Peak pupils winning ways with wonder walls

The children were invited to enter a “Wonderful Walls” competition to design the logo after learning about the traditional craft of dry stone walling.

Peak District National Park rangers and the Chatsworth estate supported the competition for a design which will appear on T-shirts and other fund-raising merchandise sold by the Derbyshire Dry Stone Wall Association.

Area Ranger Rose Clarke explained: “We jointly ran a day with children from both schools learning about dry stone walling, and building mock walls out of sponges and wood.

“They learned about the geology of the area and the importance of walls in the Peak District in terms of landscape, agriculture and wildlife. They also did a field trip to look at examples, and find fossils and creatures that live in and around the walls.

“Then the children put their thoughts on paper to produce designs for a new logo which were judged by myself, Carl Hardman who chairs the Derbyshire Dry Stone Wall Association and local Master Craftsman Trevor Wragg.”

Carl Hardman added: “We were extremely grateful for the time that the pupils and schools gave us - the judging was very difficult due to high quality of the work. I’d like to thank everyone involved.”

The winning design included elements of several children’s work but mainly featured that of the overall winners, Toby Wigham, aged 11, from Hartington, and Rhona Lee, aged 11, from Biggin, who won family tickets to Chatsworth Farmyard and Adventure Playground.