Search

This paper draws on a multimethod ethnographic study, conducted between 2016 and 2017 in Shirebrook, Derbyshire, England—a small and relatively isolated deindustrialising colliery town—examining how residents negotiate living in stigmatised territory. In doing so, microspatial strategies of distancing, avoidance, and deflection are illustrated, revealing how residents reassign and deepen stigma in particular locations within a stigmatised territory. This highlights the relationship between social and physical space, and while spatial strategies of negotiation do not mitigate stigma, they do (re)produce internal social hierarchies within a place that is homogenised from the outside through disparaging narratives. A key contribution reveals the significance of the racialised production of space in shaping how territorial stigma is negotiated within this distinct socio‐spatial location. Residents use strategies to redirect the stigma toward those seen as out of place and draw attention away from sticky sites of racialised urban stigma towards symbols of unspoilt rural Englishness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with the complex subterranean politics of lead mining in the Derbyshire Peak District. We focus specifically on the implications of lead mining 'soughs' – underground channels driven to drain water out of mines to allow for mineral extraction. Built during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, soughs were substantial, capital and labour intensive projects which served a key function in the refashioning of subterranean and surface hydrological landscapes. They were 'driven' at a time when water was both a major hindrance to mining endeavour and the primary energy source for industrial expansion, such that historical disputes surrounding sough drainage were common. Here, we draw on unpublished historical legal records to explore the ways in which vertical conceptualisations of space were central to the legal discourse over soughs and extend the so called 'vertical turn' in geography to include subterranean proto-historical landscapes. Drawing on a high profile conflict between English entrepreneur Richard Arkwright and Conservative politician Francis Hurt, we go some way to addressing recent claims for more ethnographic detail in studies of verticality by considering the people who legally and physically negotiated sough development below as well as above ground. We also illustrate the range of temporalities which framed sough developments and highlight the cross-generational nature of the legal disputes over soughs and the productive landscapes they drained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discharge from most karst springs exhibits a consistent and reasonably predictable response to recharge but a few exhibit short-term ('rhythmic') changes in flow that are commonly attributed to the geometry of feeder conduits and the action of siphons. This paper investigates water flow in a karst system that exhibits rhythmic and episodic changes in discharge due to variations in flow from two phreatic conduits (Main Rising (MR) and Whirlpool Rising (WR)) that pass through Speedwell Cavern en route to the springs. Water tracing experiments indicate that the conduits receive both allogenic and autogenic recharge. Flow dynamics and conduit behaviour were investigated using high-resolution (2-min) water depth data collected from MR and WR between 2012 and 2015 (when MR was dominant) and between 2021 and 2023 (when WR was dominant). Water depths were also logged in a cave at the upstream end of a conduit draining to both MR and WR and at springs. The short-term temporal variability in water depths at both MR and WR is greater than any documented in previous studies. This is attributed to conduit bedrock geometry and changes in conduit permeability due to sediment accumulation in phreatic loops, which together influence the response to recharge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The barrow cemetery at Heath Wood, Derbyshire, is the only known Viking cremation cemetery in the British Isles. It dates to the late ninth century and is associated with the over-wintering of the Viking Great Army at nearby Repton in AD 873–4. Only the cremated remains of three humans and of a few animals are still available for research. Using strontium content and isotope ratios of these three people and three animals–a horse, a dog and a possible pig–this paper investigates the individuals' residential origins. The results demonstrate that strontium isotope ratios of one of the adults and the non-adult are compatible with a local origin, while the other adult and all three animals are not. In conjunction with the archaeological context, the strontium isotope ratios indicate that these individuals most likely originated from the area of the Baltic Shield–and that they died soon after arrival in Britain. This discovery constitutes the first solid scientific evidence that Scandinavians crossed the North Sea with horses, dogs and other animals as early as the ninth century AD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers some insight into the benefits, impacts and challenges of the 'creative mentor' role. It links to a social pedagogy framework, supporting practice, and draws on creative mentors' work with children and young people living in care. It aims to inform professionals and teams around a child about the transforming nature of working with creativity - beyond the obvious external experiences. Included are descriptions of how feelings of being 'stuck' can be shifted through engagement in a creative activity, moving a young person to a place of wellbeing, held within the safety of a trusting relationship. It is hoped that the reader will have a better understanding of the various stages of the creative mentoring process, and will reflect on some of the challenges faced when working with vulnerable children and young people who may have suffered early trauma. This paper describes how beginning work and establishing the relationship can be nerve-wracking for both, and how the skills of creative professionals bring a new dynamic into the work. Vignettes and discussions highlight the similarities in the creative mentor's practice to that of the social pedagogue, and reflect on concepts and processes. We hope this work will encourage more discussion about the creative mentoring experience, to add to our community of learning around creative practices in care and in education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents findings collected in 2016–2017 from a multi‐method ethnographic study of Shirebrook, Derbyshire in the English East Midlands, examining the narratives used by the local authority (LA) and local residents that construct immigration as a social problem. In doing so, it contributes to the literature on race and migration by extending analysis beyond metropolitan localities with long histories of multi‐ethnic settlement, to consider a relatively small, peripheral former colliery town. The paper demonstrates how migration is framed as a social problem by central government funding streams with consequences for localities, and the influence this has on local narratives of social change. The construction of immigration as a social problem is rooted in the constraints of austerity and longer‐term processes of deindustrialization and economic restructuring, with representations and understandings of place being constitutive of anti‐immigrant sentiment. This article deepens our understanding of responses to immigration in the UK, and has broader implications for understanding the relationship between place, state polices and local narratives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on data collected from a multimethod ethnographic study to contribute to debates on the production of territorial stigmatisation through the analysis of Shirebrook, UK: a small post-industrial mining town in Derbyshire, which now houses the distribution centre and warehouse of Sports Direct, recently the subject of high-profile scrutiny in the UK over working conditions. Combining semi-structured interviews, participant observation and the analysis of documentary sources, I argue that the territorial stigmatisation of Shirebrook does not emanate from a single source. Rather, multiple institutions and agents converge in the co-production of stigma. The analysis draws attention to local antagonisms and hierarchies in the production of stigma, demonstrating how relatively powerful actors 'below' do not simply resist or deflect stigma onto less powerful others, but influence the way that territorial stigma operates, problematising Wacquant's top-down conceptualisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper, part of a long-term programme of research into the forms and functions of the vernacular in late medieval liturgical practice in England, offers a "cultural map" of the Middle English poem known as The Lay Folks' Mass Book (LFMB). Comparatively little research has been undertaken on LFMB since Simmons's edition of 1879. However, new developments in the study of manuscript-reception in particular regions of the Middle English-speaking areas of Britain, combined with greater understanding of the cultural dynamics of "manuscript miscellanies" and of medieval liturgical practice, allow us to reconstruct with greater certainty the contexts within which LFMB was copied and used. LFMB survives in nine late medieval copies, but each copy presented a distinct version of the text. This article brings together linguistic, codicological, liturgical, and textual information, showing in detail how the poem was repurposed for a range of different cultural functions. In geographical terms, it seems clear that the work circulated in Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire, in Yorkshire, and in Norfolk, and can thus be related to other texts circulating in those areas. Some versions are likely to have emerged in parochial settings, possibly owned by local priests. There is also evidence that the text could be deployed in monastic contexts, while other versions probably formed part of the reading of pious gentry. What emerges from a study of the codices in which copies of LFMB were transmitted is that a range of shaping sensibilities for these manuscripts may be distinguished; the authorial role in texts such as LFMB was balanced with that of their copyists and audiences. In the manuscripts containing LFMB creativity was negotiated within textually-transmitted communities of practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the framework of third-wave sociolinguistic research, Asif Agha's (2003) theory of enregisterment has proved a successful approach to explore the mechanisms that lead to the indexical connection between language and identity. Beal (2009, 2020), Cooper (2013, 2020), and Ruano-García (2012, 2020, 2021), among others, have investigated this phenomenon from a diachronic perspective. They have highlighted the value of dialect writing as a window into the main features associated with particular dialects, as it draws upon authenticating practices such as the use of dialect respellings, which not only signal salient phonological features, but also link them to wider schemes of sociocultural values and identities. This paper seeks to add to this field of research by looking at literary representations of Derbyshire speech (1850--1900) through the lens of enregisterment. My aims are twofold: I attempt to (1) shed light on the main phonological features of the Derbyshire dialect, while (2) determining how this variety was enregistered in the Late Modern English period, and whether meaningful text type-dependent indexical shifts might have affected the way in which this dialect was understood and thus represented by native and non-native speakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The soft modelling of the skin tones in Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring (Mauritshuis) has been remarked upon by art historians, and is their main argument to date this painting to c. 1665. This paper describes the materials and techniques Vermeer used to accomplish the smooth flesh tones and facial features of the Girl, which were investigated as part of the 2018 Girl in the Spotlight research project. It combines macroscopic X-ray fluorescence imaging (MA-XRF), reflectance imaging spectroscopy (RIS), and 3D digital microscopy. Vermeer built up the face, beginning with distinct areas of light and dark. He then smoothly blended the final layers to create almost seamless transitions. The combination of advanced imaging techniques highlighted that Vermeer built the soft contour around her face by leaving a 'gap' between the background and the skin. It also revealed details that were otherwise not visible with the naked eye, such as the eyelashes. Macroscopic imaging was complemented by the study of paint cross-sections using: light microscopy, SEM–EDX, FIB-STEM, synchrotron radiation µ-XRPD and FTIR–ATR. Vermeer intentionally used different qualities or grades of lead white in the flesh paints, showing different hydrocerussite/cerussite ratios and particle sizes. Lead isotope analysis showed that the geographic source of lead, from which the different types of lead white were manufactured, was the same: the region of Peak District of Derbyshire, UK. Finally, cross-section analysis identified the formation of new lead species in the paints: lead soaps and palmierite (K2Pb(SO4)2), associated with the red lake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During construction of four 2.05 MW wind turbines at Carsington Pasture the ground conditions revealed a complex and highly variable geology much worse than had been anticipated. Preliminary investigations and ground assessment carried out at the conceptual planning stage for the development by other parties had identified the nature and discussed the likely extent of the complexities. These preliminary findings had concluded that the site was located in an area of known karst weathering, with extensive ancient mine workings for lead, and abandoned silica sand pits. The preliminary studies and investigations had confirmed shallow head deposits overlying dolomitic bedrock with a variably pinnacoidal interface, and presence of occasional large pocket deposits consisting of unconsolidated sediments. These finding concluded by optimizing the siting locations for each structure. During development, the ground conditions revealed at each location differed significantly and it was realized early on that no single ground remedial solution would be possible to adequately reinforce and suitably improve the bedrock foundation base for the envisaged design life. The challenging ground conditions necessitated extensive non-intrusive ground investigation followed by shallow and deep intrusive investigation to better define the ground conditions. The paper describes the unexpected and unusual combination of ground conditions that were encountered and their implications for foundation development, and examines the development of the bespoke engineered ground solutions developed for each of the four turbines. The experience at Carsington Pasture provided direction for the successful development of a further two wind turbines in an adjacent site located at Ryder Point situated over equally complex ground conditions. The paper concludes with discussion of how the experience of the combination of difficult ground conditions encountered at Carsington Pasture and their management served to guide the investigation, foundation development and successful construction of wind turbines in the adjacent area, and demonstrates the wider value of project examples and experience afforded by case studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The composer and musician Delia Derbyshire (1937-2001) joined the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in 1962 and by the end of the decade had made a major contribution to the British public's awareness and understanding of electronic music. Much of that awareness was generated by Derbyshire's celebrated realisation, in 1963, of the original theme tune from Doctor Who. Over the next ten years, Derbyshire's creative activity as both a BBC employee and a freelance artist would see her providing music and 'special sound' for television, radio, film, theatre, and live events such as the first edition of the Brighton Festival in 1967. By 1973, however, Derbyshire had left the BBC, citing the fact that she was "fed up" with how her work was being treated by the Corporation because it was "too sophisticated" and that the BBC was "increasingly being run by committees and accountants". For many years, the standard account of Derbyshire's life has been that, following her departure from the BBC in 1973, she withdrew from creative activity until the final few years of her life when she began to collaborate with Peter Kember (Sonic Boom). These accounts have sometimes veered into sensationalist cliché-a 2008 article in The Times characterised Derbyshire as a tragic and self-destructive artist who abandoned music for "a series of unsuitable jobs" and became a "hopeless alcoholic".[fn]Russell Jenkins, "Delia Derbyshire, Producer of Doctor Who Theme Music, has Legacy Restored", The Times, 18 July 2008.[/fn] Recent discoveries and donations to the Delia Derbyshire Archive, however, have pointed to a more complex understanding of Derbyshire's activity after she left the BBC. Far from withdrawing completely from music, Derbyshire would collaborate on a number of short 'art' films in the mid- to late 1970s. This paper draws on this archival material to provide a clearer and more detailed account of Derbyshire's work in the 1970s, including an unreleased recording from an unfinished project in 1980. Without denying the complications that Derbyshire encountered during this often difficult phase of her life, the article demonstrates that Derbyshire remained creatively engaged and also active as an artist far longer than has often been reported or assumed. In particular, Derbyshire's creative activity during these years saw her working with visual artists, most prominently Madelon Hooykaas and Elsa Stansfield. In doing so, Derbyshire furthered her long-standing interest in the relationship between electronic music and the visual arts. The article thus provides not only a revisionist account of Derbyshire's post-BBC activity but also enhances our understanding of the inter-relationship between electronic sound, music, and the visual arts in Britain as well as the nature and extent of Derbyshire's influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Storm Babet (18–21 October 2023) brought heavy and persistent rain (80–100 mm) to the English Peak District, causing widespread surface and underground flooding. The village of Castleton experienced groundwater flooding from springs that drain a complex mixed allogenic–autogenic karst catchment. Transmission of the flood pulse was monitored using high-resolution (2 and 4 min intervals) logging of (a) the hydraulic head at five underground locations in the karst conduits and (b) the water depth at three springs and in the surface river fed by the springs. Underground, there were large increases in the hydraulic head (9–35 m), which resulted in two types of flow switching. Firstly, the increased head at the input end of a phreatic (water-filled) conduit system removed an underwater permeability barrier in a relatively low-elevation conduit, resulting in a dramatic increase in flow out of the conduit and a corresponding decrease in flow from a linked higher-elevation conduit that had dominated before the storm. Secondly, the increased head upstream of two conduits with limited hydraulic conductivity allowed water to spill over into conduits that were inactive prior to the storm. As expected, the conduits fed by sinking streams from the allogenic catchment responded rapidly to the recharge, but there was also a rapid response from the autogenic catchment where there are no surface streams and only a small number of dolines. The complex signals measured underground are not apparent from the spring hydrographs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses detailed records relating to feeding and health for a large sample of infants born in Derbyshire in the early twentieth century to provide a more detailed and nuanced picture than has previously been possible of the extent and duration of breast-feeding, reasons for ceasing to feed and the dangers of feeding in the early twentieth century. Results indicate that breast-feeding was the norm among working class British women in the early twentieth century, but the social gradient was the inverse to that found in Britain today. However this disguises much individual variation and early weaning was more common among twins, illegitimate infants, first births, and women in poor health, which placed infants at greater risk of death from many causes of death, but particularly gastro-intestinal infections. There is evidence that health visitors were successful both in promoting breast-feeding and in supporting safe hand-feeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Falls are the most common cause of injury related deaths in people over 75 years. The aim of this study was to explore the experience of providers (instructors) and service users (clients) of a fall's prevention exercise programme and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Derbyshire, UK. Methods: Ten one-to-one interviews with class instructors and five focus groups with clients (n=41). Transcripts were analysed using inductive thematic analysis. Results: Most clients were initially motivated to attend the programme to improve their physical health. All clients reported improvements in their physical health as a result of attending the classes; additional benefits to social cohesion were also widely discussed. Clients referred to the support provided by instructors during the pandemic (online classes and telephone calls) as a 'life-line'. Clients and instructors thought more could be done to advertise the programme, especially linking in with community and healthcare services. Conclusions: The benefits of attending exercise classes went beyond the intended purpose of improving fitness and reducing the risk of falls, extending into improved mental and social wellbeing. During the pandemic the programme also prevented feelings of isolation. Participants felt more could be done to advertise the service and increase referrals from healthcare settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we describe palynological assemblages in the Middle Miocene (Serravallian) Kenslow Member of the Brassington Formation at Bees Nest Pit, near Brassington, Derbyshire, U.K., and infer vegetation types and their palaeoclimate implications. The limited lateral extent of the 1.33 m-thick succession of clay and lignite, and its position surrounding fragments of a large tree trunk, suggests that the succession may have accumulated within a tree throw hole or possibly within a shallow stagnant pond, although aquatic lacustrine palynomorphs have not been identified to confirm this latter hypothesis. The stratigraphical distribution of palynological assemblages, based on 58 samples allows reconstruction of a wetland succession. Two pollen zones were identified using CONISS cluster analysis, and a predominantly warm-temperate and mixed mesophytic forest biome was recognised with Tsuga conifer pollen-types being dominant (<42%) in both pollen zones. Changes in the make-up of this forested wetland were in response to local environmental changes rather than major climatic shifts. Wetland development culminated in the formation of a relatively open shrub and reed-dominated mire which produced the lignite-precursor peat. Applying the Co-existence Approach, Mean Annual Temperature was 15.6–21.7 °C and Mean Annual Precipitation was 703–1682 mm indicating a warm-temperate to subtropical palaeoclimate, and both parameters show no significant change through the section. Findings suggest that, following the Middle Miocene Climatic Optimum, the Serravallian climate of the northwestern margin of Europe remained much wetter than Central Europe, where more arid climates have been reconstructed, and this difference may have been due to the influence of the proto-North Atlantic Current. • We present a fossil record using a lignite and clay unit from the Kenslow Member. • We present the first reconstruction of a wetlands in the UK Miocene reconstruction record. • Transition from a Tsuga -dominant mixed mesophytic forest to a wetland occurred. • Palaeoclimate variables varied little and suggested frost-free conditions. • High precipitation reconstructions were caused by the proto-North Atlantic Current. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the differences between two prominent English families the Molyneux and Stanley families who were neighbors on the outskirts of Liverpoo, England until 1980. Topics include the history of the Sefton or Molyneux family, the Derby or Stanley family, and the feud between the Molyneux and Stanley families over control of Liverpool in the fifteenth century.

While historians such as Anne Digby and Irvine Loudon have explored and examined the processes of general medical practice in the nineteenth century, we still know relatively about individual doctors' emotional responses to death, grief and dying. The diaries of Edward Wrench, a Derbyshire GP, act as a lens through which to examine his responses when faced with the deaths of his own children, family members, close friends and his patients many of whom he came to know well through living and working in a relatively isolated rural community. In the early days of his practice Wrench had a strong Christian faith but this waned over time as new scientific findings made him more sceptical and unable to balance his faith against these new discoveries. This article will by using his diaries focus on his emotional and professional attitudes to death across the entire spectrum of his practice and family life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The systematic study of a brachiopod fauna collected from a Brigantian, uppermost Visean, Mississippian, mud mound complex on the Derbyshire Carbonate Platform (England, United Kingdom) recognises 45 species, representing 36 genera and seven orders (Productida, Orthotetida, Orthida, Rhynchonellida, Spiriferida, Spiriferinida, and Terebratulida). The mound complex is a decametre-scale lens-shaped buildup composed of three facies associations: the basal tabular unit made of skeletal packstone beds and tabular mounds, the complex core formed by metre-scale lens-shaped massive mounds and the surrounding inclined skeletal packstone flank beds. Brachiopods are widespread and very abundant in all three facies associations. Spinose, concavo-convex productides are dominant in the mud mound fauna, both in terms of the number of specimens, species, and biovolume. Productide success is related to scattered and scarce food resources, which they better exploited using their simple, unsupported feeding apparatus in comparison with that of the spiriferides. Spiriferides with a wide interarea are common and large in the basal tabular unit, but are rare and small in the complex core, probably due to greater availability of food resources during the deposition of the basal unit. Substrate type also played a role in controlling brachiopod diversity: varied substrates in the mound complex core allowed small-sized pedicle-attached rhynchonellides, spiriferides, and terebratulides to extensively colonise the seafloor, whereas they are rare in the basal unit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the vast majority of Twites Linaria flavirostris breeding in Britain & Ireland occur in Scotland, small pockets of breeding Twites remain in other areas. The small population in the Derbyshire Peak District now appears to be separated from the birds in the Pennines, at least in the breeding season. This short paper reviews what is known about the Derbyshire population, both historically and currently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents lead (Pb) isotope data from samples of farm livestock raised in three areas of Britain that have elevated natural Pb levels: Central Wales, the Mendips and the Derbyshire Peak District. This study highlights three important observations; that the Pb found in modern British meat from these three areas is geogenic and shows no clear evidence of modern tetraethyl anthropogenic Pb contribution; that the generally excellent match between the biological samples and the ore field data, particularly for the Mendip and Welsh data, suggests that this technique might be used to provenance biological products to specific ore sites, under favourable conditions; and that modern systems reflect the same process of biosphere averaging that is analogous to cultural focusing in human archaeological studies that is the process of biological averaging leading to an homogenised isotope signature with increasing Pb concentration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the first systematic study of the spatial transmission of the 1929–33 epidemic of meningococcal meningitis and its association with local coal mining communities in three adjacent high incidence counties of England; Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, and the West Riding of Yorkshire. Drawing on a robust method of spatial epidemiological analysis (swash‐backwash model), we demonstrate a gradient response with local levels of employment in coal mining for each of three key parameters of the epidemic wave: spatial velocity of transmission; duration of infectivity; and spatial reach. Partial least squares regression analysis identifies the relatively young and fertile demographic of local mining communities as the principal determinant of the resulting epidemic burden. Other sociodemographic parameters, including established risk factors for invasive meningococcal disease (low social class, high residential density, and overcrowding) are found to play little, or no, role in the spatial distribution of the disease. Our findings have importance for understanding the historic links between the coal mining industry and epidemic meningococcal meningitis, and point to possible present‐day opportunities for intervention through the designation of coal mining communities as defined risk groups for meningococcal vaccines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiple lordship – holding land or owing allegiance to more than one lord simultaneously – has generally been regarded as a marginal practice in post-Conquest England, caused by the supposed breakdown of the seigneurial honour in the late twelfth century. This article overturns these assumptions with the results of a groundbreaking statistical study of 194 knightly families from Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Staffordshire, 1066–c.1216. The process of reconstruction and selection of these case studies is discussed. Even on a conservative analysis, 33 per cent of these knights had allegiances to multiple lords by c.1216. The proportion of multiple tenants, moreover, remains roughly stable over time, suggesting that this is a normal part of society and not the result of honorial erosion. These findings call for a revision of the way in which we conceptualise local political society, and the nature of the relationship between a lord and his tenants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides transcriptions (where possible) and commentary on seven charters of Earls Ranulf II and III of Chester that have not previously been published in full. Although Leicestershire and Derbyshire were not the most important of the earls' lands, these charters illuminate that they were nevertheless active in this region. The first and second charters, untranscribed due to copyright restrictions, were only known previously from antiquarian copies: discovery of the originals fortifies the likely foundation date of Calke Priory. The third attests to Ranulf II's attempts to influence lesser knights. Earl Ranulf III in charters four and five is concerned with the minutiae of landed business in Derbyshire. Charter six is an original for St. Werburgh's Abbey, Chester, of which few are known. Finally, charter seven, previously known from an abbreviated version, forms part of the corpus of material showing the royal administrator Stephen de Segrave's ambitious land acquisition in the early thirteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Tissue advanced glycation end product (AGE) accumulation has been proposed as a marker of cumulative metabolic stress that can be assessed noninvasively by measurement of skin autofluorescence (SAF). In persons on haemodialysis, SAF is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular events (CVEs) and all-cause mortality (ACM), but data at earlier stages of chronic kidney disease (CKD) are inconclusive. We investigated SAF as a risk factor for CVEs and ACM in a prospective study of persons with CKD stage 3.Methods and Findings: Participants with estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) 59 to 30 mL/min/1.73 m2 on two consecutive previous blood tests were recruited from 32 primary care practices across Derbyshire, United Kingdom between 2008 and 2010. SAF was measured in participants with CKD stage 3 at baseline, 1, and 5 years using an AGE reader (DiagnOptics). Data on hospital admissions with CVEs (based on international classification of diseases [ICD]-10 coding) and deaths were obtained from NHS Digital. Cox proportional hazards models were used to investigate baseline variables associated with CVEs and ACM. A total of 1,707 of 1,741 participants with SAF readings at baseline were included in this analysis: The mean (± SD) age was 72.9 ± 9.0 years; 1,036 (60.7%) were female, 1,681 (98.5%) were of white ethnicity, and mean (±SD) eGFR was 53.5 ± 11.9 mL/min/1.73 m2. We observed 319 deaths and 590 CVEs during a mean of 6.0 ± 1.5 and 5.1 ± 2.2 years of observation, respectively. Higher baseline SAF was an independent risk factor for CVEs (hazard ratio [HR] 1.12 per SD, 95% CI 1.03-1.22, p = 0.01) and ACM (HR 1.16, 95% CI 1.03-1.30, p = 0.01). Additionally, increase in SAF over 1 year was independently associated with subsequent CVEs (HR 1.11 per SD, 95% CI 1.00-1.22; p = 0.04) and ACM (HR 1.24, 95% CI 1.09-1.41, p = 0.001). We relied on ICD-10 codes to identify hospital admissions with CVEs, and there may therefore have been some misclassification.Conclusions: We have identified SAF as an independent risk factor for CVE and ACM in persons with early CKD. These findings suggest that interventions to reduce AGE accumulation, such as dietary AGE restriction, may reduce cardiovascular risk in CKD, but this requires testing in prospective randomised trials. Our findings may not be applicable to more ethnically diverse or younger populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The textual material included in the Salamanca Corpus bears witness to dialectal awareness in 19th-century Derbyshire, with an important number of literary texts that reflect the local people's habits of speech. Despite the fact that this variety ought to be of particular interest since it was used in an area which marks the transition between the North of England and the West Midlands, and the East and West Midlands, literary representations of the Derbyshire dialect remain largely unexplored (García-Bermejo Giner 1991, 1993 is the most remarkable exception). According to research in the field, the analysis of this type of representation is crucial to investigate the processes of enregisterment of dialect varieties, as Johnstone et al. (2006) and Johnstone (2009, 2013) have shown. They examine the enregisterment of Pittsburghese by looking at non-standard discourse in a range of modern sources. Less attention, however, has been paid to the study of this process in historical contexts, the works by Beal (2009, 2017, 2019), Ruano-García (2012, 2020, forthcoming), Clark (2013), Cooper (2013, 2016, 2020), and Beal -- Cooper (2015) being among the exceptions. This study takes a preliminary approach to the enregisterment of 19th-century Derbyshire dialect by examining a selection of instances of dialect writing, most of which are included in the Salamanca Corpus. I aim at identifying the main linguistic forms associated with this variety in terms of spelling, morphology and lexis, as well as determining the extent to which 19th-century instances of dialect writing contribute to the enregisterment and dissemination of such linguistic forms and the values they index. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In what appears to be the divulging of trade secrets to a potential rival, a Coalbrookdale Company employee provided the lessors of the Staveley furnace in Derbyshire with an account of blast furnace practice. A hurried draft by Charles Hornblower lists in considerable detail the raw materials and their proportions for charging the furnace, transport and labour costs, and advice about building the furnace hearth. Further analysis of the note provides contemporary information about the preparation of the raw materials, their composition and quality of iron produced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Middle to Late Miocene Brassington Formation from the Peak District in Derbyshire, central UK, has yielded a diverse vegetation assemblage, but until now there have been no reports of fungal remains. Here, we describe three new species of fossil fungal palynomorphs from the Kenslow Member of the Brassington Formation. The taxa have been assigned to the Chaetosphaeriaceae and Pyrenulales, and were most likely saprophytic members of the community. The extant living relatives of the new fossil fungi are commonly found on decaying wood, often submerged in freshwater. A saprobic ecology on submerged decaying wood is consistent with sedimentological evidence that shows the Kenslow Member was deposited in a lacustrine or wetland environment. This is the first reported occurrence of the genus Rhexoampullifera in the fossil record. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The species of the brachiopod Gigantoproductus are giants within the Palaeozoic sedentary benthos. This presents a dilemma as living brachiopods have low‐energy lifestyles. Although brachiopod metabolic rates were probably higher during the Palaeozoic than today, the massive size reached by species of Gigantoproductus is nevertheless unusual. By examining the diet of Gigantoproductus species from the Visean (Mississippian, Carboniferous) of Derbyshire (UK), we seek to understand the mechanisms that enabled those low‐metabolism brachiopod species to become giants. Were they suspension feeders, similar to all other brachiopods, or did endosymbiosis provide a lifestyle that allowed them to have higher metabolic rates and become giants? We suggest that the answer to this conundrum may be solved by the identification of the biogeochemical signatures of symbionts, through combined analyses of the carbon and nitrogen‐isotopic compositions of the occluded organic matrix within their calcite shells. The shells are formed of substructured columnar units that are remarkably long and a few hundreds of microns wide, deemed to be mostly pristine based on multiple analyses (petrography, cathodoluminescence (CL), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM)); they contain occluded organic fractions detected by TEM, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC‐MS) analyses. We conclude that the gigantic size reached by the species of Gigantoproductus is probably the result of a mixotroph lifestyle, by which they could rely on the energy and nutrients derived both from photosymbiotic microbes and from filtered particulate food. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies of children have argued that children are suffering from a deficiency in nature experience. Some argue that a lack of experience leads to poor affective relations which for wooded environments may be manifested as fear. This study investigates a geographical knowledge gap in understanding children's relationships with woodland. This interactive qualitative study included 21 junior age children living in a rural setting in Derbyshire, England, UK. Most were found to visit local woodlands regularly, though unsupervised visits were usually limited to woods adjacent to housing. The children demonstrated good levels of practical knowledge though explicit knowledge, such as tree names, was generally poor. The majority of children had positive attitudes towards woodland, especially those with the greatest experience. Adventure, calm and freedom were identified as major themes. Fear was widespread but rarely dominated and was often associated with exhilaration linked to cultural imaginaries such as computer games and films. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the discovery of a Bronze Age log boat in Shardlow Quarry, Derbyshire in 2003, a scheme was devised to preserve this boat in situ. This included a monitoring programme to ensure that reducing conditions were maintained. This solution was agreed by the mineral planning authority Derbyshire County Council, with input and advice from English Heritage. Monitoring lasted ten years, during which time gravel deposits surrounding the boat were extracted. The boat was protected from dewatering during this time by a clay cut-off, installed around the area containing the boat before extraction begun. After extraction the adjacent areas were backfilled with onsite soils and inert waste. Data indicate that a reducing environment has been largely sustained during this period. Following careful and considered discussion, the monitoring programme ceased as there was unlikely to be further impacts to site hydrology, making additional data collection redundant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]