The press release from the Heritage Lottery team regarding the award of additional grant funding for the Buxton Crescent.

Buxton Crescent future secured

Members of Buxton Civic Association were treated to a fascinating talk on “Old Fairfield” by Chris Simpson, at Poole’s Cavern visitor centre. It is largely forgotten that Fairfield was originally a town in its own right, with a town council and a town hall that can still be seen on Waterswallows Road. The 1831 Census returns recorded a population of 482 which was equal in size to Buxton.

The talk was illustrated with some wonderful original photographs and postcards. Particularly poignant were the pictures of the territorials on exercise on Hindlow in 1910. During the 1914-18 Great War, as well as being a centre for training which included trench building, Canadian troops were stationed at Buxton and underwent training and military exercises in the area. The 1914 -18 war was in part responsible for the decline in the hotel trade, and the major employer for the town became the quarries.
Chris went onto talk about two iconic houses, Pictor Hall which still stands, and the seat of Samuel Swan Brittain, Orient Lodge. Orient lodge has now been demolished but in its day was probably the largest house in the immediate locality. Samuel Brittain whose fortune was made in quarries, lost it all when his investment in a large consignment of tea was sunk in a shipping accident in the 1850’s. The house fell into decline and eventually was taken over by the Binghams before being demolished.

Fairfield was also famous for the quality of its horse breeding, being particularly well known for the quality of its hunters. There was a race course on the common with a Grandstand and an annual programme of horse racing which it was hoped would rival Cheltenham. The races were attended by people from as far afield as Ireland. A painting by Harry Kingsley entitled Fairfield Race course Derbyshire 1825 showing the course and the Grandstand can be seen in the Buxton Museum. It was decided to put an end to the racing after a mass riot and fight broke out in 1830. The race course was abandoned and the grandstand pulled down, and the wooden beams reused to form part of the Methodist Church on the market.

Civic Voice have published their Civic Manifesto 2015-2020. (You can download an executive summary below) The manifesto aims to set out a framework for achieving real localism.

Civic Manifesto 2015-2020

We understand that Buxton Crescent is to receive an additional grant of £11m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) making a total of £23m in total awarded to the project. This still leaves a shortfall of around £2m to secure the future of the project. D2N2 the Local Economic Partnership for the region has been approached to provide this.

Civic Voice the National Association for Civic Societies, is calling on communities across England to nominate buildings and schemes for projects they consider make a significant contribution to the quality of their built environment, whether village, town or city.

Griff Rhys Jones, President of Civic Voice said: “It will not be the usual sort of design award where professionals give an award to the work of other professionals. Instead, the nominations will be made and supported by local communities across the country”.

The Civic Voice Community Design Award was launched in Canterbury at the AGM of Civic Voice. The awards will be distinctive in that nominations can only be made by local communities.

Nominations for projects will be considered that are examples of:
• New buildings
• Historic buildings that have been reused or refurbished
• Public realm schemes such as street works, conservation area improvements, parks, improvements and enhancements of the civic realm.

The judges will be looking for excellence in terms of:
• Quality in design and construction
• Appropriateness
• Community participation and engagement
• Promoting pride of place.

Nominations can be made by community groups and organisations including:
• Civic Societies
• Residents Associations
• Building Preservation Trusts
• Neighbourhood Forums
• Development Tusts
• Local History Societies
• Community Arts Groups
• Other community based voluntary organisations.

Freddie Gick, Chair of Civic Voice said “We are introducing the award with the aim of demonstrating that communities are prepared to accept new development – when the development responds to local needs and is of a high standard of design. The civic society movement is focused on delivering high quality places and these awards are a great way to do that while encouraging collaboration between communities and developers on a local level.”
Communities can enter online at http://www.civicvoice.org.uk/cda with a closing date of 31 March 2015

Transition Buxton are coordinating a project to create a community food production and education area based at the old working greenhouses in the Serpentine off Burlington Road. Volunteers have managed to clear a lot of the invasive scrub already and Buxton Civic Association have supported them with a donation.

There is still plenty of work to be done however so if anyone is interested in volunteering, in particular to help with building raised beds, and composting areas, then there are a number of volunteer days through out the winter.

The days run from 10 til 4 and are on:

Wednesday 19th November
Wednesday 26th November
Sunday 30th November
Wednesday 3rd December
Wednesday 10th December
Wednesday 17th December

If you are interested in helping out, then check out the Transition Buxton website for more information at www.transitionbuxton.co.uk

20th November 2014 at 7.30 pm at the Poole's Cavern Visitor Centre

Some of the bats caught at Poole's Cavern during a recent survey by Derbyshire Bat Conservation Group.

Rather topically with Halloween just around the corner, we recently had a bat survey conducted in Poole’s Cavern by Derbyshire Bat Conservation Group. The group were hoping to record swarming activity. This involves of bats from a widespread geographic area, visiting an underground site and chasing each other in and around the entrance.
The reason why bats swarm during the autumn is not fully understood, but probably allows them to check out hibernation sites and bring males and females from a wide area together to enable mating opportunities and therefore increasing the genetic mixing between colonies.
Steve Roe, Events Manager for Derbyshire Bat Conservation Group explained that although no swarming activity had been recorded; all bats caught were male adults in breeding condition. Steve explained further that “Far more male bats are caught during swarming surveys and it may be possible that they were males checking out the site to see if any swarming was taking place or it could just be that they are using the cavern as a roosting site. It is probably a combination of both, however four species in a single night is still a great result and clearly the site is important for the local bat population.”

It is believed that the reason why more male bats tend to be found during the autumn swarming events is that once mated a female will no longer participate, where as the males will continue to swarm to increase the chance that their genes are selected by mating with more than one female.

In all ten bats were caught in total from four different species; 5 brown long-eared’s, 2 Daubenton’s, 2 Natterer’s, and 1 whiskered.

Our thanks to Derbyshire Bat Conservation Group for carrying out the survey and to Steve Roe for letting us use his photos.

CRISIS OF CIVIC ENGAGEMENT

CRISIS OF CIVIC ENGAGEMENT, SAYS GRIFF RHYS JONES
TV PRESENTER TO LAUNCH CIVIC MOVEMENT MANIFESTO 'LOCALISM FOR REAL'
Griff Rhys Jones, campaigner and Civic Voice President will claim that there is a crisis in civic engagement when he launches the manifesto of the civic movement at its annual convention in Canterbury on Friday 24 October.

Griff will say “We face a crisis of civic engagement. This is a symptom of the frustration people feel as power is taken away from communities and they are subject to tokenistic consultation. We need to give all citizens opportunities to actively shape the future of their place and to give communities the powers they need to enable their town and city centres to prosper”.

To achieve “Localism for Real”, the Civic Voice manifesto will be calling on future Government’s to:

• Make improving the quality of the public realm in our cities, towns and villages a priority
• Give all citizens opportunities to actively shape the future of their place
• Give local communities the powers they need to enable their town and city centres to prosper

Griff will add “If the Government is serious about Localism, they have to listen to the concerns coming forward from civic groups, resident associations and local councils. The Civic Movement agree with the Government that getting the economy moving is essential, but the myriad of proposals coming forward are clearly not the answer.”

Chair of Civic Voice, Freddie Gick said: ”We believe the manifesto, “Localism for Real” puts power back into the hands of communities. We look forward to debating this with politicians and communities over the next 6 months”.

The manifesto will be available to download from the Civic Voice website on Friday 24th October.

Peak District photographer,Phil Sproson,has produced a calendar of the Spa Town of Buxton for 2015. It encapsulates the architecturally significant town from its centre with some great views of the Crescent, the Devonshire Dome, Opera House, Old Hall Hotel and Pavilion Gardens and then outward to the surrounding countryside within a 10 minute drive. The calendar features locations such as the Cat & Fiddle, the Goyt Valley and Solomons Temple as well as a photograph of Poole's Cavern.

It is produced on high quality paper, and can be bought for £7.99 from the Poole's Cavern visitor centre.