Ashover panto goes on despite gale black out

Ashover pantomime was plunged into darkness on Friday at about 8pm when strong winds lead to a power outage – affecting most of the village.

Director of the pantomime, ‘Mother Goose’, Rosemary Early, said: “We just managed the first two scenes and we were in the third when the lights went out.

“The cast valiantly carried on with just emergency lighting until the end of the scene.”

Despite the pluck of the actors, Rosemary made the decision to evacuate the building for safety reasons.

“I’d got 34 children in the pantomime, a further 20 cast members and more than 130 in the audience,” she explained.

“I knew the emergency lighting was good for an hour or so.”

Rosemary said the black out affected the majority of the village, although some houses still had lights on.

She added that the lights came on in the village hall at about 8.40pm, but this varied for the rest of the village.

Total of 583 properties in the Ashover area were affected by the power cut.

A spokesman for Western Power Distribution said: “We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

“The power was restored in stages and all but one property had power back on by 10.30pm. The last one had power on just after 12.30am.”

She added that part of a power cable had to be replaced.

The black out was just the start of a weekend of destruction caused by the gales, which saw gusts of up to 70mph sweeping across the county.

On Monday, Derbyshire Dales District Council took the decision to cancel Bakewell Market as the strong winds continued.

A spokesman for the authority said that around 20 traders turned up for business on Monday morning for the weekly market.

The spokesman continued: “The wind was lifting off the boards that sit across the stalls, and we had no option but to cancel, as was the case with our scheduled market in Ashbourne on Saturday.”

Elsewhere, a window was blown through at Casa hotel, Chesterfield, over the weekend.

Bridge Street, in Belper, was closed to pedestrians and traffic as firefighters used an aerial ladder platform to tend to an unsafe chimney on Saturday.

In total, nine chimney pots had to be removed, as well as masonry and roof tiles. The road was reopened by 2.06pm.