"Look at it this way"

The location for the BBC's Springwatch / Autumnwatch programmes has often been in places I know well, and even very close to home. From Pensthorpe near Fakenham to Minsmere, and particularly Ken Hill in Snettisham (where I lived for 12 years)... And now they've moved to an area of Derbyshire which I visited regularly for decades when I was younger, for walks, climbing, pubs and generally getting out of the city and into the countryside at weekends. The new venue is the Longshaw Estate, which is close to Grindleford (with its famous cafe and where my parents actually had their honeymoon), and Hathersage, and Fox House (where I was first served alcohol in a pub... but that's another story.) Burbage Brook - a classic location for fieldwork for schools from Sheffield - runs through it - through Padley Gorge, and Stanage Edge is not too far away, or several of the other edges where I used to climb. Heading for Hathersage you will pass Froggy Rock and then Surprise View - always...

As National Parks turn 75, a new report highlights only 6% of their land is recorded as being in good health for nature - with the Yorkshire Dales having less tree cover than York and waterways across these special places heavily polluted by sewage released from storm overflows. pic.twitter.com/efHAHoGqdj — Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) April 9, 2024 Biodiversity: just 6% of national park land in England and Wales is being managed effectively for nature, say campaigners. https://t.co/tZ620wBL99 — Brian Groom (@GroomB) April 9, 2024 Here's one of my images of the Peak District... near Strines Image: Alan Parkinson, shared under CC license on Flickr.

Happy New Year! The Peak District is one of my favourite places in the world, and one in which I've spent perhaps more time than most other places. Free Geowalk around the Peak District developed by Martin Whitely. A great offering for the New Year. @geoggeol @AGSB_Geology @seis_matters @ESTA_UK @GeolSoc @WGCG_UK @timeforgeog https://t.co/yD4odNGjpu pic.twitter.com/7SNe4WyGoh — peteloader (@peteloader1) January 1, 2023 There are 14 sections to the walk which can be downloaded as PDFs or GPX files.

Some nice ideas for exploring the rural landscape from FACE. Some from my GA colleague Paula Owens here. Go HERE to download your own copy.

I worked on a range of projects for the Royal Geographical Society a few months back, and the final pieces of the project that I contributed have now gone live on the RGS website. They were part of the Goldsmith's funded FROM THE FIELD project. The latest module which I contributed was for the KS4 series, and is on the theme of MOORLAND ECOLOGY . It explores the process of moorland regeneration, and its link with the ecology that is needed to make the regrowth productive. It's worth remembering that all the resources from the Geography Teaching Today website have now been migrated to either the RGS or the GA websites, depending on which organisation was responsible for producing the original content. If you're after the excellent KS3 RESOURCES they are available here on the RGS website. If you're after the FIELDWORK resources they're here on the RGS website. Thanks to Rose Wilcox , PhD researcher from the University of Hull for her guidance an...

If you live within reasonable travelling distance of the Peak District, you might be interested in a poetry / geography / history event being organised by my friend Rob Hindle. Blitz A descent in the traces of the first bombing raid on Sheffield, 12 December 1940 Longbarrow Press invites you to join Rob Hindle on a walk in the traces of the Blitz: Sunday 12 December Meet at 1.30pm prompt on Platform A, Sheffield Bus Interchange The walk will start on Hathersage Road near the village of Dore at 2.30pm Total distance approximately 6 miles. There is an opportunity to join the walk at Cafe #9 in Nether Edge (see below) at 4pm. The walk from this point is a little under 3 miles. For the 70th anniversary of the Sheffield Blitz, Rob Hindle has devised a poetry walk that will illuminate the attack on the city by German bombers on 12 December 1940. The journey will begin at Dore Moor and end in Fitzalan Square (Sheffield City Centre), with Rob reading and discussing poems th...

Images of Castleton area by Alan Parkinson and Simon Hathaway Lesson 3 of my toolkit looks at the impact of a road closure on a settlement. It is based on the closure of the road below Mam Tor near the Peak District settlement of Castleton. At a session in Gloucester yesterday, I talked about the connection with the settlements in Cumbria which have been affected by the closure of bridges following the unprecedented rainfall in the area over the weekend. There is lots of potential here for exploring the impact of sudden change, and the long term nature of that change... I have uploaded an old resource of mine which I developed for use around the same time, but which didn't make it into the toolkit. This is a "most likely to" activity based in the same area of Castleton in the Peak District. I used this extract numerous times throughout my teaching career, and it found its way into many a textbook and mapskills task... Castleton Most Likely To View more presentations fro...