Our Work

Why not banish the post-Christmas blues with a slap up meal at the Penny Pot in Edale?

After the sell-out success of our first bistro night at the Penny Pot in October, we will be holding another on Thursday 21st January. The cost will be £20 per person for a 3 course meal with coffee.

The Penny Pot is unlicensed so bring your own wine, £1 per bottle corkage. Call Abbie at the Penny Pot 01433 637 904 for details and to book.

Helen A

Moors for the Future, of which NT is a partner, has won £5.5 million pounds of EU funding to launch a new five year moorland restoration programme.

The Moorlife project help will focus on restoring blanket bog on more than 2,000 acres of degraded moorland in the Peak District and South Pennine moorlands and will be one of the biggest of its kind in Europe.

The project’s aims are to benefit internationally important wildlife, reduce flood-risk to nearby cities by absorbing downpours, purify water supplies and help to mitigate climate change by retaining carbon dioxide.

The restoration work will regenerate vegetation on what is now bare, eroding peat, damaged by centuries of airborne industrial pollution and wildfires. Helicopters will help spread seed from the air and fly in equipment, fertiliser, and plug-plants to the remote terrain.

Successful restoration on Black Hill (photos courtesy of Moors for the Future)

One of the project’s top…

I walk across the moors so bleak
My trudging feet, held fast by glutinous peat.
My shoulders hunch, against the cold hard rain
My arms legs and back so full of pain
Another day working on mountain tops
The daily grind that never stops.
Building, digging, carrying, hammering in
The tiring work, a penance for my sin.
At twenty-five the work was fun,
At forty-five I am glad the day is done.
But when the day is getting bad
And laughter lines turn very sad
A glance down the valley beautiful and green
The solitude of the moors, so serene
The bickering of sky larks, the barking cry of grouse
The running fox, across the field, badger, hare and mouse
Sights no office worker in his glass office can see,
Nor feel the wind upon the face, a refreshing breeze.
The nodding cotton balls on stems of brown
Adorn the moors, fresh clean and glamorous as a wedding gown.
The mountain springs that burst forth with song
Is different from the raucous city throng.
And so the shoulders…

The Pennine Way looking rather eroded and muddy

The High Peak & Longshaw Estate Team have been working over the Summer to repair part of the Pennine Way from Jacob’s Ladder to Swinesback. The path had become badly eroded because where the path went over peat, people try to avoid the wet bits and walk on the vegetation, which then wears away and leaves wet peat, and so the path gets wider and wider.

The first thing we did was to lay stone flags to provide a firm surface for people to walk on, so that they don’t have to walk on the peat.

The newly laid flag path

The flags were the old floor of a mill in Lancashire which was being demolished, and we had them flown onto the side of Kinder by helicopter – this is the only way we could get 200 tons of stone onto the moors. Moving them into place on the path was then done by the team using crow bars and brute force!

The steepest section of the path was too steep for the flags, and so we are now building what’s called a pitched…

National Trust monopoly gameboard

NT has partnered up with Monopoly to create a special charity edition of the game, which features Trust properties from all round the country around the famous board.

The Peak District’s High Peak Estate has scooped the green Regent Street spot, alongside two other countryside properties, Snowdonia and the Giant’s Causeway.

Other properties that have made it onto the board range from 20 Forthlin Road, the childhood home of Beatles icon Sir Paul McCartney (Old Kent Road), right up to the lavishly decorated estate, Lyme Park (Mayfair).

The game is on sale from October and you can pick up your copy from the “Longshaw Visitor…

On Sunday, one of our most famous moorland sites, Kinder Scout, was formally designated a National Nature Reserve (NNR).

The official announcement was made at a memorial event held to celebrate the life of Sir Martin Doughty, founding chair of Natural England. Sir Martin also played a big role on a more local level, as he was chair of Derbyshire County Council.

Despite the moorland of Kinder Scout being very degraded, it has been designated because of its iconic status and the history which makes it special to so many people. Kinder was the site of the famous 1932 Mass Trespass, which was the catalyst for the creation of National Parks.

This designation will help us to continue our work restoring the moorland on Kinder Scout and will…

Tree at Padley Gorge complete with dog poo

Well, lots probably – I’m no David Bailey. But for me, the key problem with it is the small bag of dog poo in the blue bag, nestled at the base of the tree. I was unfortunate enough to come across it at Padley Gorge this morning.

I wonder what it is that makes people responsible enough to pick up their dog’s mess, but then to decide to leave it hanging from a tree. Not only are they unsightly and unhygienic, they’re also an environmental disaster – it takes hundreds of years for these plastic bags to decompose.

I know some might complain of not enough dog bins, but our property in the Peak District covers several thousand hectares of land. We can’t possibly have dog bins everywhere (although we do have a couple near the Longshaw Visitor Centre).

We love it that you enjoy walking your dogs in the countryside – it’s there for you to enjoy, after all. And I know that most visitors do clean up after their dogs. It seems to be a…

We are holding a bistro night at The Trust’s newest catering venue, the Penny Pot Cafe in Edale, on 13th October. (Sorry, there’s no link yet, but we’re working on getting the cafe on our interactive map. However the Penny Pot is right next to Edale train station.)

I’m advised there are only 8 places left so if you fancy an evening of lovely food for the bargain price of £18 per head (bring your own wine) then get in touch with Abbie at The Penny Pot on 01433 670293.

See below for the evening’s menu.

Helen A

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Bistro night menu for 13th October 2009

Blue cheese, crisp walnut and fresh pear salad (GF) (V)
Fresh green herb and seasonal vegetable broth (GF) (V) (DF)
Chicken liver pate served with Mr Pitchfork’s red onion marmalade and crisp toasts (GF option available by request)
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Braised steak and Thornbridge ale pie served with fresh green vegetables and creamy…

Yesterday we cut the ribbon on our new Moorland Garden at Longshaw’s Moorland Discovery Centre. The garden was kindly funded by a grant from the Ramblers’ Association, part of the legacy left by walkers’ rights activist GHB Ward (hence the garden’s name, Ward’s Croft).

The sensory garden aims to recreate the diversity of flora on the moors and features 3 large planters full of moorland shrubs and grasses. These will be used as a resource for educational groups to learn about the fragile moorland habitats of the Peak District. The planters are fed by an irrigation system distributing collected rain water that is stored underground.

There is also a story telling area and a tiered amphitheatre in the garden, along with a number of gritstone boulders, evocative of the geology of the Dark Peak.

If you’d like to know more about the…

Yesterday some of the team went on a site visit to the Bleaklow plateau. Amongst other things, we took a look at one of the restoration sites there. I was amazed to see areas that had previously been almost completely bare peat, which are now full of vegetation!

Over the last 5 or so years, a huge area adjacent to the Pennine Way north of the Snake Pass (A57) has been treated with lime, grass seed, fertiliser and heather brash (chopped up heather harvested from healthy moorland areas). This treatment has enabled a nursery crop of grass to establish, which has helped to stabilise the eroding peat. In many places, tiny new heather shrubs are beginning to emerge through the brash, as well as mosses, and we also saw cotton grass spreading in the wetter peat pans.

The next phase of this work will be taking place over the next six months. We will be treating areas where the initial treatment wasn’t so successful, as well as improving the places where revegetation…

What better way to mark the start of British Food Fortnight (19 September 3 October) than with a visit the tea rooms at the Longshaw Estate or Ilam Park? The event is a national celebration of our regional foods and drinks, and the health benefits and pleasures of eating quality, fresh, seasonal and regionally distinct produce. At our tea rooms we are committed to producing, using and promoting seasonal and local food – from traditional dishes made using the way they have been for years to using produce from our local farmers. Why not make today the day you enjoy a taste of the Peak District?

Helen A

Bare peat on Kinder Scout

“I work for the Projects team at the National Trust’s High Peak Estate. The majority of the projects we help manage involve the conservation and restoration of the acres of countryside in the High Peak. Much of this wild open landscape is designed as a SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) or ESA (Environmentally Sensitive Area), which means it must be carefully managed for wildlife and to prevent its deterioration.

Vast areas (such as Bleaklow moor and Kinder Scout) are moorland or peat bog which have deteriorated over the years due to pollution, uncontrolled fires, overgrazing and other issues which have left large areas bare and eroding away.

Over the next year I will be managing a new project on Kinder Scout called Peatlands for the Future. This is a nationally important project that will help to conserve and restore a massive 3,370ha of globally important peatlands in England and Wales. In addition to “Kinder…

Heather

It’s a great weather forecast for the weekend! This could be one of the last opportunities to get out into the countryside while the heather is still in bloom and the moors are looking spectacular. Don’t forget to sign in and send us your best photos!

The country show season is drawing to a close, but we’ll still be making appearances at a few more in the next month or so. Come and visit our caravan / stand at the following places:

• Saturday 12th September – Penistone Show
• Saturday 19th & Sunday 20th September – Hayfield Show
• Sunday 20th September – Whirlow Hall Farm Fayre
• Saturday 17th & Sunday 18th October – Buxton Pavillion

Starting next week, we’ll be posting a series of insights by several members of the team here. I’ll introduce you to one of our Senior Wardens, a project officer and one of our countryside volunteers, who will be able to give you an idea of what goes on behind the scenes here in the Peak District, each from their own…

Welcome to the Peak District

The Peak District is a special area and this new website has been created to help you make the most of this amazing place, both from home and whilst you are visiting. The website can help you find out more about the places you know and love and discover places you never knew existed! But that’s not all; you can use the wildlife section to find out what species you can see whilst visiting, explore the history of the land cared for by the Trust on the history timeline and read more about our work.

People often ask me about what the National Trust does in the Peak District. I think some expect that these landscapes just manage themselves but our team of staff and volunteers do a fantastic job of caring for the iconic landmarks. On the Our Work section you can read more about the work of the Trust and who knows, you may even feel inspired to get involved.

This is…