The Best of South Derbyshire

And they're off!

Here's me puffing and blowing at the interestingly named Brooksie's Bash Trail Race near Repton in South Derbyshire. This was a warmish 10 mile gallop through fields and woods starting from Foremarke Hall, a nice looking minor stately home which is also the preparatory school for Repton School. My painstaking research has since turned up the fact that one of Repton's alumni was the Olympic champion Harold Abrahams - so in hindsight I think it's odd that they didn't play the Chariots of Fire theme music during our run! Still I managed to get round in 78 minutes which I thought should bag me a V65 prize - but no! In the rarefied atmosphere of old age running, age groups are hotly contested but I found there was no V65 category and I was beaten into second V60 by a local runner (who had only just turned 60! Drat - must try harder next time!)

The bar at the dog-friendly Burnt Pig.
Give us a scratch!

South Derbyshire is quite different to the northern part of the county, the Peak District doesn't go that far down. It's all a bit post industrial with not much regeneration and Ilkeston, where we stayed, is a case in point. However one very fine example of regeneration is the Burnt Pig, a new pub which recently opened up at the end of a row of old terraced cottages on a side street near the town centre. It's well worth a visit and you're lucky if you get a seat most evenings, you won't get a seat at all on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday as they don't open then! A special feature of the pub, apart from the superb beer, is the case of extra large pork scratchings (seen in the photo behind the Citra pump.) I'm sure there's a connection between the scratchings and the pub name. Anyway Simon, the enthusiastic landlord sells tons of them.

During our visit we actually stayed in Kirk Hallam which is on the urban fringe of Ilkeston, it's a fairly unremarkable suburb composed of a series of housing estates from the middle of the last century. However the town planners had the foresight to retain Kirk Hallam Lake as a wildfire sanctuary. It's right in the middle of the village and it attracts large numbers of birds including Swans, Canada Geese, Greylag Geese and various ducks, coots and moorhens. Most of these species breed around the lakeside so at this time of year it's quite congested. The local residents are justifiable proud of their good fortune in having all this nature in their backyards and here are a couple of the visitors:

Honk, honk!