Community is reunited as Armed Forces Weekend marches into Staveley after three-year pause

Uncertainty over large-scale events due to the Covid pandemic meant that organisers had just three months to arrange an event which is usually a year in the planning.

Marion Gerrard, who is Staveley Armed Forces & Veterans Association’s events secretary, said: “What we wanted to try and do is get Staveley back to some sort of normality and get the community back together again. There are a lot of people still afraid to come out.”

The association’s tenth Armed Forces Weekend was held in Staveley for the first time. Marion said: “We used to have it at Poolsbrook Country Park but it got a bit expensive for us – it cost nearly £12,000 to put it on at Poolsbrook. Because we’re an association we can’t get funding like a charity can.”

Organisers reduced the costs of the event by more than half through holding the event at Staveley Hall, the canal basin, the market place and High Street. Marion said: “If it wasn’t for Staveley Town Council helping us out we wouldn’t have been able to put it on. The council insured us all and the caretakers up at the hall were absolutely brilliant as were the dozen volunteers.

"Bakewell councillor Mark Wakenan came up from Bakewell on Friday to help us put a gazebo up and stayed with us all Sunday to help us out as a volunteer.”

A parade of Army cadets, Scouts , Guides and Brownies from in and around Staveley, together with military vehicles including a Willis jeep owned by Tony and Kay Bryan from Long Eaton and a Land-Rover belonging to Simon and Cath Hardy from Newbold, were led by the Ireland Colliery Brass Band as it left the Market Place on Saturday morning.

At Staveley Hall a short service was held and association president Martin Thacker read the poem ‘In Flanders Field’.

Entertainment at the canal basin included demonstrations by Vinney and his Newfoundland rescue dogs, a concert by the Ireland Colliery Chesterfield Brass Band, a display by children from a Staveley dance school, Chesterfield Canal Trust’s tripboat rides and Proctor’s funfair.

Military vehicles and weaponry were on display and representatives from the Parachute Regiment in Barnsley were in attendance.

Staveley army cadets, who are raising funds for a trip to Cyprus, were among those running stalls at the various locations during the weekend.

The traditional flypast was unable to take place this year due to the shortage of time to organise it but Marion says it will be the first thing on her list when she starts preparations for the 2023 event this coming weekend.

Staveley Armed Forces & Veterans Association has a committee of just five members – Marion’s husband John Gerrard, who is the chairman, Graham Weighill, the treasurer, Paula Weighill and Kevin Hill.