Derwent Valley Trust

Discover Derbyshire's Valley

Tim Wilmshurst

Tip Top Toyota awards funds for Derwent Valley Cycleway

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Toyota Manufacturing UK Charitable Trust, TMUK Charitable Trust have generously awarded £2,000 to the Derwent Valley Trust’s Wyver Lane project, boosting funding received from their ‘Fiver for Wyver’ Campaign.
Benefiting both Belper, and the overall Derwent Valley Cycleway, the money helps toward the goal of raising £26,400 for completing the resurfacing of Wyver Lane.

Wyver Lane is already loved by many for its rugged and remote beauty, this won’t be compromised by the planned work. Once resurfaced, the lane will provide a safe place for both young and old to learn to cycle. Others who haven’t cycled for a while will be able to regain their confidence. It will also provide a gentle and accessible route for the disabled, along the valley floodplain from hilly Belper, past the wildlife reserve and historic rifle range. In the longer term, the lane will be part of the much longer Derwent Valley Cycleway.

A brave cyclist tackles the Wyver Lane Potholes

Within 15 miles of the Toyota Plant the assessors considered the Derwent Valley Cycleway was beneficial to both health and road safety.
Tim Wilmshurst, the Trust’s Project Co-ordinator said “we’ve now almost reached our target for Wyver Lane, and are confident that we can proceed with the work this Spring.” The crowdfunding campaign remains open for last-minute donations!

All I want for Christmas is ……. a Bridge over the River Derwent (or six)!

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We wrote about bridges in the previous newsletter, and the thought continues to exercise us. It’s pretty clear that we’re going to have to cross the river quite a few times to complete our cycle route, and we need to identify a bridge design which we can maybe use several times. It needs to be competitively priced, with an appearance that fits in with the natural landscape around it. A new colleague on the working group suggested we look at Mabey Bridges, which we have done with interest. If any reader has bridge expertise, we’d be very pleased to hear from you!

More on Fundraising

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Aside from the Fiver for Wyver campaign, our team has been active applying for funds. During November we have applied to British Cycling, Derbyshire County Council Youth Action Grant, and Toyota Manufacturing UK Charity Trust. All of these were for sums of less than ten thousand pounds, but winning any one of them (or more we hope!) will certainly move our endeavours forward.

New grant offers come up quite often, and often there is limited time to apply. Each time we complete an application we believe we’re doing it better, and we have the necessary material better to hand. We keep our hopes high for the outcome of these three applications, yet we are realistic, and know that we are competing with many others for limited funds.

Making our Presence Felt

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If you visit Darley Park or Wyver Lane, you will have noticed signs going up, as pictured. These give passers-by a good summary of our ambition for the cycleway, and will encourage them to explore further (and yes, future signs will probably refer to “cycleway”, rather than “way”).

Expect to see more signs in other locations, as we work to “join the dots” of our cycleway.

Interns

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A Strengthened Working Group, joined by two Interns!

We are very pleased to report a strengthened structure for the cycleway working group, with dedicated roles for chair (Tanya Spilsbury), fund-raising (Clive Pegg), marketing (Dawn Spendlove), project lead (Tim Wilmshurst), and secretary (Ian Scott). All of this is under the overall leadership of Derek Latham, chair of the Derwent Valley Trust.

This team has just been strengthened further by the addition of two interns, students from Derby University, who will be working with us for one day a week until the end of December. Susan Gibson will be working on project planning, Joanna Harrison on marketing. They are most welcome, and we look forward to benefiting from their energy and new ideas!

Bridges

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One of our interesting challenges, as we run alongside the beautiful but winding Derwent, is to arrange bridges at the many places needed. Some bridges are already there and can be shared, others are in place for other purposes, like pedestrian, road, rail, or even pipes! Some will need to be built.

Pictured here is the “pipe bridge” over the Derwent, north of the cricket ground and Eyes Meadow in Duffield. We need to cross the river at the same place! We look at such bridges with interest, and are exploring (with careful consultation with the owners) if we can use or adapt the structure, to provide a cycleway bridge.

To see a brilliant example of a new walking/cycling bridge, in Stockport (so not so far away), go here.