Chief’s Blog Day 11

Probably the biggest group of the whole trip today, as we are due to make the short haul from Long Eaton into Heanor, only nine miles, and it’s flat most of the way!
Inspector Andy Picken greets us enthusiastically and even tries to juggle with a plate of bacon cobs. Unfortunately he is unsuccessful, and although Tracy likes her food, she normally prefers it on a plate rather than having to catch it in mid-air! Exit one embarrassed Andy to the kitchen for a reload!

Erewash Mayor Eileen Knight greets me, with a personal gift of glassware from Erewash Borough Council, and her kind words give me a good start to the day. She is going to join us as afar as Ilkeston, which is very welcome. I take a few minutes to speak personally to the early shift, and then we enjoy the food and make our way outside for the daily team photo. It’s a tight squeeze in the entrance to the police station, with 27 of us in the shot! Today’s newcomers include a group of blind and partially sighted walkers from DAB, with their guide dogs and sighted guides, and a cheerful lot they are, regular walkers all. Tony Rogers looking for all the world like “Rocky” in his boxing training gear, Gary Parkin, the last of my former Staff Officers to join the walk, making up my full set during my seven years in charge, Marie Davey of our HQ staff, and Peak District National Park Chief Executive Jim Dixon, who I first met at Bakewell Show Dinner several years ago when he arrived in the county. The rookies are completed by Gerard McLister from the County Youth Service together with a young member of the county youth forum. My old Mountain Rescue mate Steve Hilditch from DMRT is driving today, and John Tomlinson and photographer Julian join us again. There were welcome returns to the fold for my son Gareth, Theresa Peltier, and Paul Wilkins, now an almost ever-present!

We set off up Derby Road and join the Erewash Canal towpath at the rear of Walton Street. Barring standing to one side fop the occasional cyclist, we make good progress alongside the canal, and it’s interesting to see the town from a different perspective to the one you usually get from the road. Leaving the central area of town, the houses beside the canal are pleasant with nice gardens, and some of them have narrow boats moored at the end of the garden. I guess it’s an interesting sales feature when it comes to selling your house! We stop opposite the Red Lion at Sandiacre for our first break of the day, and Steve Hilditch breaks out the bananas, which despite the satisfying afterglow of the recent bacon cobs, still seem to go down well! I chat to Gerard and his young colleague about youth matters, which are of considerable interest to coppers these days. Good facilities for young people make our job so much easier, as they find useful things to do instead of hanging around, when, although they’re often perfectly well behaved, they sometimes create a perception of threat, particularly to older folks. I loved the story that Vicky Beardall told me yesterday, about the “Oak and Acorn” approach at Sawley, where they’ve got the older allotment holders teaching the youngsters about gardening, and so much interest has been generated that the young people have clubbed together to rent their own allotment. Fantastic, and it just shows what can be done when you increase the respect between generations.

After the banana break, we continue towards Stanton and after passing Stanton Gate, we leave the canal towpath to join the Nutbrook Trail. The trail is another one of those useful routes which are very accessible but traffic free, and although it winds its way through the once mighty Stanton Ironworks, and you can see old industrial buildings at some points, it soon envelops you in quiet countryside.
You would hardly know that you were walking between two large housing estates as the trail approaches Ilkeston, and we entered the town by crossing the Peewit Golf Course onto Rutland Road beside the Rutland Recreation Ground. It’s some years since I took my son Gareth to play golf at the Peewit one burning hot summer day, and the course had been mown so tight, and the grass was so burnt, that you couldn’t get the ball to stop on any of the greens, no matter what you did. Today it was a lush green, having matured somewhat since those days. We had some good natured banter with a group of “senior” golfers waiting for us to pass before they teed off. As golfers do, I couldn’t resist watching the first tee shot, and very respectable it was too!

Rutland Rec has been improved dramatically over recent years. My early memories of it are watching Derbyshire play Notts there in the cricket County Championship, more years ago than I care to remember, but I seem to recall Ian Buxton was playing for Derbyshire, along with Harold Rhodes, so that makes it late 60’s I think. Buxton was one of those rarities, like Denis Compton, who played professional cricket in summer and professional football, in Ian Buxton’s case for Derby County, in winter. That was another hot summer week, so it seems that most of my memories of Ilkeston contain sunshine, but then again, so do most of my memories of youth.

At the main road, Mayor Eileen Knight bade her farewell to return to work at the Erewash Borough Council Offices. Thanks to Eileen, and the Borough for supporting us. The rest of us turned towards Ilkeston Police Station, and a few minutes later, after stopping to pose for the Ilkeston Advertiser photographer, we arrived to be greeted again by Kath Trueman, for another photo opportunity. Ilkeston Inspector Pete Szabo also met us, and we trooped upstairs to the conference room for a cuppa and a sit down.

Tracy was Ilkeston Inspector immediately before she was promoted and came to work for me and the affection in which she was held was obvious as the troops greeted her. Ilkeston can be a tricky station to command, as it’s a very busy town and things can get out of hand if you take your eye off the ball.  It’s been an early adopter of the Neighbourhood Policing approach, particularly in Cotmanhay, which was one of our earliest community beat teams, and it’s pleasing that the Borough Wardens are now being deployed along the same geographical lines to work with my teams.

Leaving Ilkeston we took the Heanor road, but turned off into the Shipley Common Estate to return to the Nutbrook Trail, taking us into Shipley Country Park. I walked this stretch in the company of some of the DAB walkers. Sarah and Mick are married and although Sarah has partial sight, she is unable to work. Mick lost his sight completely, following a motor cycle accident when he slid under a lorry and hit his head. Guide dog Blake, a gentle black Labrador, is his eyes now. They are a cheerful couple, with not a hint that they feel sorry for themselves.  I had never met Keith Fern previously, but found out that he hails from Crich, and knows many members of my dad’s family. He lives near where my granddad used to live, on Jeffries Lane, and worked formerly at John Smedley’s at Lea Mills, and later at Stevenson’s Dyers at Ambergate, in the dyehouse. Keith had sight problems from an early age, but finally lost his sight due to glaucoma, a painful degenerative condition, and had to give up work some years ago. Afterwards he set up a small plant nursery at his home, but he has recently retired altogether at the age of 65.  He was accompanied by his recent new guide dog, another lovely black Labrador, Dylan. We were able to swap acquaintances, as my dad worked at Lea Mills after the war, and then moved to Stevenson’s, where he spent over 30 years as a hosiery trimmer, backbreaking shift work in which, to earn a living wage, you had to make continuous physical effort from a standing position, over a very hot machine. Even then, they were often put on short time due to the vagaries of the trade, and I well remember as a young kid, going with dad to sign on the dole for some of the days he was not required to work. Demeaning and dispiriting for him and his colleagues, and it must have been a constant struggle to make ends meet, but they were stoical and just got on with life. It’s sometimes been said of me that I make too much of my working class roots. Too right I do, because I’m very proud of them. I spent my early years amongst the factory workers, miners, quarry workers, and bus conductors of my family, all of who had fought in either the First or Second World War. They took good care of their families and aspired for their children to do better than they did, and for the most part they succeeded, thanks also to the wonderful state education system we had then. They are the stuff this country is made of, and we ought not to forget it in this world of “New speak”.

Many years ago, in between school and university, I also spent some time working at Stevenson’s, in the Colour Matching Laboratory, and my particular memory is of the “three day week”, when we only had electricity in the factory for part of the time, and I worked the worst shift pattern I have ever worked, midnight to noon. It was so far in conflict with your normal body clock that it was like being the walking dead. The staff in the lab were all young and we had loads of fun, pulling practical jokes and playing the usual cruel tricks on new starters, like sending them for a “long weight”. Colour matching was a highly skilled job, and our task was to take samples of the garments to be dyed, and create recipes of dyestuffs which would dye the material to the customers’ specifications. This had not only to match in normal light conditions, but under different types of fluorescent light, and you would be surprised how colours change in different lights. Some recipes took many revisions before the foremen dyers in the dyehouse would accept them, and although they never actually gave us a clip round the ear, they often threatened to! Much of the work in that era was for Marks and Spencer’s, and their standards were exacting, so if it was not right, they would reject it, and hence there were often a lot of “seconds on local markets! My year there went quickly, and although they offered me a management traineeship, the dyeing industry was not for me. It has of course literally “died” now, with the work being transferred abroad largely due to cheaper labour, and Stevenson’s stands empty and forlorn.

Reaching the outskirts of Heanor, we made up through the estate at Marlpool and joined the main road, arriving at Heanor Town Hall a few minutes later. A large group of staff, young people from the college, and community partners awaited us, and after I had made a brief speech of thanks, we tucked in to a wonderful spread laid on by Pc Julie Wreford, of the Heanor and Loscoe Neighbourhood Team. Nice one Julie, and well in the running for h “Buffet of the Tour” award. After the exertions of yesterday, an early finish was welcome, and I toddled off to HQ to meet a journalist who wanted to interview me about my retirement. I had almost forgotten that in all the enjoyment of the last few weeks, but Friday was going to come all too soon, and we had finally reached the last day of the walk.

David Coleman
(Former) Chief Constable!

Chief on the Beat - Daily Message 21/09/2007

 Chief’s Blog Day 10

The sun is rising over Swadlincote as we arrive for the start of day 10, and Eileen Banton and colleagues are on hand with our bacon cob ration. If there’s anything I like more than a bacon cob, it’s a bacon cob with mushrooms, and there’s a delicious bowlful this morning, to top the bacon off. Hot tea rounds off our repast, and we assemble in front of the police station for our photo shoot, just after 7am. It’s going to be a long day, the longest, in fact, and we need all the energy we can get!

Just a dozen of us this morning, including another of my former Staff Officers Richard Oldknow, despite his dodgy knee, and my Director of Finance Terry Neaves, who has been training hard for the event, although judging by the number of times he has got lost, his navigational skills don’t always match his financial ones! Pete Lewis, Operations Superintendent at Derby Division, also joins us, along with old faithful Paul Wilkins. This morning’s MR back up team is led by Robin Knott in the Land Rover, John Tomlinson joins us for a second day, with Jill also making a return visit, Julian, and finally Darren Melling with his Welsh Springer Spaniel, Rhys.

Swadlincote town centre is just stirring as we thread through the market place and up the main street towards the ski centre, and it’s cold, but at least it’s dry, unlike our entry to Swad last Friday in torrential rain. The sun comes bursting through, low in the sky, as we tramp up the A514 towards Woodville, and my sunglasses come out for the first time on the trip. Martin Blackham is out early this morning, and is capturing footage as we approach the roundabout at the top. We retrace our steps of Friday, but this time, it’s too early for a drink at the New Inn, and we head off towards Hartshorne, past Broomy Furlong towards our first refreshment stop outside the Admiral Rodney.  It’s now a beautiful but cool morning as we set off again towards Foremark, and I’m at the front of the group with Richard Oldknow, setting a cracking pace to get us all warmed up. After a brief stop at the Visitor Centre, with some very kind ladies arriving in the car park making donations to the appeal, we head off past Bendall’s Farm again, but this time, as we reach Hangman’s Stone, we turn right towards Ticknall, and, arriving in the Community Centre car park, we see the Derby Division Mobile Police Station parked, it’s occupant nowhere to be seen and presumably having gone on foot patrol around the village. However, we are met by one of my Armed Response crews, who happen to be in the area. These guys and girls are on patrol 24/7 to deal with any armed incident in the county. Fortunately, most jobs they are deployed to turn out to be fairly minor, but they don’t know that when the call comes in, and they attend knowing that they may be risking their lives to deal with armed criminals. They are model professionals, and I salute all of them.

The Church of St. George at Ticknall is set in beautiful surroundings, and I wander off to get some photographs. It’s in a gothic revival style and was built in 1831 to replace the old Church of St.Thomas a’Beckett. Parts of the old church proved very resilient to demolition, and the west wall and the altar window still stand, adding interest to the beautiful church yard.

Back in the car park, members of a rambling group from Allestree are assembling for their 6 mile walk, and we have a bit of banter whilst relieving them of some spare change for the appeal. Their friendly demeanour just reinforces the fact that walking in groups is a very sociable activity.  I get chatting to Darren Melling, who turns out to be a freelance design consultant, and tells me he designed the seats for the new Wembley Stadium during his previous employment. He designs tools, packaging and a host of other stuff, and you can see his work on www.corvexdesign.co.uk  Rhys is his constant companion, a lovely natured and well-behaved dog.

As we leave the car park and head for the grounds of Calke Abbey, I walk along with Jill and Julian at the rear of the group. Jill is a support worker at a children’s home in Stoney Middleton, looking after a small and constantly changing population of kids who have various behavioural difficulties and are mainly resident for only a few weeks, but the staff work intensively with them on an almost one-to-one basis, and Jill is at work for a whole week, 24 hours a day, before having the following week off.  Exhausting work, and no wonder she enjoys the other part of her life as a trainee mountain leader!

We enter the park past the pay booth, and I get my National Trust card ready, but pedestrians enter the park for free, and we are quickly absorbed by the majesty of the landscape and the avenue of beautiful mature trees which lead us towards the house itself.  Julian, walking beside me, tells me he is a freelance professional photographer, and I eagerly pump him for tips about which camera to buy and how best to use it. He was a PR professional, but got fed up with the same old BS and decided to take up photography for a living. I learnt something of the world of professional photography, and found it fascinating.

Calke Abbey is widely known as “the time capsule” house. It was acquired by the National Trust in 1985 as a most unusual property where it seemed that time had stood still. The Harpur family had lived there since 1622 and were noted for their reclusive eccentricity. In 1985 the property was in need of extensive repair but was lacking in modern amenities and cluttered with the collected family paraphernalia of centuries. The decision was made to carry out essential repairs only and keep the property, so far as possible, in the state that it was left. The visitor does not find, therefore, a highly restored interior but a most interesting and informal picture of a grand country house in its latter years of occupancy and decline. A memorable example of the idiosyncratic nature of the family is the star exhibit of a stunning state bed given to the family in 1714 and never erected! Complete with Chinese embroidered silk hangings the bed can now be seen in an air conditioned display and is 'as new' and meticulously preserved. As a keen gardener, my own favourite part of the grounds is the walled garden, which has been largely restored and is used to grow flowers, vegetables and fruit, very much as it would have bee in the days when it supplied the household.
In the north-west corner of the walled garden is an alcove with tiered shelving used to display auriculas and other potted plants – possibly the last surviving “auricula theatre” in Britain! In cultivation for nearly 500 years, the auricula developed from wild primulas found high in the Alps and became popular in mid-16th-century Viennese gardens. When first introduced to Britain, the plant was seized on for its beauty, and in the 18th century, enthusiasts expanded the family of plants to vast numbers. Auriculas were displayed on tiered stands, known as “theatres”, and everyone, from peers of the realm to amateur gardeners, turned their hand to growing them. Today, auriculas are still widely “fancied”, and the National Auricula Society, founded in 1872, has a busy schedule of shows, especially in April and May.
Calke is well worth a visit, and even if you’ve been once, go again!
No time for us to take in all the delights of Calke this morning, though, but we do have time to visit the café for a cup of tea, and we shelter there for a few minutes whilst a rain shower falls. The warmth is welcome, and the rain has stopped by the time we set off again. Through the car park and past the lake, we take the path towards Melbourne, and as we do, lying under a fallen tree behind the deer fence is a beautiful stag, not ten yards from us. He looks imperiously at us and doesn’t move, and it’s as if he enjoys posing for photographs. Julian grabs the opportunity to take some great shots, and let’s hope he makes a couple of quid out of them!
Reaching the fields above the park we encounter a tractor spreading muck, an we detour lightly to the edge of the field to avoid getting an impromptu shower, reaching the safety of the fence at the bottom and then climbing up the next field, from where we begin to get lovely views across Staunton Harold Reservoir towards Melbourne.
Melbourne is a lovely village, with many of its old buildings well-preserved. What I hadn’t appreciated until I saw the plaque in High Street was that Thomas Cook, the “father of modern travel” was born in Melbourne in 1808, having always associated him with Leicester.  A group of cottages stand as a memorial to him, occupied by a number of Melbourne’s senior citizens.
The smell of fish and chips is almost too tempting as we wander through the market place, but food awaits us at the offices of Total Concept Office Ltd, in Castle Street. (www.tco.uk.com ) TCO is owned by Tracy’s husband, Richard Harrison, and his mother has kindly laid on a wonderful spread for us, including my favourite delicacy, black pudding, and very good it is too. Richard has kindly donated an office installation to the charity auction, and this has made a substantial sum towards the appeal. Nan chats happily to the walkers as I meet local MP Mark Todd, who has turned out to see us. Mark is one of an increasingly rare breed these days, an MP who has actually worked for a living rather than becoming a professional politician. It shows in my dealings with him over the years, and particularly recently, because he knows the practicalities of running an organisation, dealing with staff, and managing the finances on a day to day basis. Definitely not one from the ivory tower, Mark has been very much engaged with us both in the regionalisation debate, and the issue of fair funding for Derbyshire Constabulary. It was sad that he announced recently that he will not be standing at the next election, having decided, in his words, to “go and earn an honest living again”. Total respect from me, Mark, and from my Chairman. You’ve done a great job, and you’ll be missed!
Also there to meet us are the local Neighbourhood Team, Pc Dave Oliver and PCSO Chris Bromley, and Parish Council Chairman Terry Statham. Terry is an interesting character. He’s a steam engine fanatic, having been apprenticed at Aiton’s in Derby, and is building a half-size replica steam engine at home, from scratch. It’s going to be 20 feet long and fully operative, and no doubt it will attract crowds of enthusiasts at stem rallies in the future. Good luck with it, Terry, and I look forward to seeing the finished product.

Time to press on, though, enjoyable though this lunchtime stop has been. We have a long way yet to go! Leaving Melbourne towards Kings Newton, we pass the Cross, which is a modern replacement (1936) of an ancient previous cross. It is an unusual cross, since it is dedicated to the uncrowned Edward VIII. I bet the stonemason thought, when he heard the news of the abdication, oh bugger!!
Exiting the village we join the Cloud Trail. I must confess I had not heard of this trail before today. It is a very pleasant route running from the heart of Derby along the bank of the River Derwent and along the disused Derby, Melbourne, Ashby Branch Railway, as far as Worthington, and forms part of the rapidly developing National Cycle Network. Again we make a good pace as the early afternoon wears on, and soon come to the Trent and Mersey Canal not too far from Weston-on-Trent. You can walk the towpath almost all the way to Liverpool if you turn left there, but we were making a right turn towards Shardlow. Canal towpaths, particularly those of working canals, make fascinating walking routes. Boats pass at regular intervals on this stretch, and slowly enough for you to have a chat with the owners whilst they pass. At almost every lock you can stand and watch boats going through, and learn about them and their travels from fascinating canal people. Houses beside the canal are sometimes very special too, and we had an exchange of pleasantries with a lady on a lovely balcony high above the canal, whilst a squirrel sat on her shoulder!
Really cracking on now, we traversed under the A50 and made Shardlow in fairly quick time, stopping only at a couple of locks for a quick drink and a breather. Rain was threatening as we passed through Shardlow, and sure enough it began to rain quite heavily as we entered open country again. Robin Knott had suggested an alternative route into Long Eaton to avoid too much tarmac, but, disaster, the bridge over the Trent which was indicated on the map had disappeared, and we were left looking to superman Steve Wilson, who I half-expected to produce an inflatable boat or a bosun’s chair to get us across. Not even Steve could overcome this obstacle, and I certainly was not going to swim, so there was no alternative but to turn around and revert to the original planned route, across the canal and up by the Derwent, crossing by the footbridge near Church Wilne, and heading out onto the road by Ivy house Farm at Sawley. Tarmac is not our favourite surface, as it’s much harder on the feet than footpaths off road, but this time there really was no alternative. Crossing the M1 for the third time during the whole walk, we entered Sawley and made our way along what by now seemed a very long road into Long Eaton. Soon we were met by Councillor Kath Trueman, Vice Chairman of the Police Authority and a well-known figure in these parts, especially if you come from Ilkeston, together with PCSO’s Vicky Beardall and Dan Mitchell, and Vicky and Dan then “accompanied us to the Police Station!” as we used to say.
At the station, just after 5pm, we were greeted by a large gathering of local supporters, a delightful buffet prepared by the enthusiastic PCSO’s, and a welcoming cup of tea, just in time to prevent us wilting altogether! It was good to have finished the longest day!

David Coleman

(Former) Chief Constable!

The Route