Latest Posts

Grindleford Hike

Outdoors

I’ first heard of Grindleford 25 years ago: I’d just gone through the turnstyles at Chesterfield’s (old) football ground at Saltergate and I was one of the lucky few to be chosen out of the crowd by the Police officers and be quizzed – presumably to ascertain my disposition toward violence. “Were you the one that did the off license robbery in Grindleford?” inquired the officer. I denied the accusation and gave my name before I was dismissed. I’d always been interested in this mysterious place called Grindleford, with it’s, presumably now, heavily fortified off-license.

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The Fish and Mindsets

Creative, Professional

When I was twelve in secondary school, we had to draw fish in art class. I remember starting to draw the fish (below) and the art teacher, Mrs Johnson, got angry with me. “Do you call that a fish!” she shouted (she was quite a shouty teacher) and then held my pencil drawing up to the rest of the class and said “James Hatton thinks this is a fish – it looks nothing like a fish.”

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Nostalgic about Chatsworth

Misc

There’s certainly nothing like a return to your home town to invoke feelings of nostalgia – I can certainly connect more with Cinema Paradiso. Every nook of my home time offers up memories so I realise I must have explored quite a bit in my youth but perhaps one of the most nostalgic places for me would be out of Chesterfield, in the Peak: The Chatsworth Estate.

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