News from Tideswell & District Environment Group

TDEG members have been busy over the summer, monitoring local wildlife and planning new projects to help us all be more sustainable. You can contact us about any of the activities below at info@tdeg.org.uk or join us online to receive regular updates (https://tdeg.org.uk/join-us/ ).

TDEG Needs You!

After a joyful celebration of the TDEG Repair Café at our AGM last month, we are still looking for a new Chair to lead our local group in supporting our projects on Cycling, Wildlife, Rivers and Brooks, Recycling, Climate Action and other Ethical Consumer projects. Please contact us for a chat if you are interested.

Our Next Open Meeting – “How do we Futureproof Tideswell?”

Our next general meeting will focus on carbon emissions and how we might futureproof Tideswell and our surrounding communities. Our speaker is Phil Korbel, local Cressbrook resident and co-founder of the Carbon Literacy Project. The event will be very interactive, with us all sharing ideas on this very current issue. The meeting is on Tuesday, 21 October, 7.30 – 9pm, in Fountain Square Church. All welcome.

A Library of Things is on its way

Do you ever wish you had a particular thing for a particular task you don’t do very often? Maybe you’re having a party and need extra seating or a travel cot or a karaoke machine? This is the impetus for the Library of Things. It lets you borrow things you may want or need upon occasion, rather than buy them.

TDEG is thrilled to announce that the Bingham Trust (a charitable foundation based in Buxton) has awarded us £3000 to help set up a Library of Things in Tideswell. It will be located in Tideswell Community Park’s sports pavilion. Look out for our Grand Opening date in the next Village Voice!

Here are some of the first items you can expect to be able to borrow once we open: We welcome ideas for things you’d like to be able to borrow. We also are accepting donations of things, including hand tools; power tools in good condition; and gardening tools.

In addition to “things” we will need volunteers to help run the library, which will require a couple hours a week.

If you have ideas for things or have actual things to donate or if you’d like to volunteer, please contact lauriewonnell@gmail.com.

Phil and Laurie (LoT project leads) at the proposed LoT venue

Swift Action

Following a very successful Swift walk in June, when around 30 local residents joined us to spot these amazing birds flying into their nests, TDEG established a Swift Tracker group to discover new nesting sites around Tideswell. This work is being undertaken in partnership with the Derbyshire Dales Swift Project and is led by our indefatigable local TDEG member, Kathleen Rigg.

Spotting Swifts in Tideswell High Street with the Derbyshire Dales Swift Project Kathleen states “I have always wanted to learn more about our local Swifts, where they nest and why they only visit the UK for around three months of the year”. She became particularly concerned when she discovered that Swifts are now on the UK endangered Red List, with rapidly declining numbers. She decided to take action to help these annual visitors.

You can read more about all the work Kathleen and others have done for our Swifts on the TDEG web site (https://tdeg.org.uk/swift-action/) . Swifts are amazing acrobatic fliers, spending most of their lives on the wing, eating, sleeping and mating, only landing to build a nest and raise their young. They are also monogamous – faithful to each other and to the same nest site, which they return to year after year. They generally nest in tiny holes under house eaves – most home owners are unaware they are present.

After some necessary training, our new Tidsa Swift Tracker group undertook more than twenty surveys of streets around the village in July. They established we have at least 28 local nest sites. This is a good population which we can build on. We hope to be able to offer nest boxes to residents in known `hot spots’ in the very near future.

If you would like to join the Tidsa Swift Trackers group and help us find new swift nests in Tideswell or if you are interested in having a nest box installed, please contact Kathleen (Kathleen.rigg@btinternet.com) or Lynn Crowe (info@tdeg.org.uk).

Repair Café

Saturday 18 October is International Repair Day and the Repair Café in Tideswell will be part of that event. Do bring your broken items to see if our repairers can fix them for you or give you advice on how to fix them yourself or take to a specialist repairer. We repair electrical items including sewing machines; textiles that have got torn or worn; we can sharpen kitchen knives and garden tools; also clocks, toys, furniture, and bags.

There are homemade cakes, coffee and tea available at the Repair Café, as well as magazines on ethical buying choices and books you can borrow.

The next Repair Café dates are – Saturday 20 September, 18 October and 15 November, meeting in the Tideswell Community Hall between 10am – 1pm (last items by 12,30pm).

Tideswell Buying for Good Club

TDEG members can join the Tideswell Buying for Good (BfG) Club to purchase organic, vegetarian and ethical produce. The products are delivered to the village by Lembas, an employee-owned wholesaler in Sheffield, around every six weeks. To join you need to become a member of TDEG (free) at www.tdeg.org.uk and then follow the instructions at the bottom of the Home Page, where you will find a link. Questions can be emailed to bfgclub@tdeg.org.uk .

Lembas deliveries arrive for BfG Club members

Dates for the Diary from TDEG

Tideswell Repair Café – Saturdays, 20 September, 18 October, and 15 November, 10am-1pm (please bring any items before 12.30pm), at Tideswell Community Hall. Refreshments available. More information on our web site – https://tdeg.org.uk/tideswells-new-repair-cafe-helping-both-the-planet-and-your-purse/

TDEG Litter pick – Sundays 28 September and 30 November, 2pm. Meet outside the Co-op, in the Pot Market, Tideswell. All welcome – children welcome if accompanied by a parent or guardian.

TDEG General Meeting – Tuesday, 21 October, 7.30 – 9pm, in Fountain Square Church, “How do we Futureproof Tideswell”, with Phil Korbel, co-founder of the Carbon Literacy Project. Everyone welcome.