Festival of leisure offered a weekend of fun for families

AN INDOOR garden, 14th century mini-village and caged birds were just some of the things visitors who flocked to South Derbyshire’s Festival of Leisure could sample in June 2001.

Community arts group People Express kept youngsters occupied by creating a garden, including pond, inside a marquee. Children used paint, glue and card, with help from professional artists, to create something television’s Blue Peter would have been proud of.

The group’s development director, Julie Batten, said: “The kids can just come in and get involved.”

Silver Fletchings Archery Club is a 14th century reenactment group based at Rosliston Forestry Centre.

Members, including whole families from as far apart as Burton and Ashbourne, performed a series of traditional crafts from the period. Helen Tewkesbury, from Burton, said they had been camping at the Festival of Leisure site at Church Gresley’s Maurice Lea Memorial Park over the weekend event.

Their only concession to modern times was using a plastic groundsheets in the tents to sleep on. “We enjoy telling people about history. We have to preserve it,” she said.

South Derbyshire Caged Bird Society’s tent was popular, particularly with children, with its colourful array of birds.

One of the most popular marquees housed South Derbyshire local history group The Magic Attic’s display of old photographs.

The annual festival also had to lay claim to having the most inflatable attractions, including giant slides and bouncy castles, in the entire Midlands.

A South Derbyshire Council spokesman said today: “Attendances seem to have been very high this year. I think everyone had a good time. Most of the traders did well and the exhibitors were pleased.”