The work party for the preparation of land before the heathers are planted. We had around 10 volunteers who turned up for the event. Thanks go to everyone who came along.

Heathland restoration working party 
The Trustees have asked our group to support them with health land restoration preparation work. This should involve raking the area prior to the Heather brash being laid.
We have fixed a date for a working party of
Saturday 28 th October at 11.00 meeting at the church hall
Refreshments will be provided, bring a rake if you have one otherwise just come along anyway. Many hands make light work!

Also don't forget our evening meeting in October is on Thursday 19 th at 7.30 pm at the church hall when we have a speaker on willow weaving.

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.