peak district

S4E37 Haddon Hall, the private residence of Lord and Lady Edward Manners,  is set in the Peak District in the valley of the River Wye. With nine hundred years of history, it is one of the oldest houses in the country and moreover one of the only houses in England to have remained in one family’s ownership for its entire existence. In the corner of the Hall, a large soprano pipistrelle bat roost resides within the roof of the Chapel. Steve chats with Lord Edward about rewilding of the estate, his conservation work in Africa and the fact that he has to clear bat droppings from his desk each morning! 

Find out more about wilding of the Medieval Parkland as well as it's ecology
Watch a video of the roost on the Derbyshire Bat Group YouTube page
Advice about bats in historic buildings from Historic England, the bats in churches project and from

Thank you to Wildlife Acoustics and Wildcare for sponsoring series 5 of BatChat.
Visit wildlifeacoustics.com to learn more.
Quote BATCHAT at the Wildcare checkout for 10% off all bat detectors and bat boxes.

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Bats are magical but misunderstood. At BCT our vision is a world rich in wildlife where bats and people thrive together. Action to protect & conserve bats is having a positive impact on bat populations in the UK. We would not be able to continue our work to protect bats & their habitats without your contribution so if you can please donate. We need your support now more than ever: www.bats.org.uk/donate Thank you!

In this podcast, host Daniel Neilson speaks with Dr Catherine Flitcroft, Access and Conservation Officer at the British Mountaineering Council. The BMC is an organisation that represents the needs of climbers, hillwalkers and mountaineers, all the while helping protect the landscape that allows us to fulfil our passions.

Montane has supported the BMC’s Climate Project, raising more than £25,000 from sales of the Montane x BMC clothing collaboration. That money has translated into planting more than 1,000 square metres of sphagnum moss. In the following conversation, Dr Catherine Flitcroft talks about her work at a policy level, about how we can help preserve our landscapes and why sphagnum moss is a miracle plant that can help combat climate change. It’s fascinating. Learn about Montane’s partnership with the BMC at montane.com/bmc. 

14 months of quarantine - Sound familiar? That's what the village of Eyam had to do when The Great Plague made it's way to their village in Derbyshire in 1665. Classics teacher, baker and vegetable grower, Vic Boorman joins Nicky and Ben to throwback to their timely trip to Eyam in Summer 2020. Vic also lets us in on a lesser known historical hobby of hers, Letterboxing.

References:

Balding, C. (2016) Eyam, Derbyshire, Ramblings - Series 32, [Available at https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0745gt3]

Brooks, G. (2001). Year of wonders: A novel of the plague. New York: Viking. Chicago

Foster, A. (2020) Eyam, The Plague Village (Pandemic Super Special), Vulgar History [Available at https://anchor.fm/vulgarhistory]

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We're back for our second episode, this time up in the glorious Peak District National Park. We're joining Stefan Amato, founder of Cycle Touring brand Pannier.cc, Luke Douglas and Christian Smith, the duo behind the new Second City Divide bikepacking route, as well as their newly fledged Outdoor Provisions sustainable nutrition brand, and outdoor photographer Duncan Philpott.

Check out more from our guests at: 

https://www.pannier.cc/

https://www.secondcitydivide.cc/

https://www.outdoorprovisions.co.uk/

If you're inspired to give it a go, check out the official Second City Divide Collection on komoot.

If you'd like to try the route that Stef made for us in the Peak District you can find it on our komoot account here. Alternatively, we've also uploaded a more challenging route from Alpkit's Sonder Winter Gravel Series ride from nearby Hathersage. Why not both?!

Thanks to our podcast sponsor, komoot, we can offer new users a free map region bundle! To claim your free region bundle as a new user of komoot, head over to https://www.komoot.com/account/gift/?code=UNPAVED .

Make sure you enter our giveaway to be in with a chance of winning a pair of tickets to Brother in the Wild by signing up to our newsletter here. You'll find full details and T&Cs on that page.

Read the episode transcript here.

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Cover art thanks to Luke Douglas (photography) and Hannah from Yoke Creative and Tim Wilkey (design), Music by LTO, Vegyn & Keplr.

S1E9 Steve heads to the Churnet valley in north Staffordshire to join Staffordshire Bat Group members Helen Ball and David Nixon for the day. Helen explains how a colony of Brandt's bats in one of their bat box schemes (started by the Vincent Wildlife Trust) have become one of the main study subjects in their small Myotis bat project which is taking place across the Churnet valley. In the evening, Dave explains the aims of the advanced bat survey techniques they're using out in the field to help with the study and discusses an interesting finding they've made where there appears to be no overlap between any Brandt's and Natterer's colonies within the valley woodlands.

If you're interested in finding out more about the bat work taking place in the Midlands region, the biennial Midlands Regional Bat Conference is taking place on Saturday 28th March 2020, more info and booking here: https://www.bats.org.uk/our-work/conferences-symposia/english-regional-bat-conferences/midlands-bat-conference

Take a look at the Staffordshire Bat Group website: http://www.staffordshirebats.btck.co.uk/
To find YOUR local bat group: https://www.bats.org.uk/support-bats/bat-groups

Make sure you're subscribed so you never miss an episode and let us know if you enjoyed the episode on social media using #BatChat:
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Twitter: https://twitter.com/_BCT_
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/batconservationtrust/

For more bat news, head to our website

Thank you to Wildlife Acoustics and Wildcare for sponsoring series 5 of BatChat.
Visit wildlifeacoustics.com to learn more.
Quote BATCHAT at the Wildcare checkout for 10% off all bat detectors and bat boxes.

Google have announced they are discontinuing their podcast app so we recommend making the switch to an alternative podcast app such as:

• Spotify
• Podcast Addict
• CastBox
• Pocket Casts

All apps that BatChat is available on are here.

Please leave us a review or star rating if your podcast app allows it because it helps us to reach a wider audience so that we can spread the word about how great bats are. How to write a podcast review (and why you should).

Got a story to share with us? Please get in touch via comms@bats.org.uk

Bats are magical but misunderstood. At BCT our vision is a world rich in wildlife where bats and people thrive together. Action to protect & conserve bats is having a positive impact on bat populations in the UK. We would not be able to continue our work to protect bats & their habitats without your contribution so if you can please donate. We need your support now more than ever: www.bats.org.uk/donate Thank you!

Pete is one half of the Wide Boyz duo, crack climber extraordinaire and now, author. He’s taken a brief break in signing pre-ordered copies of his first book, Crack Climbing, to answer some quick-fire questions from his Instagram followers. Our plan for Jerry Moffatt to put Pete under the spotlight was foiled by the challenge of co-ordinating the diaries of two of the best climbers in the world today, so you’ll have to settle for me as the voice of Instagram instead.

Pete has just returned from a stint out in Yosemite where he completed seven walls in seven days with fellow climber Sean Warren. Each wall needed to be completed in under ten hours to allow them enough rest between climbs. You’ll be glad to know they achieved their goals, scaling El Cap’s Lurking Fear in nine hours, Leaning Tower’s West Face in five hours, Mount Watkins’ South Face in seven and a half hours, Washington Column’s 10 Days After in eight and a half hours, Half Dome’s Regular North-West Face in six and a half hours, Liberty Cap’s South-West Face in six hours and finally Lost Arrow Spire in seven hours fifty mins.   

Somehow in between his big week in Yosemite and heading up to Kendal Mountain Festival Pete managed to sign over 700 pre-ordered copies of his first book, Crack Climbing, and squeeze in this fun Q&A filled with questions from his followers on Instagram.

If you’re keen to improve your climbing you can head over to our website (v-publishing.co.uk) to order yourself a copy of Crack Climbing; and if you’re really up for expanding your climbing repertoire by opting for our 3 for 2 bundle offer, which features Pete’s book as well as 1001 Climbing Tips by Andy Kirkpatrick and Mastermind by Jerry Moffatt, you’ll be scaling El Cap yourself before long.

If you’ve got any feedback on the podcast, or suggestions for topics to cover or people you’d like to hear from please drop me an email at rae@v-publishing.co.uk 

Our next episode comes out in a fortnight (our last one before Christmas on 12 December) where I’m chatting with Suzanna Cruickshank about her upcoming book, Swimming Wild in the Lake District. If that’s too long a wait then why not pop over to YouTube to catch our interview between Jon Barton and Jerry Moffatt which comes out next week. 

In the meantime, join the conversation by searching for Vertebrate Publishing on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube or sign up for our newsletter at v-publishing.co.uk 

Pete Whittaker is widely regarded as one of the best crack climbers in the world. He seeks out pioneering first ascents and revels in pushing his personal limits. Having grown up in the Peak District surrounded by the area’s world-famous gritstone crags, he has been climbing since the age of six and has gone on to rack up an impressive mix of climbing achievements on a variety of rock types and styles across the globe. As one half of the Wide Boyz duo with Tom Randall, Pete has become synonymous with hard crack climbing. He has taken techniques learnt on his local crags and has applied them to with great effect all over the world, most notably on the huge roof cracks in the desert areas of Utah, and on the big walls of Yosemite. 

Pete popped into the Inspiring Adventure podcast studio to talk to us about his climbing experience and give us a sneaky insight to what we can expect from his new book, Crack Climbing, which he’s written to provide a single point of reference for all crack climbing techniques, regardless of the grade you climb. 

Whilst Pete believes he has only scratched the surface of what is possible with hard crack climbing, we can all agree that his experience places him as a top authority in this field. His ability and willingness to share his learning has led to the production of Crack Climbing and it stands to be the one-stop-shop for learning and applying crack climbing techniques. These techniques should be at the core of any climber’s craft; and the book will help you develop skills with confidence and improve your climbing standard. 

We’ll be back again in a fortnight, with an interview between adventurer Leon McCarron and author of Quest into the Unknown Tony Howard, so do join us for that!

Buy Crack Climbing UK and International
US and Canada Orders

Join in the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

And keep an eye on our YouTube channel for some special videos from Pete!