The Baronets Diary March 2025
I am still styled as High Sheriff in Nomination for the County for the year from April 2025. Even though I am in a great deal of meetings as I prepare for my year I cannot officially call myself High Sheriff until His Majesty the King exercises his Royal prerogative . Once a year, usually in March, he holds a ceremony to appoint his High Sheriffs, marking each appointment by 'pricking' the candidate's name on a parchment roll with a long needle, called a bodkin. Whilst I and the other 54 potential candidates will not be present it is only after that when we can officially select our date, time and venue for our Installation in the post. When you read this it may well be that my name has been ‘pricked’..all I can say is that I hope to be installed in the month of April.
I wrote about a potential film in last month’s ( February 2025) column that was to have been shot here at Tissington Hall. With only a week to go the shoot was cancelled and all our preparation came to nothing. I write not to chastise the lateness of the cancellation but to highlight a factor of behaviour in society at present that has been exacerbated in the last year or so. Not just filming opportunities but with wedding couples and events people are booking far later than before so that the usual gestation for a marriage has dropped from 18 months ( at first enquiry) to under a year. This , alongside the challenging economic climate as we enter life under a new Government, means that hospitality business, especially in the rural areas, is more and more under threat. Please support your local enterprises in the coming year….they will greatly appreciate it.
It is not often that I am asked to write a foreword to a book but In January I was delighted to receive in the office a package containing a charming book of poems written by Buxton’s F. Philip Holland. This anthology is entitled ‘Fine Feathers’ and is a collection of all the works that Philip has written about our feathered friends. Containing over eighty poems Philip uses his skill with words and verse to capture the magic and joy of the species. Sometimes Philip writes of first hand encounters in his beloved Peak District (Kingfisher at Swainsley and Long Hill Lapwings) and others are glimpses well away from these shores (the frigate birds in Antigua and Ostrich Thoughts after a trip to Kenya).In all these avian tributes Philip uses different forms of verse to make the descriptions more dramatic and I would commend this lovely little book including delicate drawings by his wife Pat (published by Five-Bar-Gate Publishing in Buxton) to bird lovers everywhere.
During a trip to London Fiona and I bumped into another large Midlands landowner who regularly opens his Castle and gardens to visitors events and weddings . Discussing the dilemma of living where we work and working where we live he suggested that we change the name of our Historic Houses Association to the Masochist’s Association. Why….because as owners we have huge responsibility for our heritage yet we all live in our homes wearing five layers in winter, sticking numerous hot water bottles down our beds and attending to fire alarm soundings at midnight due to spiders making their homes in the detectors! Our houses ( and castles) are not for the faint-hearted! If the nation do not value them it will lose them at its peril.
One of my usual places to stop between Tissington and Warsop on my weekly forays to Nottinghamshire is the Starbucks at Heath near Chesterfield on the A617. My routine is to grab a drink, stretch my legs and then continue to see the farms just north of Mansfield. This is normally no more than a ten minute pitstop but I had the pleasure of a two hour wait there on the last Saturday in January as the battery packed up on my truck as I tried to resume my journey. Luckily I have been a member of the AA for over thirty years and after a telephone call and an app interaction a patrolman and van arrived to replace my battery and set me up on my way. Sadly I did not make Warsop that day but I am more than familiar with the Starbucks staff, the Greggs ladies and the Esso petrol attendants on the last stop on the A617 before you hit the M1. My knowledge of all things Derbyshire is extended.