Did you know?

Am I alone in being frustrated by the sheer time it takes to get things to happen nowadays. In a supposed communications age, it seems harder than ever to get one's message through and procrastination seems the dominant management theme. "Let's have an honest debate" means anything but, "Let's look at the bigger issue" means we are going to talk about it but not actually do anything for years.

For example can you really believe how long it is taking to do anything about the parking problem at the bottom of Dore Road. If we had an effective Parish Council it could have been dealt with in the next week!! Or just give me a pot of yellow paint!

No doubt we will be treated to all kinds of promises by national politicians over the next few weeks. We know that the Government largely calls the tune on what local councils can and cannot do - planning legislation for instance, but it is hard to readily associate life here with a remote bunch of career politicians in Westminster. Still at least we get a chance to vote, by post now if we wish, even if the vast majority of votes count for nothing due to our first past the post system.

Still if you wait long enough some things do change for the better. The Dore Deli on the High Street has now re-opened under new management, the empty Nottingham Building Society office has been absorbed by an expanded Vivid and even the HSBC Bank has extended its hours! Tarmac has been laid over the pot-holed pavement in front of the Causeway Head Road shops, new street signs have sprung up and the village is going to get it's flower tubs again.
All we need now is some summer!

Doremouse

New Crossing on Causeway Head Road

It's taken a long time but, at least, we're now getting close. The scheme to provide a road crossing point near the shops has now been completed and is ready for consultation with residents. It proposes a crossing point close to the HSBC bank formed by narrowing the road at this point, a feature which will not only reduce vehicles speeds but also give pedestrians a far better view of traffic coming from both directions.

Further changes are planned, for the Dore Road/Rushley Road/High Street junction, which will also reduce traffic speed and provide improved pedestrian facilities.

It is likely that a South West Area Panel public meeting will soon be held in the village to discuss the scheme. Keep an eye on the DVS notice board for meeting details.

Heritage Visit to the Derwent Valley

The 50-mile long Derwent valley saw the development of the Industrial Revolution with a huge variety of factories and crafts using the river's water power to drive many types of machines. Already the valley has been designated a National Heritage Corridor and a section, from Derby to Cromford, has applied for listing as a World Heritage Site (WHS). As part of the Dore Village Society's 2001 events programme, a coach visit has been arranged to two of the main sites within the area for which WHS listing has been applied.

On Wednesday, June 27th we will visit Cromford Mill, the home of the Arkwright Society, where there will be a talk about the mill and the WHS application, followed by a conducted tour of the site. The second stop is at Strutt's North Mill at Belper where a guided tour of the exhibition will be followed by a buffet meal.

Travel will be by coach leaving Dore at 1.30pm and returning about 9.00pm.
Tickets (£11.00 for DVS members, £13.00 for non-members) for the visit, which cover entry and tours at both sites, travel and the buffet meal, will be by application form available from Green's on Causeway Head Road at 9.00am of Thursday, May 17th.

As the trip is limited to a maximum of 35 people, applications will be treated strictly in order of receipt. So get your application in early to avoid disappointment. The visits promise a truly fascinating occasion. Click to send email

Quiet Lanes

The Government has responded to CPRE's Safer Country Lanes campaign by introducing new powers for local councils to designate certain roads as 'quiet lanes' and reduce the speed limit accordingly. Given its importance to walkers, cyclists and horse riders, the Dore Village Society has asked the Council to consider whether Whitelow Lane would be a suitable candidate for such an initiative.

Dore Show 2001

This years Dore Show will take place on Saturday 8 September in the Old School and Methodist Church Hall.- be sure to note the date in your diary.

There will be 74 classes for you to enter for or come and see, ranging from vegetables to paintings. The full schedule will be available from Greens on Causeway Head Road shortly.

For those keen photographers wishing to plan ahead, the 3 photography classes will be: Colour - My Holiday - any size; Colour - The Natural World - min 7" x 5; and Black & White - Open - min 7" x 5.
The Show has become an established part of village life, largely thanks to the exhibitors and those who plan and run the event on the day. As always many hands make light work! If you can offer a little help on the day please contact the Show Secretary on 236 9025.

Letters

Dear Sir,
I noticed the letter in the local magazine "Dore To Door" requesting information re the Coates/Coats family connections with Dore.

I have a lifelong friend called James (Jim) Reginald Booker who has lived in Calgary, Alberta, Canada these last thirty odd years, but his parents were both Sheffield people and his mother was I recall a Miss Coates or perhaps Coats.
I also recall Mrs Ivy Booker (Jim's Mum of blessed memory) describing her childhood in the Whirlow area of the city (adjacent to Dore of course) and I think she said that her folks were farmers and that her grandmother, when widowed, used to live in the cottages that used to project into Ecclesall Road South just opposite the Wheatsheaf Hotel at Parkhead. The last cottage was removed when the road was "improved" some ten or fifteen years ago ? or maybe more!.

This conversation was I think sparked by my wife and I talking about Whirlow Hall Farm, which Ivy Booker remembered from her childhood and was interested to hear about now being a centre for youth education. Mrs Booker remembered taking her Grandma milk using a yoke to carry two pails of milk ? the classic milkmaid picture!
We wish David Coates luck in his researches.

Brian and Pat Midgley

Dear Sir,
At the foot of Bushey Wood Road there is a building with this plaque, which reads 'ALMS HOUSES IN MEMORY OF ELLEN CARTER 1900'. I understand that Ellen lived at the Dingle, Woodland Place, Bradway, and that she was a member of the Carters of Little Liver Pills fame. Does anyone know anything further?

Brian Edwards

Dear Sir,
Your picture of Dore High Street (front page of spring issue) taken before the demolition of the cottages in the right foreground is full of interest. Next door to Green's cottage with its admirable gateposts in hand -cut stone is what seems to be a vacant lot; this must be where Hatie Frith's grocery was with the butcher's next door, or rather where they were built later, out of sight from the camera's viewpoint.

The photograph was carefully set up with a stationary horseman in a knickerbocker suit perhaps, which would suggest an early 20's date.

On the other hand, Marshall's sweetshop on the corner of Townhead Road is all in place. 'Player's Please' was on the long sign over the window and 'Hovis' on the suspended sign in the distant right by the lamp. I think I can see the red letter-box set into the wall of the first cottage on the left. The great wall of this gable-end later bore a large advertisement for the pub, actually painted on the stones.

On the ground below it, with a strange white area just above, is the old mounting-block' clearly visible. Is it still there today?

Glen Fallows

Dear Sir,
Let there be light, "and there was light and it was good".
No you're not reading the Parish Magazine. It's still Dore to Door, with an important suggestion for a better safer sensible community pioneering idea of more light for those long dreary dark at 4pm nights in the coming winter.

In my front window I have 3 lamps each with a 60 watt bulb and one side of house light of 100 watt. I leave lights on in the window all evening, curtains drawn of course, and the side light on all night at the house side. The people who make the community unsafe have no desire to be seen doing naughty things.

This a positive way we can help ourselves with no further installation outlay and make our Roads, Avenues, Crescents, Closes, much more pleasant for ourselves. Inside and outside.

I suggest a pilot scheme of one, two, or three roads and see how it goes. How about it?? Lets make Busheywood Road the best lit road in Dore and Totley. For starters.

Betty James

Dear Sir,
A False Sheffield
The remains of the wartime decoy site mentioned in the last issue can still be seen on Houndkirk Moor on the eastern side of Houndkirk Road at map reference SK 276815.

About 200 metres from the Fox House end of Houndkirk Road you can see the foundations of the decoy unit's buildings. Continuing towards Sheffield the road (an un?metalled turnpike) crosses over a ridge then drops and bends slightly (good views over Sheffield and as far as Doncaster on a clear day). Further remains of the decoy site are on your right hand side: the rectangular dry stone wall which enclosed some trenches can still be seen, as can a roadway and turning circle for the army vehicles.

The trenches may have contained, as well as flashes to imitate furnaces and steam locomotives, a decoy tram line. This was a series of electrically induced flashes passing along the trench to simulate a moving tram's collector pole passing along the overhead wire.

These decoys could only be lit up before the bombers arrived. If a bombing raid began before the decoy site operators could be alerted and begin their work they were helpless, as once the enemy had located their targets, operating the decoys would simply have given the game away.

These sites exist in various parts of the country and there is an ongoing project to record them and list them for preservation. I have often wondered what it must have been like for the people who were stationed at these sites, making themselves a target and then huddling in their shelters as the bombs rained down close by. I guess they were just some of wartime's many unsung heroes.

Mick Savage
Ed. Mick Savage is the author of "The Mystery of Carl Wark", available from him on 236 9002.

Spring has finally arrived

In view of the weather we have all had to endure since Christmas, I have been hesitant in requesting all the gardeners in Dore to think about opening their gardens for the annual Dore Gardens Open Day during the 2001 Dore Festival. However, Spring has arrived and lifted all our spirits, and many gardens are looking wonderful.

If you have an interesting garden please consider opening it on Sunday 8th July, from 2pm until 6pm. As well as giving a great deal of pleasure to the local community, the Garden Open Day has raised a considerable sum for charity each year. Each 'garden opener' chooses their preferred charity or charities to benefit. Last year more than £1,000 was raised.
All sizes and styles of garden are wanted, and we are not looking for perfection. If you have visited the gardens in other years you will know that it is great fun and very enjoyable for all those involved.

If you wish to put your garden forward or to find out more please contact me on 236 9100.

Julie Bearpark

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