• The Lost Villages of Ashopton and Derwent

    14/12/2015 Author: Stephen Turnock
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    The Lost Villages of Ashopton & Derwent in the Peak District is the destination – plus a little of The Dam Busters, Monks and Abandoned Farmsteads and some hot chicken soup thrown in for good measure.

    The Peak District, as with many other places that are right under your local nose, is full of fascinating history – from recent times to as far back as the end of the last ice age. Apart from the beauty of the place, if you only look twice you can find some great evidence. We are really a bit Johnny come lately aren’t we, when you just stop to think that your very footsteps were walked 10,000 years ago or maybe that pile of rocks you stepped on to tie up your boot laces, were put there to clear a field 4,000 years ago or indeed that prehistoric rock art that was etched 6000 years ago.

    One particular place I am interested in is the more recent history of the Upper Derwent and the lost villages of Derwent and Ashopton which were submerged following the construction and flooding to form Ladybower Reservoir in the 1930’s. [Read More…]

  • Delamere Forest to Atoll South Pacific, It’s Crime Scenes all the way..

    30/07/2018 Author: Stephen Turnock
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    We all come across litter when out in the great outdoors – whether it be a Forest, your street or a Pacific Coral Reef Atoll. [Read More…]

  • Listen to your Recruiter Ancestors!

    12/08/2017 Author: Stephen Turnock
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    If you are in recruitment did you ever stop to think about the origins of your industry? Recruiters today have a lot to thank the original recruitment pioneers for. It’s easy to forget that the Recruitment industry has been around for a long time but most recruiters I would say do not want a history lesson and they know everything! Well, that’s OK. I knew everything too!

    One of the oldest references to a public employment agency was in 1650 and the first private employment agency was opened in the US in 1893, an Engineering Agency and you will find a few dotted around the UK such as London domestic Agency ‘Masseys’ established in 1845. For specialist technical recruitment businesses and consultancies we are probably looking at the 60²s for the first ones to appear. The company I started out at was established in 1961 in Stockport by Alan OBrien – Manchester Design Services and latterly MDS Consultants plc. [Read More…]

  • Retro Recruiter – It’s back to the future

    16/12/2016 Author: Stephen Turnock
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    IT Operations in Recruitment
    Some younger recruiters may not remember the welcome sight of a phone box in the middle of nowhere. Normally they were on the rainy side of the street and required a lot of u-turns. Invariably they didn’t work or indeed had someone in it who was in no hurry whatsoever – and when they did step out, would do so amid a puff of smoke.

    If not remembering phone boxes, then certainly most recruiters will remember their first placement. I certainly remember mine.

    My first placement was actually done on my second day in recruitment and that candidate, an Instrumentation Design Engineer, was called from a phone box. [Read More…]

  • You are what you eat! e.g. Cancer, Diabetes and more..

    03/11/2016 Author: Stephen Turnock
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    The food industry portrays pictures of the happy farm yard on the front labels but in truth, the contents are laden with gazillions of cancer and disease causing chemicals  – many of which are disguised or simply missing from the labels. The average supermarket with maybe 50,000 products on the shelves –  of which 90+% are bad for us,  containing the factory food industry products and processes that will keep us sick and addicted that were created by the needs of big spenders such as the Monster McDonald’s.

    We’re seeing obesity at all ages increase at record highs as the addictive fat, sugar and salt filled products keep us running on empty calories and running back for more.  Meanwhile  most people are landing in hospital where the underlying causes is malnutrition and most people leave hospital more malnourished than when they went in in addition to being pumped full of drugs in an age where in the UK alone, an acceptable level of deaths due to legally prescribed drugs is 10,000 per year. That’s not all, 95% of  disease INCLUDING Cancer can be prevented and even reversed should we give the body the right food. Simply increasing raw fruit and veg and vitamin supplements. [Read More…]

  • The USAF B29 Superfortress wreckage on Bleaklow

    23/12/2015 Author: Stephen Turnock
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    In this video walk, I tell the brief story of the Boeing RB-29A [F13-A] Superfortress 44-61999 ‘Over Exposed’ which crashed on the 3rd November 1948 at Higher Shelf Stones in the Peak District on Bleaklow, near Glossop. Tragically, all the 13 crew members were killed – just  3 days before they were due to return home having survived WWII.

    The Superfortress was on a routine flight from the American airbase at Burtonwood, Warrington. The flight was carrying the payload of $7,400 dollars for the buttonwood base employees.

    There are over 180 plane wreckages in the Peak District but none more prolific in terms of remains, than this super fortress –  an incredible engineering masterpiece of the day and one which is the forerunner of modern jets of today.  [Read More…]

  • Littering, Respect & Responsibility?

    16/12/2015 Author: Stephen Turnock
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    It’s great being out and about in the glorious outdoors. What striking beauty we have on our doorsteps – the places that replenish and oxygenate the urban world.

    BUT…. one thing you cannot help notice however is the increasing amount of trash left behind. What goes on in the minds of these people – who presumably also enjoy getting out? Just throwing bottles and cans etc., along the way side, is beyond most of us but the problem is not just UK bound but is worldwide.

    Snippets in this video are from places of extreme beauty – Delamere Forest in Cheshire and also the Snake Plantation – Lady Clough, in the glorious Peak District. Marred sometimes by litter left by the few and notably wild campers who don’t understand the ‘leave no trace’ Code. [Read More…]

  • A mini Tale of Survival – just 30 mins from civilisation on Bleaklow!

    16/12/2015 Author: Stephen Turnock
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    Tales of the Lost Witch of Bleaklow, The Novice Hiker in the Snow, a B29 Super Fortress and Sheep’s Skull Wardrobe in a Bothy

    Ok no Witch or Wardrobe but sounded better!. But definitely a Lost Novice..!

    When it comes to walking in the hills I can only be described as a novice still – being just short of 2 years in total since discovering the fantastic wonders of the glorious peak district in what started out as a Sunday walk up Mam Tor. I think I have pretty much been back every week, primarily doing circular walks from various guide books and loading up the odd GPX file into the GPS. [Read More…]