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.

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.