UNDER THE EDGE INCORPORATING THE PARISH MAGAZINE GREAT LONGSTONE, LITTLE LONGSTONE, ROWLAND, HASSOP, MONSAL HEAD, WARDLOW www.undertheedge.net No. 245 June 2019 ISSN 1466-8211 Great Longstone’s Got Talent! In 2017 they reached the semi-finals of Britain’s Got Talent, singing Jungle Book’s I Wanna Be Like You and Bare Necessities. Now, Perfect Pitch Children’s Choir from Great Longstone, Derbyshire has reached the final of the BBC Songs of Praise Young Choir of the Year competition after an enthralling semi-final on May 19th broadcast to millions of viewers on BBC One. Only three choirs, Bax Choir from Heath Mount School in Hertford, Amherst School Choir from Sevenoaks in Kent, and Perfect Pitch were selected for a coveted place in the final, which will be aired on BBC1 at 1.15 pm, Sunday, June 2nd. If you missed the opportunity to watch the semi-final show, you can view it on iPlayer. Perfect Pitch (second from the right) with the other choirs in the semi-final After months of hard work and practice, the forty strong choir, aged between 6 and 12, impressed both the judges and hundreds of members of the audience at Bolton Victoria Hall with an arrangement of Kumbaya written by their musical director, Emma Hopkins. “It’s an honour to have been chosen as one of the finalists” said Emma, “I’m so incredibly proud of the children –they performed beautifully, under incredible pressure. They certainly held their nerve despite the sheer number of cameras around them, along with the expectant crowd, not to mention the judges’ intense scrutiny!” The celebrity judges were incredibly impressed by the quality of their performance. Vocal coach and TV presenter Carrie Grant said, “That was a beautiful performance of the song. It was the first pin drop moment today”. J.B. Gill, internationally renowned pop star from JLS felt “the key word was love”. Not only did he love the arrangement and the performance, he thought the children clearly loved singing, and in his opinion “this shone throughout the piece”. Russell Watson, four times classical BRIT award winner, got his first goose bumps of the day saying “You really made me feel the music”. He commented “The young lady, the soloist was brilliant and it was...Perfect Pitch.” Twenty-six year old Emma started the choir in 2015 whilst her brother was still at Great Longstone Primary School, where her Mum Louise was the music teacher. Emma herself still teaches piano and singing lessons at the school today. Nine of the forty choir members currently attend the school, while twenty more are past pupils, as indeed is Emma herself. Thirteen members actually live in the village of Great Longstone itself. Perfect Pitch has now become so successful that theyAnnie now have a second training choir for younger members. Whistle Down the Wind Emma started her professional career in the music business at the tender age of ten, playing the lead in the musical in two UK tours, before performing in the West End as Brat in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s . She is also an outstanding violinist and pianist, and has written her own songs and performed them in the Royal Albert Hall in London. Keeping it in the family, Emma’s husband Tom is the choir’s piano accompanist, while her Mum is the Assistant Musical Director. The choir practises in a purpose built recording studio that Emma and her family createdwww.perfectpitchchoir. in Great Longstone co.ukBusiness Park, which is also available for anyone who would like to hire it. If you are interested in finding out more about the choir ‘Perfect Pitch’ please visit their Emma website Hopkins . They are always pleased to welcome new members. Emma also organises a musical theatre dance class for boys and girls in year 5 upwards as well as giving singing lessons in the recording studio. Jamming it up in Rowland Walking through the sleepy hamlet of Rowland, you’re in for a nice surprise. Outside a gate fiercely guarded by a diminutive terrier is a box containing an enticing array of marmalades, jams and pickles. On a good day you may even find a box of delicious Silkie Bantam eggs or a pot of honey produced from hives in nearby Hassop Woods. All this is thanks to Sue Stephenson, whose efforts have raised nearly £50,000 for charity in the last fifteen years. Sue’s first rolling boils were inspired by the Cambridge Veterinary Hospital successfully treating her husband Henry’s dog. The hospital was raising funds for a new scanner, and the £600 from marmalade sales came in very handy. By then Sue had got the bit firmly between her teeth, and over the years diversified into jams, chutneys and, for a while, even biscuits at weekends. The Mars Bar and Rice Krispie biscuits were particularly popular, until people started to become more calorie conscious, probably not helped by the Scottish habit of deep frying Mars Bars! Although marmalades in many different varieties (whisky, ginger, three fruit and many more) form the backbone of her production, Sue also makes strawberry and damson jams, and crab apple, redcurrant and bramble jellies, as well as a range of chutneys, of which her beetroot is particularly popular. Her most unusual jam is gooseberry and elderflower, while rhubarb and ginger is destined never to be repeated, as the kitchen ceiling still bears witness to its vicious spitting! Nick Casey was instrumental in persuading Sue to raise money for Edale Mountain Rescue with her second year’s production, and he has also generously banked all her takings ever since. Sue has always changed charities on an annual basis – these have included the Derwent Rural Counselling Service, the Armed Forces charity SSAFA, and Marie Curie. In recent years, though, she decided to concentrate on local charities with low overheads, and so now alternates between Edale Mountain Rescue and Helen’s Trust. Last year she raised just over £3000 for Helen’s Trust, while her record year topped £3750. Reaching these impressive amounts means bottling a phenomenal 1500 jars or so a year, an average of about 30 a week. Sue reckons that she makes a batch of up to ten jars most days every single week of the year, a quite amazing dedication. As Seville oranges are only available in January, she buys a year’s supply in 13 kilogram boxes and freezes most of it to make marmalade throughout the year. Locals have become very good about donating jars, so now Sue only has to buy lids and big bags of sugar from Costco, which the charity pays for. Sadly, the closing of the Bakewell greengrocer means that she now has to go to Sheffield for her supplies. In addition to local support (one person in particular buys jars as a welcome gift for her holiday cottages), Sue’s jams travel far and wide, with regular visitors from Ecclesfield, Sheffield, Manchester and even across the North Sea from Holland. withWalkers wistful and eyes cyclists as they make struggle particularly to keep good up. customers, as a large group can clear the box in one fell swoop. This does depend, however, on whether the leader marches straight by, in which case Sue sees a series of crestfallen heads turning The very professional labels are Henry’s contribution, and although Sue admits that she is starting to Adamrun down Rae-Smith a bit to avoid the enterprise taking over her life completely , it is only likely to come to a natural end if for any reason Henry can no longerStewardship print the labels, Campaign as she says firmly that this would proveCastlegate a technological Tractor challenge Road too far forRun her! I am delighted to let readers know My grandson was delighted to see that we have received over thirty all the tractors drive through Great areresponses still responding. to our recent Stewardship Longstone on the 19th May. There Campaign letter and that parishioners was such a variety of new and vintage tractors - over 150 of them! The Although we have written individually run started from Castlegate Farm, whetherto everyone for generalwho has purposes committed or for to Foolow and is an annual event run contribute or donated toChurch funds, in memory of Chris Elliott and this your readers might like to know how year celebrating the life of Rebecca the buildings and Cemetery, I feel that Shirt, a much loved dairy farmer in the Parish. from Monyash, who died from breast much support exists for the Church cancer aged 46. The tractors toured time to help in the smooth running of the Peak District for six hours raising Many people devote much of their over £4,000 for Ashgate Hospice in know how much parishioners care for Chesterfield, where Rebecca was cared St Giles and they will be delighted to for, and Bluebell Wood Hospice. The tractorswww.youtube.com/ can be viewed responded.their Church. watch?v=1DOlvYfwpVcleaving Castlegate Farm on JamesThank Croft,you to Vicar. all those who have SallyYouTube Kehr at and Maxwell England 2 New celebrant in Great Longstone The role of a Celebrant is a fairly new concept in this country. Many people are not even aware that we exist and what we offer. Celebrants provide unique and personal ceremonies which, despite being largely non religious, do accommodate religious elements including hymns and prayers if requested. These ceremonies include funerals, weddings, namings, vow renewals, gender reassignment, coming of age and many more, limited only by your imagination! These ceremonies can take place almost anywhere (apart from consecrated ground).