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.

Litter pick

We have a litter pick next Saturday -4th March. Meet at 11.00 at the Etching Hill Church Hall. This time there may be extra hands needed to remove the extra litter exposed by the clearance work so come along and bring friends! Also if anyone feels up to shifting brash onto the muddy paths they could help with this on the day. 

Any members who would like to have the logs, they can be taken away after the litterpick. As the contractors are likely to be working on the hill during the coming week we ask that people do not collect them until  after the litterpick on Saturday as it may interfere with the work programme. We also ask that no one takes a chainsaw onto the hill as we are not covered for this.

Refreshments will be provided for the work group on Saturday. 

If anyone wants to bring a wheelbarrow to shift brash this may help, otherwise all equipment is provided

We have been very busy recently sorting the work out for The Openview Project. We are pleased to announce that Tescos have given us money to start the work and in order to progress this before the birds start nesting, we have a contractor starting on Friday of this week. Once the selected trees are down we can then start restoring the heathland.

We are pleased that this long awaited and much needed work can now take place thanks to the Tescos Bags of Help scheme and the cooperation of the Trustees who have been very supportive of our ideas and keen to help us in every way possible.

We have a couple of dates for diaries although we are still finalising our plans for the  year.

March 4th is our first litterpick meet at Etching Hill Church Hall at 11.00 am refreshments and all equipment provided. We may need as many people as possible on this day as there will be additional work in clearing wood or brash.

March 23rd is our first speaker who will talk about Dragonflies. Meet at Etching Hill Church Hall at 7.30 pm  refreshments provided.

Welcome to 2017

We are busy putting together a new programme of events for everyone for 2017 and so far we have a couple of dates for your diaries.

March 4 th we have a litterpick starting at 11.00 at Etchinghill Church Hall. Everyone is welcome and we provide all the equipment and refreshments.

March 23 rd  we have a speaker on dragonflies. This starts at 7.30 pm at Etchinghill Church Hall. Everyone is welcome. There is no charge and refreshments will be served.

We are still waiting for the Tescos Bags of Help money to be sent so that we can start on the project to restore the views and manage the trees.

It is going to be a busy year and we look forward to being part of activities that we share as a group of friends looking after the Hill. There is a fantastic community spirit that brings us all together. We always welcome new people joining us for our events - so just come along!

Dear Friends of Etching Hill,

We are pleased to announce that we have been successful in obtaining a sum of £8,000 from the Tescos bags of help scheme for the project to open up the views on the hill towards Trent Valley and Derbyshire. 

We will be working closely with the Trustees and ecological advisors in managing the trees and restoring heathland habitat over the next 12 months. This follows requests made by members and residents over the past few years. 

We will be removing a number of trees (mainly, but not exclusively self seeded ones) in order to achieve this, however for those who love trees there will still be plenty left.! This will make the remaining trees more manageable. 

When the project is completed we will have a celebration party for everyone.
We have an exciting year ahead and we look forward to your continued support.

Due to project planning work there may be some delays in getting the programme for the year published as we will need to liaise with contractors and ensure litter picks do not clash with other work - but we will be in touch as soon as we can put out dates. We will have a range of speakers for the year ahead too.

In the meantime we would like to thank all our supporters and wish you all a very Happy Christmas and New Year.
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Our final speaker of the year is giving a talk on Butterflies of Staffordshire. 
This is on October 27 th at 7.30 at Etching hill Church Hall. This should be particularly interesting as it is discussing local species of butterflies. Please come along and bring your friends. There is no charge for our meeting and refreshments are provided.


Don't forget to vote for us in Tesco Rugeley between 31 st October and 13 th November each time you buy a 5p bag.

Please vote for us in Tescos Rugeley between October 31st and November 13th. This is

an opportunity to obtain much needed funds to make a lasting difference to the hill.

Tesco has teamed up with Groundwork on its Bags of Help initiative in hundreds of regions across England and Wales. The scheme will see three community groups and projects in each of these regions awarded grants of £12,000, £10,000 and £8,000 – all raised from the 5p bag charge.

Bags of Help offers community groups and projects in each of Tesco’s 416 regions across the UK a share of revenue generated from the 5p charge levied on single-use carrier bags. The public will now vote in store from 31st October to 13 th November on who should receive the £12,000, £10,000 and £8,000 awards. In total, there is over £12.5 million up for grabs across the UK.

See the following site for more information:  Bags of Help website www.tesco.com/bagsofhelp 

The Friends of Etching Hill was formed five years ago after a community litter pick.

Having tidied the area, helped with the maintenance of the hill and had speakers on environmental issues the group now plans to work with the Trustees of the hill in restoring the views by thinning and managing the trees and enabling the return of greater biodiversity on the hill.

This has been a longstanding request from local residents and members of the group, but there has previously been a lack of funding. Tescos Bags of Help scheme offers groups money to manage areas and will provide our opportunity to enable the work to take place. The Friends of Etchinghill  have been selected to participate in this scheme and they will be working closely with the Trustees who have overall responsibility for the management of the hill and also with their advisors such as ecologists. 

Every time you buy a plastic bag in the Rugeley store during the voting period you will be offered a token to put in a box in their  store. You can use this to vote for the Friends of Etching Hill Openview project. The more tokens we have, the more money we will be allocated for this much needed restoration work. With your help we may be able to increase the biodiversity on the hill and restore the spectacular views that have historically been visible from the mount. To see our progress  follow us on Facebook and see our website and blog

The hill 1974 and today