A ‘Football4Autism’ walk to raise awareness of autism will take place in April.

The 21-mile walk will start at Rotherham United’s New York Stadium on Tuesday, April 21 and take in both Sheffield clubs before finishing at the Proact.

Chesterfield-based Ray Watts, whose seven-year-old son Jake is autistic, came up with the idea after speaking to the club’s head of media & communications, Nick Johnson and Community Trust chief John Croot.

When the the hospitality box in the Community Stand was turned into a pop-up sensory room for the day for the Northampton Town fixture earlier this season, Ray and Jake attended the game.

Ray Watts has joined forces with Autism Plus to organise the walk and it is hoped that around 30-40 people will take part. He comments:-

“The awareness is getting there, but the huge audience of the football community just allows you to address it a lot faster and to approach a lot more people.

“We want to raise awareness and get the message across to the fans and then to their friends and their family. We want to help everyone understand what autism is and what is involved with it.”

A Chesterfield boccia player will be among four Special Olympics Derbyshire athletes competing at this summer’s Special Olympics GB National Games.

Mark Pearson, 26, will take part in the country’s largest multi-sports event for athletes with intellectual disabilities at Sheffield between August 7 and 12.

He is among the people in Chesterfield who have taken up sport through the SO Derbyshire network, which provides regular training and competition for people with a learning disability.

A number of those have taken inspiration from last summer’s Rio Paralympic and Olympic Games, where Derbyshire swimmer Lewis White took a bronze medal in the 400m freestyle S9.

Explaining why he enjoys playing, Mark said:-

“It’s always good to meet up with my friends, play games and chat with them.

“Now that we are part of Special Olympics Derbyshire there will be more opportunities for competition and training so we can all get better boccia skills and meet other teams from around the region.”

The SO Derbyshire network has been growing since it started 18 months ago and now has 80 people aged between 15 and 60 playing sport on a weekly basis.

Volunteers have played a key part in its success, with more than 30 people having been involved in helping at events, clubs and behind the scenes work.

SO Derbyshire volunteers come from all over the county including Glossop, Chesterfield, Matlock, Long Eaton and South Derbyshire.

Jacob Meaton, SO Derbyshire Basketball coach and volunteer, said:-

“It’s great to get people playing basketball at all levels and seeing that enjoyment and being able to provide players with access to competitions that many have never experienced before.”

With more disabled people getting active through SO Derbyshire, the network is helping address the in balance between disabled and non-disabled people’s inactivity rates, something which Sport England’s recent Active Lives survey highlights.

Active Lives shows that 34 per cent of people with one impairment are inactive, meaning they are doing less than 30 minutes of activity a week. The network is also helping Derbyshire Sport achieve their target of getting 50,000 more Active Lives by 2021.

In 2017, SO Derbyshire are aiming to get more people playing as well as encouraging existing local sports clubs to register to their network and get involved themselves.

As part of that, the network will be hosting a regional boccia competition at Queen’s Park Sport Centre in Chesterfield on March 26.

People are invited to come along as part of a team, or have a go for the first time in an inclusive sport that involves throwing balls at a target from a seated position.

To find out more information about SO Derbyshire, including where you can take part and how you can volunteer, visit www.derbyshiresport.co.uk/special-olympics-derbyshire

The £1.2 million Heritage Lottery Fund (“HLF”)  funded restoration of the Grade II listed Barrow Hill Roundhouse near Chesterfield is now well underway and the Roundhouse team is also delighted to be able to confirm the initial details of its grand re-opening which will take place in September 2017.

Contractors T&C Williams of Sheffield started work on site in January and their first job was to remove the 1960s flat roofed kitchen extension.  This area has now been cleared and levelled ready to be replaced with a larger, light and modern new entrance building incorporating a new kitchen, eating area and toilets.  The design of the new building will allow the original doors and windows on this side of the Roundhouse to be revealed for the first time in over 50 years.

Work has also started on vital conservation work in the Roundhouse itself as the steel structure of the roof is treated and repainted.  In other parts of the Roundhouse false ceilings have been temporarily removed to reveal the unique roof structure of the building whilst it is re-wired.  The original blue brick flooring has also been taken up so that an underfloor heating system can be installed before the bricks are carefully replaced.  Work is also taking place on the Coal Stage – the Roundhouse’s viewing area during special events – to provide an improved walking route and viewing area with new safety railings for visitors.

Although work is expected to continue until August 2017, there will be a break in activities in May to allow Barrow Hill’s renowned Rail Ale Festival – the most atmospheric beer festival of the year – to take place on 18^th, 19^th and 20^th May.  This will provide visitors with an opportunity to have a sneak preview of the works that have been taking place at the Roundhouse.

With work due to be completed at the end of August, this will give the Barrow Hill team a few weeks to prepare for the September 2017 relaunch event: the highlight of a four day celebration will be the visit of three icons of steam – A3 60103 Flying Scotsman, A1 60163 Tornado and Rocket.

This will be the first visit to the Roundhouse by Flying Scotsman since the Barrow Hill Open Day in 1974 and the return visit from the Rocket 12 years after it took part in the celebration of George Stephenson’s connections with Chesterfield in 2005.

Although Flying Scotsman has been seen in Derbyshire since the completion of its overhaul in 2016, this will be the first opportunity for many in the region to get up close to the locomotive alongside her sister East Coast racehorse Tornado, seen against the unique and authentic backdrop of the Roundhouse.

The four day celebration is taking place from Thursday 21^st September 2017 to Sunday 24^th September 2017.  Thursday 21^st September will see the premiere of a specially commissioned play funded by the Arts Council celebrating the incredible survival story of the Roundhouse with live steam adding an exciting backdrop.  The play will continue on the evenings of Friday 22^nd and Saturday 23^rd September.

During the day on Saturday 23^rd September and Sunday 24^th September the Roundhouse will open its doors to the general public for a truly special steam gala with visitors able to see for the first time the comprehensive but sympathetic HLF-funded restoration.

Mervyn Allcock, General Manager of Barrow Hill Roundhouse, said:-

“It has been amazing to see a building that I and many others have worked so hard to preserve now having work done to it to give it a new lease of life. Our September relaunch promises to be a fabulous celebration of all the hard work that is going on at the Roundhouse at the moment and will mark the start of the next exciting chapter in the story of this amazing architectural survivor in the most appropriate way.”

More details of the ongoing restoration project and the September relaunch will be announced over the coming months.

Fabulous landscapes and the formal gardens of the area’s many historic houses have inspired official tourist board Marketing Peak District & Derbyshire’s imaginative show garden at the first-ever RHS Chatsworth Flower Show.

RHS Chelsea Flower Show award winning designer Lee Bestall is the creative brain behind the Experience Peak District & Derbyshire Garden, one of a range of innovative floral features that will be visited by tens of thousands of visitors between 7 and 11 June 2017.

Lee, whose business Bestall & Co is based at Renishaw Hall & Gardens in north Derbyshire, has focused on the health-promoting and mood-boosting benefits of fresh air and fantastic views in his simple, yet striking design.

Rough grass, native trees and hand-painted cows representing the area’s landscapes lead through to the clipped topiary and herbaceous planting favoured by  the Peak District and Derbyshire’s great country houses.

Jo Dilley, Director of Marketing Peak District & Derbyshire, said:-

“We’re delighted with Lee’s design, which reflects the huge variety of the area’s natural and man-made landscapes and gardens in a relatively small space.

“Interest from visitors in the first-ever RHS Chatsworth Flower Show is high, and it will be a great opportunity to showcase the Peak District and Derbyshire to tens of thousands of people from both Britain and overseas.

“Some of our accommodation providers are already reporting anecdotally that they are fully booked during the show, which is great news for local businesses and the area’s economy, and I’m sure availability will be at a premium as June draws nearer.

“We’re really looking forward to being part of this prestigious event, which will help to put our world-class destination even more firmly on the map.”

Lee Bestall, who is a member of the Society of Garden Designers, added:-

“It’s a great pleasure working with Marketing Peak District & Derbyshire to create a show garden illustrating the wide range of informal and formal open spaces where people can relax and feel reinvigorated in this beautiful area.”

The show garden – sponsored by Marketing Peak District & Derbyshire; Hope Cement, A Breedon Group Company; The Camping and Caravanning Club and Wheeldon Trees Holiday Cottages, Earl Sterndale, near Buxton – will be built by J P H Landscapes, Sheffield.

Lee Bestall trained at RHS Wisley and was selected by Kevin McCloud as the first-ever Grand Designs ‘Garden Designer of the Year’. He designed award-winning gardens at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in 2015 and 2016, and he and his team are currently preparing for their first-ever large show garden at Chelsea in 2017.

More than 42,000 tickets have already been sold for the RHS Chatsworth Flower Show 2017, and more than 80,000 people are expected to attend.

The overarching theme will be ‘Design Revolutionaries’, drawing inspiration from famous figures such as Sir Joseph Paxton and Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown, both of whom had a major impact of the 1000-acre Chatsworth Estate.