to Stoney Middleton and Eyam village with a couple of pub stops, while I led a slightly longer one up over Eyam Moor to Bretton Clough, returning via a drinks stop at the Barrel Inn (Derbyshire’s highest pub), We enjoyed extensive views of the eastern Edges and Kinder Scout from the hill summit, and the attractive woodland and steep-sided grassy knolls in the clough. 
Route map: https://www.plotaroute.com/route/2488889

Helen led the preparation of delicious pulled pork rolls and macaroni cheese for dinner, followed again by chat, banter, drinks and games until late. 

We had a more leisurely start on Sunday, with French toast for breakfast followed by packing up all our stuff, cleaning and tidying to check out of the hostel at 10am. Some headed home to relieve relatives on childcare duties, others went for another potter around Eyam village, and I led a group of six on a fairly gentle 15km walk from Grindleford. 

The morning was another beautiful sunny one with excellent air clarity. Padley Gorge looked pretty as we ascended in the dappled sunshine before heading towards Longshaw Lodge. 

There we turned south, passing the Grouse Inn then following Froggatt Edge (with a lunch break on a rocky outcrop) and Curbar Edge as far as Curbar Gap. 

We dropped down a bit then followed footpaths traversing the lower, wooded slopes to Froggatt village, where we picked up the Derwent Valley Heritage Way back to Grindleford. We had second lunch in the Station Café, then set off home. 
Route map: https://www.plotaroute.com/route/2488897

A great weekend with the brass band to start the year, hopefully kindling some good team spirit as we head towards the Midlands Regional Championships at the start of March. 
There are more photos on Google Photos here. 
Here’s to another great year of banding! 

I stayed close to home for the Bank Holiday weekend, joined by Ruth for Saturday and Sunday. We started Saturday at Rosliston parkrun, me running hard to finish in 19:59 (my fastest Rosliston parkrun since 2019) while Ruth jogged around with Jo, pushing Claire in the buggy on Jess’ first 5k parkrun.

After bacon sandwiches in the café for second breakfast, Ruth and I headed off to Wootton for an afternoon stroll. It was only a short climb up from the village to the ridge of the Weaver Hills, where we followed the fence-line at the edge of the open access land to reach the summit. As our arrival coincided exactly with that of a large rambling group, we didn’t linger by the trig point but descended west to pick up the little-used and overgrown public footpath through the Wredon quarries.

Better footpaths led us south through farmland and woods – the bluebells not yet at their best – to reach the very attractive and well-maintained grounds of Wootton Park. We paused for lunch below Ramshorn with extensive views south over the Churnet Valley and Staffordshire plains, and faint sounds of thrill-seekers at nearby Alton Towers.

We continued through the parkland and past a few ornamental lakes to pass Wootton Lodge, today the home of Lord Bamford (handy for the JCB Headquarters and factories in Rocester), which just left a short climb up through the woods back to Wootton village. A map of our route can be seen here.

On Sunday, we headed to Great Longstone to have a go at the first of this year’s Peak Raid MapRun events. I chose an anticlockwise route, heading northeast up onto Longstone Edge then steeply down into Coombs Dale. Then I continued generally west, over High Fields and Middleton Moor, finishing with a crossing of Longstone Moor – the only pathless running of the day – and a long zigzagging descent back to Great Longstone. I was pleased that my pace matched my plan and I finished just over 4 minutes inside the two-hour time limit, having visited 31 of the 35 controls. That puts me in 2nd place for now. Ruth also had a good run, 12th place overall and 1st female. We will see how many others can get ahead of us before the event closes at the end of August.

Once we’d got our breath back, and eaten our lunch back at the car, we went for a leg-loosening stroll over to the fields Monsal Head then back along the Monsal Trail – see map here.

I was busy with the band on Bank Holiday Monday, playing at the Castle Donington May Market. We played two sets in the Market Place, and I also enjoyed listening to the Leicestershire and Rutland Pipe Band.

A good varied weekend, and only a week until the next Bank Holiday! More photos are available here.