2016 - The Annual Review
w/e 01 January 2017
All of this week's pictures were
taken with a Kodak DX6490
It's amazing how quickly this seems to come round
but here we are again on the threshold of another year and it's
time for a look back at the previous twelve months.
January is usually a slow month for photographic events so following
the review of 2015 we filled in with another instalment of the
First Impressions series and set off up Nottingham Road. The
following week I sat in a corner of the Market Place and did
a series of panoramic shots. It would not have happened a few
days later when snow covered the town and my seat for the panorama
was covered with the white stuff! It didn't last long though
but there was still a little about when we made our customary
visit to Wollaton Park which always seems to happen in January.
It was bitterly cold though the following week for our walk around
Shardlow for another part in the Village Trail series that we
followed there.
But in the middle of the month on the 14th of January I was privileged
enough to be present in the Mayor's Parlour in the Town Hall
when Ilkeston war veteran Ernest Turner was made a Chevalier
de l'Ordre National de la Legion d'Honneur. The presentation
by French consul Jean-Claude Lafontaine was made in the presence
of the Mayor of Erewash and the High Sheriff of Derbyshire as
well as members of the Royal British Legion, Ernest's family
and friends and assorted press and TV personnel.
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Candlemas is a Christian holiday celebrated annually on February
2 and we began the month in Shipley Country Park looking for
Candlemas Bells - Snowdrops. We also spotted a couple of early
but lonely daffodils and a couple of weeks later saw more daffodils
at Cossall midway through a pleasant winter's afternoon walk
from Ilkeston to Kimberley. The next part in the Nottingham Road
series took up another week and towards the end of the month
we returned to Shardlow for the penultimate section there. We
were not to return to the village again until August to complete
that particular Village Trail.
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Easter fell early in 2016 all be it at the end of the month but
by then daffodils were blooming all over the place and are seen
here prior to the Palm Sunday service at St Mary's Church. Earlier
in the month we had indulged in a bit of March Madness on the
Erewash Canal and photographed a Job and Community Fair on the
Market Place.
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Heritage Lottery funding had enabled the Erewash Museum to refurbish
the Hayloft and Stable Block and it was opened to the general
public early in April in conjunction with a Victorian Extravaganza,
the first event of the season which was followed by several more
that we also enjoyed during the year. In the middle part of the
month we had two week's worth of images from a Walking For Health
route through Shipley View Estate and finished the month with
what turned out to be a rather nostalgic look at the area on
Nottingham Road near where I grew up. There's still one more
part to go in this series to reach to top of the road but it
didn't feature again on 2016. If January 2017 is true to form
it might well be featured then! (Not forgetting Wollaton of
course).
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One of those Erewash Museum events took place in May and that
was the annual Motorbike Day. On the sane day a group raising
money for MacMillan Cancer hauled a steam engine all the way
from Sandiacre to Ilkeston. Weatherwise the start of May is what
can best be described as "changeable" with sunny mornings
and dull showery afternoons- We even had snow! But the spring
flowers weren't badly affected by it and the weather didn't spoil
our walk around the Attenborough Nature Reserve or our trip to
Cromford (above) at the end of the month.
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June was party time with the Annual Carnival, Party In The Park
to celebrate the Queen's 90th birthday and a Summer Fayre in
Stanton Road Cemetery but this unfortunately had to be cancelled
due to the wet weather. It didn't stop me taking a few photos
there though. June was also the month I took some photos in Beeston
which haven't really seen the light of day and nor are they likely
to! They are not that good so it was images from Trent Lock that
completed the month's offerings. One Saturday morning in June
I stood by the railway line where it passes close to the Erewash
Canal with about a dozen other people as we waited for the Flying
Scotsman to pass. The whole route had been lined by train spotters
and this had caused a delay and by the time it passed us it was
about an hour late. I did manage several shots as it sped past
at about 60mph of which this is probably the best.
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The party season continued into July so after a look at West
Park in Long Eaton where we began another series following the
Tree Trail, it was the Lakeside Festival at Kirk Hallam followed
by the Well Dressings and Scarecrow Trail at West Hallam.
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 On the last day
of July there was the Summer Sounds Concert in Victoria Park
which was very well attended. Also towards the end of July we
had visited Kelham Hall near Newark on a fund raising trip for
the Cantelupe Centre Roof Appeal. I shared images from this trip
both in July and August. The Cantelupe Centre needs to raise
about £60,000 for the roof refurbishment and other events
in aid of the appeal during the summer included a Garden Party
and a "Send Your Teddy Down a Zip Wire" from the top
of St Mary's tower. Further events took place through the year
and I produced a calendar for 2017 which should raise in the
region of £120 towards the appeal. Not a lot I know but
as the saying goes "Every little helps".
Aside from the appeal we enjoyed walks in the University grounds
at Nottingham and along the GNR Path at Awsworth and Kimberley
in August. On Bank Holiday Monday we were back at the Erewash
Museum for the annual Brass Band Concert and as already mentioned
concluded the Village Trail at Shardlow. Quite a lot going on
in August then and there was still the Vintage Car event to pull
in on the Market Place.
And so to September where the main feature providing images for
three weeks (two in September and another in October) was the
Autumn Footprints Walking Festival. The Festival which ran for
sixteen days had nearly 40 guided walks and I participated in
ten of them. One such walk from Breaston to Stanton By Dale and
back through Risley took place on one of the hottest days of
the year and even the most experienced of Ramblers found it hard
going towards the end. The most difficult task I had in assembling
this page was to sort out a single image to illustrate each month
and September's was perhaps the most difficult. I could have
picked any number of images showing walkers traipsing across
fields or views of the differing and beautiful Derbyshire landscapes
but eventually settled on this one. I should also mention here
our visit to the National Plant Collection in Darley Park at
Derby and a tour of various sites in Ilkeston where work was
in progress on several schemes which also took place in September.
As we begin a new year some of those projects are still ongoing.
As well as those Autumn Footprints images in October we also
had another visit to West Park in Long Eaton and a walk in Shipley
Park looking for autumn colours. The annual Charter Fair took
place and brought crowds of people to the town centre as usual
and we also noted how quickly the town centre had returned to
normal when the travelling showmen had moved on.
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 November
saw us again looking at the autumn colours in the town and we
took a short walk along the Beeston Canal near Nottingham's Castle
Marina. The Christmas lights were switched on at the end of the
month and around the eleventh we had a week of remembrance. On
Remembrance Sunday morning I climbed St Mary's tower to capture
some images of the service in the Market Place below and took
the opportunity whilst up there to survey the landscape. Here
Bath Street can be seen on the left with the wind turbine and
Bennerley Viaduct towards the right. I also observed the state
of the Cantelupe Centre roof that is causing concern.
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To begin the final month of the year we made two trips into Nottingham
to follow a new tourist trail called quite unimaginatively "The
Nottingham Trail". It started and ended near the Old Market
Square which was full of Christmas attractions in a "Winter
Wonderland" although for the time of year it has been quite
mild and we haven't really had any significant winter weather
yet. Having said that as we approached the year end it did turn
decidedly colder with freezing fog. Our remaining images in December
though focused on the preparations for Christmas with some seasonal
scenes from around the town and at home as we brought the year
to a close. Soon it will be time to put the foil trees, other
decorations and the "antique" cards away but before
you know it. we'll be fetching them out again as we approach
Christmas 2017.
I usually end the annual review with a look forward to the year
ahead and presume that photographically next year will be no
different to the one just ended. There will be the usual Carnivals,
Fayres and Fairs, Museum events, walks of all shapes and sizes
and anything else that takes my fancy. I'm still toying with
the idea of an Ilkeston A-Z that I first mentioned this time
last year - but that's all I'm doing at the moment, toying with
the idea. I still have the West Park Tree Trail to complete but
that might have to wait until the leaves start to appear on the
trees again and then there's the final part of the Nottingham
Road in the First Impressions series to do followed by six more
roads into the town. That should keep me busy for a while.
So far in this review I've managed not to mention the results
of the General Election, the European Referendum or the American
Presidential Election all of which produced unexpected and surprising
results. Each week I ask visitors to the site to vote for their
favourite image and some weeks those results are surprising too
but those results are not going to change the world. That vote
is just for fun so for 2017 I'll just keep on doing the same
old, same old .... . Hope you'll join me each week.
To revisit the places we have been to in 2016 the easiest way
is to follow the links from the
"Favourites
2016" page which shows all the winners of the weekly
"Pick A Picture" vote.
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