Stanage: What Is It Good For?

Oooh, as me old mum used to say, keep those facilitators off me...

The first report from the Stanage Forum - the consultation group set up to discuss the future of the Stanage area; my guess is that it'll go on being a long line of gritstone crags, but then I'm very literal - came out a few weeks back and made for some entertaining reading.

Actually most of it didn't make for particularly entertaining anything, but it did generate a big list of reasons people felt Stanage was special including a few crackers, our faves were the following:

Stanage is...

* A pleasant short cut to Manchester

* An accessible wilderness area

* Snowy hills to slide down in winter

* Sheffield's back garden

But far and away the best was the splendid:

'You can see climbing stars, such as Seb Grieve, Ron Fawcett and Johnny Dawes'

So there you go, for all you climbing groupies out there, Stanage is the place to go to glimpse those rare, pale-skinned cellar dwellers blinking in the light.

But seriously folks, the Stanage Forum is the product of a forward-thinking National Park Authority taking the views of users into account (see previous articles below for how to get involved) or take a look at the Peak District Park web site. The next meeting is on 8 November in Hathersage. Watch this space..