Talk of the Trent

Discover more about the Transforming the Trent Valley Landscape Partnership Scheme. Our blog posts are written by members of the Transforming the Trent Valley Team, scheme partners and volunteers.

For all the latest news about Transforming the Trent Valley, visit our news page.

Latest Posts

River name meanings

25th June 2023 by Mark Knight

This article focusses on the name meanings of the River Trent tributaries in the TTTV project area. (Main image: the River Dove east of Uttoxeter, photo courtesy Mark Knight 2023) Language is a mutable and changeable thing, our dialect and syntax changes over long periods of time and we are constantly inventing new words or […]

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The pillboxes of Stop Line No. 5

24th June 2023 by Mark Knight

Figure 1.  Type 24 pillbox on the River Tame.  Photo credit: Jenny France 2023 In June 1940 the British Expeditionary Force evacuated from Dunkirk and the threat of a German invasion of Britain seemed imminent.  To counter this threat, the War Office devised a series of Stop Lines, ‘hardened field defences’ that were intended to […]

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Conserving a Roman Road in Branston

15th April 2023 by Mark Knight

Environmental Conservation and Cultural Heritage: a happy conclusion at Bean’s Covert. During the course of 2017, a small team of volunteers from the U3A led a project to investigate the long-held local knowledge about the survival in Bean’s Covert of a section of Ricknield Street, the Roman road from Wall to Little Chester.  The project […]

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Bat Success!

18th February 2023 by Mark Knight

As many of you will know, the TTTV team has been repurposing WWII pillboxes for wildlife across the project area; in particular, we have been converting a number of them for bat hibernacula (where bats can hibernate through the winter), or for swallow or other wild bird nesting sites.  With help from our team and […]

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The Drakelow Vampires

8th February 2023 by Mark Knight

(10 minute read).   The image is of Roger the Poitevin from a stained glass window in Lancaster Cathedral Creative Commons licence  CC BY-SA 4.0   Caring for and conserving our cultural heritage is more than just looking after the tangible remains of our shared past, such as buildings and monuments.  It is also about […]

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Transforming the Trent Valley archaeology: COSMIC+ Investigation at Catholme Neolithic site

26th January 2023 by Mark Knight

Balancing the requirements between food production and looking after a scheduled monument is a difficult one for any landowner but when your site is of national significance and there’s nothing visible on the ground, it takes something of a leap of faith. Near to Alrewas, along the very busy A38 trunk road, lying quietly between […]

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The River Trent name and the birthplace of a goddess

22nd November 2022 by Mark Knight

Our story begins around 5,000 years ago with the creation of the Catholme Ceremonial Complex.  In the early 2000s,  an archaeological team led by Professor Henry Chapman of the University of Birmingham unearthed an incredible series of finds at Catholme.  A ritual landscape based around a series of ceremonial monuments focussed on the confluence of three […]

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Manor Park Sailing Club: Training Expansion Project

12th August 2021 by admin

Manor Park Sailing Club, situated near Kings Bromley, applied to our Community Grants scheme in August 2020. They were successful in applying for a grant to buy buoyancy aids for the young people who attend their club to ensure that they have the correct size for all trainees arriving on site. This was a part […]

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WELLIES Volunteers: New Skills

12th August 2021 by admin

WELLIES project, based in Sudbury, applied in August 2020 for a Community Grant of £2000 to support their aim of enabling their existing volunteers to develop new skills and confidence in volunteering for WELLIES and partner organisations. A 15 week project was delivered, with volunteers attending heritage workshops, creating a volunteer taskforce to support other […]

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Linking With the Past

1st July 2021 by admin

How do I do this? It’s a question I often ask myself. Whether it’s cooking a new recipe or fixing a bookcase, I start with the same question. How do I do this? If it is something I already know about, the answer can be easy, straightforward even. A year of fixing furniture, fences and […]

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