The Trustees have asked whether we would help pull out the Rosebay Willow Herb on the hill at our next litter pick. This is part of the Heathland restoration and their ecological advisor has suggested this. They don't want it to reach seeding stage as this creates more problems in restoring the Heather. Our next litter pick is on Saturday 16 th September 11.00 at the church hall - so in the meantime if you take a walk on the hill perhaps you can pull out a little each time and if we all do that then we can keep it down. For those who don't know - this is what it looks like.

Competition Time

We want your pictures of the hill or from the hill. Send them in to our Facebook page - Friends of Etching Hill .

The photo with the most likes each month will become " Photo of the month". There is no prize for this but when the charter fair comes round there should be 11 photos for the public to vote on for the overall winner.The overall winner will receive a small prize.

Happy Snapping!

Rules for photo competition
All entries are to be sent in to the Facebook page.
1st August 2017 is the start of the competition
8pm two days before the Charter Fair will be the closing date for the competition.
The picture with the most likes at 8pm on the last day of each month will become the photo of that month.
Any likes received after 8pm on the last day of the month will not count towards any voting.
The exception to this is the month of the charter fair when entries and votes can be submitted up to 8pm two days before the Charter Fair.
All the monthly photo highest scorers will be displayed at the Charter Fair where the public will have the opportunity to vote for their favourites. The public votes will NOT be added to any likes from Facebook as it will be an independent round of voting.
The overall favourite voted by the public at the Charter Fair will win a small prize. This will be based on votes made on the day in person not on line.
In the event of any dispute  regarding likes or entries the decision of the Facebook page manager is final.
In the event of equal likes or votes being gained by photos the committee of the Friends of Etching Hill will decide which single entry will become the photo of the month. The decision of the committee is final.
All photos must be of the hill or taken on the hill and can include any subject matter.
If there are any people in the photos it is the responsibility of the photographer to ensure the people consent to the photos being used or in the event of this being children, that their responsible adults consent. The Friends of Etching Hill take no responsibility for photos submitted.

Party night 2017

Our party on Saturday night was a great success bringing people of all ages together to celebrate the work our group had achieved over the past years culminating in the restoration of the views with the help of the Trustees and the Tescos funding.
Phil and Mark worked hard all evening with their disco and the staff at the tennis club looked after us well.
Apart from our members and guests, a number of local councillors, the fire cadets and our newly re elected MP Amanda Milling attended the evening. We had around 60 people present. We thank everyone for coming and for all the help and support we have received as a group.

links to useful information

Here are some useful links to walks from the Mount
Chase Fit have produced these lovely photgraphed walking path leaflets

http://www.chasefit.co.uk/walks/details/self-led-walks/etchinghill.html


http://www.chasefit.co.uk/walks/details/self-led-walks/etchinghill-wolseley.html

Enjoy them!

Also check out this video on YouTube with the mount seen from a drone

https://youtu.be/yxhCwnkOVDc

Following our A.G.M. We would like to welcome Mike Sutherland to our committee. All other members remain the same. Chris and Geoff have said they would like to stand down at the next A.G.M. in 2018 as they will have completed 7 years then. They will continue to support the group and the committee. We would ask anyone reading this to consider whether they would like to join our committee or carry out these roles next year.

Our our A.G.M. Will take place on Thursday 18th May at 7.30 at the church hall. We hope everyone will come along and let us know what you think about the work we have done and what you would like us to do over the next year.
We also welcome anyone who would like to stand for a post on the committee. We have had a vacancy over the past year. Being on the committee means you can help to shape our work further so please consider it as we welcome new opinions.

2017 our first litter pick of the year

The litter pick was a huge success.  We had 58 people turn up! Thank you to Sian for publicising the event and to Phil for taking away the rubbish. We would like to thank everyone who came to support us. Particular thanks go to the new people who came along. Hopefully they found that we are a friendly group and will join us again for future meetings and litter picks. Thanks to all those who helped in the kitchen to get the refreshments out quickly for all the hungry volunteers.

Thanks to all the young people who came with their families and to the fire cadets who worked very hard. Young people are the future and too often they get bad press whereas we have found many keen young volunteers who have been polite and interested in maintaining the hill.

 We would also like to thank the people who spent time helping to clear the brash and put the chippings onto the paths. This is has been necessary following the trees being thinned. 
         We may have further work parties depending on the needs of the project.

Finally, thanks to all those who donated their lovely photos to our groups archives. We were given some very special pictures including some taken from a drone, showing how wonderful the hill looks from above.
The hill is tidy again and looks amazing following the recent work. We urge people to support our group in trying to keep it that way. If anyone is concerned that there may be anti social behaviour on the hill please ring 101 as the police will respond in tackling the issues.
As a result of the work done we have had lots of favourable comments and people have said they like the fact that they can now see the Derbyshire hills again. The Trustees are also very pleased that they have been able to work with us to achieve these results as a joint venture. They have thanked our group. With the community working together we can achieve so much and 2017 has had a good start so far!
As this is starting to sound like an Oscar acceptance speech- let's look at a couple of donated photos

         Thanks to Gillian for this photo

See below one of the photos taken by drone - thanks to Eddie for this.