Explore With Us - By Drone & Phone

08/08/2024

🚁 Take to the Skies Over Hayton Village & Chesterfield Canal! 🚁

Experience the beauty of Hayton Village and the tranquil Chesterfield Canal with our stunning drone footage. 🌳🚤

From the charming streets of Hayton to the serene canal paths, this video captures it all. Don’t forget, The Boat Inn is nearby and open for delicious food and drinks, making your visit even better. Plus, Retford is close by with more great places to eat and drink!

🎥 Watch Now: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsliBp5y44k]

🌿 Discover Hayton Village, The Boat Inn & Chesterfield Canal! 🌿Looking for a relaxing getaway? Hayton Village in Retford is your perfect destination. It’s ...

01/08/2024

🎣 Check Out Hayton Lakes Fishery by Drone! 🌟

Curious about Hayton Lakes Fishery? The new drone footage shows it all! 🏞️📹

Just outside Hayton village, the fishery features four well-maintained lakes, each stocked with carp, bream, and tench. The lakes vary in size and depth, offering different fishing experiences to suit your preference. Whether you’re after a quiet spot for a relaxed day or a more active session, there’s a lake for you. 🐟

The drone video gives you a detailed look at the lakes and their surroundings, highlighting the spacious and tranquil environment.

For more info about the fishery, including facilities and fishing rules, check out Hayton Lakes Fishery: https://www.haytonlakes.co.uk/

After fishing, head into Hayton and enjoy a pint at The Boat Inn (https://theboatinnhayton.com/) - a great local spot for a drink and a bite to eat. Or, take a short drive to Retford, a historic market town with a lively market, unique shops, and plenty of dining options to explore. 🏘️🍽️

Perfect for a relaxing day on the water with a touch of local charm.



Watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tej-7jVoSU0

🌟 Discover Hayton Lakes Fishery and the Charm of Hayton & Retford! 🌟Looking for a peaceful getaway? Head to Hayton Lakes Fishery! 🎣🏞️ Nestled just outsid...

25/07/2024

This week...
🌳 Welham Village near Retford 🌳

Welham is a quaint and tranquil village located just a few miles east of Retford in Nottinghamshire. 🏡 With its charming traditional cottages and serene countryside setting, it offers a slice of rural English life. The village is part of the Clarborough and Welham parish, which adds to its historic charm. 🕰️

Key Highlights:

Historical Touch: The village has a rich history reflected in its architecture and local landmarks. 🏛️

Scenic Beauty: Surrounded by rolling fields and the peaceful River Idle, it’s ideal for a quiet walk or a leisurely bike ride. 🚶‍♂️🚴‍♀️

Local Amenities: While Welham itself is small, nearby Retford provides access to shops, cafes, and transport links, including a railway station with connections to major cities. 🛒🚉

Welham may not have bustling attractions or extensive facilities, but it’s perfect for those who appreciate a peaceful, rural setting. 🌼

🌳 Welham Village near Retford 🌳Welham is a quaint and tranquil village located just a few miles east of Retford in Nottinghamshire. 🏡 With its charming tr...

25/07/2024

Welham village, nr Retford 📍

25/07/2024

Hayton Lakes - by drone ! 😀

12/07/2024

Quick video this week due to the poor weather we've been having!

Discovering Retford: A Charming Mix of History and Modern Life 😀📍

Retford, a historic market town, received its first charter from Henry III in 1246, granting it the right to hold a fair. This tradition, started by Edward I in 1275 with the establishment of a Saturday market, continues today. The town is renowned for its beautiful Georgian buildings, spacious square, and two theatres – the Little Theatre on Wharf Road and the Majestic on Coronation Street.

Retford holds a special connection to the Mayflower Pilgrims, who fled religious persecution and embarked on their journey to America in 1620. The Mayflower Trail, which starts at nearby Babworth, allows visitors to explore their story. The Mayflower Pilgrims Visitor Centre, located in the heart of Retford, provides a detailed account of their history.

Markets are a vibrant part of Retford’s life, held on Thursdays and Saturdays, with an additional antique and bric-a-brac market on Fridays.

In recent years, Retford has undergone significant changes that enhance its appeal. The town centre has been revitalised with new shops, cafes, and restaurants, offering diverse dining and shopping experiences for locals and visitors alike. Improved public transport links and upgraded roads make it easier to explore the picturesque countryside.

Retford has embraced modern technology, offering free public Wi-Fi in the town centre and smart parking solutions for added convenience. Local events and festivals celebrate Retford’s rich heritage, fostering a strong sense of community.

These recent updates, combined with its historical charm and scenic surroundings, make Retford a perfect blend of old-world charm and modern amenities, ensuring a unique and enjoyable experience for all who visit.

04/07/2024

Coldplay live from Wembley Stadium connected by EE from back in 2022

Please follow the link to view this full video on our YouTube channel 🎥

Thanks! 😁

🎶 Throwback to 2022.... About Coldplay ℹ️A British rock group whose melodic piano-driven anthems lifted the band to...

27/06/2024

This week, we have taken a trip to our local golf club: Retford Golf Club 📍 to record the course from above. The video has been created inline with the CAA's rules, and we also had permission to fly from Gamston Airport.



✔️ Some information about Retford Golf Club:

Retford Golf Course dates from 1920, in which year Colonel Sir Albert Whitaker Bart., CBE. of Babworth Hall, leased the fledgeling golf club 38 acres of land on which the first six holes were created.

Tom Williamson designed these holes. Retford is one of more than 60 courses in the UK laid out by Tom (the nearest other course is Coxmoor). The club membership back in the early days was of 100 Gents and 67 Ladies - a very progressive ratio even by today's standards.

In 1924, the club hosted an event that was attended by the Open Champion of the time, Mr. Arthur Havers. In 1928, a Retford member, Miss K. Watson won the Nottinghamshire Ladies Championship. Her sister, Miss N. Watson, also a Retford member, subsequently won the same championship during the 1930s.

The club raised money during the 1940s through a share issue, and throughout both the 40s and 50s bought additional land. Two further new holes were opened in 1958 by Sir Stuart Goodwin (holes which today are the 13th and 14th), and this completed the first nine holes of the golf course.

Plans to extend the course to 18 holes were first mooted in the mid seventies by the Captain, Major G. Foster. The proposal was to turn the course into a municipal, as part of a joint venture with Bassetlaw District Council. These plans however came to nothing, as did further attempts at cooperation with the local council during the early 1980s. An extension plan was eventually approved by the membership in 1986, and Retford Golf Club remained, as it is today, a private members' club. Then in 1990, after more than 60 years of play, a further nine holes, mostly at the far side of the Sheffield to Lincoln railway line, were opened by Major Sir J. Whitaker Bart.

In the following year club membership reached a record level of 504 Gents, 116 Ladies and 75 Juniors.

The current Clubhouse was erected in the early part of the current Millennium, and opened by Mr. Bob Wilson of Arsenal F.C. and Scotland in April 2001. (All taken from https://www.retfordgolfclub.co.uk/course-history)

20/06/2024

🚁🌟 Had an awesome evening flying our drone with permission to fly in a Flight Restriction Zone (FRZ) from Gamston Airport! We took to the skies around Ordsall in Retford, capturing some amazing views of the lower south end, including Goosemoor. Ordsall is such a cool mix of beautiful countryside, charming houses, and a lovely church, giving it a real village vibe. The scenery was absolutely stunning from above! Check out the video for a unique aerial look at this lovely area. 📸✨

Full video on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5gRdQJjJQo



About Ordsall:
Ordsall is an area and former civil parish in Retford, in the Bassetlaw district of Nottinghamshire, England. The Bassetlaw ward of the same name had a population of 14,194 at the 2011 census.

All Hallows' Church serves the village and is situated beside the River Idle at the south side of Ordsall, an area sometimes referred to as "Old Ordsall". The River Idle, along with the Great Northern Rail Line, divides Ordsall from Retford.

Ordsall is served by Ordsall Primary School, which is on Ordsall Road and from the age of 11 school children have the option of going to one of Retford's two secondary schools, Retford Oaks High School or Elizabethen High School.

13/06/2024

Short video this week by drone - Peak District / Derbyshire - A57 Woodhead Pass



✔️🇬🇧 The Peak District was the first of Britain’s 15 national parks and was designated on 17th April, 1951.
It covers 555 sq miles (1,438km) in the heart of England (that’s about the size of Greater London).
The Peak District reaches into five counties: Derbyshire, Cheshire, Staffordshire, Yorkshire and Greater Manchester.
It is the most accessible national park – close to the cities of Manchester, Sheffield, Nottingham and Derby.
The Peak District is made up of impressive gritstone edges (Dark Peak), steep limestone dales (White Peak) and rolling hills and farmland (South West Peak).
The highest point is Kinder Scout at 2,086ft (636 metres).
There are 26,000 miles of dry stone wall in the Peak District – equivalent to a wall around the Earth.
The Peak District welcomes more than 13 million people each year.
An estimated 20 million people live within an hour’s travel time of the Peak District.
Unlike many of the world’s National Parks, which are wilderness areas, the Peak District is a true ‘living landscape’, home to 38,000 people (an IUCN ‘Category 5’ National Park).
Visitors come to enjoy walking, climbing, cycling, mountain biking, caving, angling, nature-watching, photography, gliding, visiting historic houses, country pubs and tearooms.
The nationally-renowned Pennine Way begins in the Peak District (in the village of Edale) and stretches 268 miles (431km) all the way to Scotland.
The National Park has 202 sq miles of open access land – open to walkers without having to stay on paths – and 1,600 miles of public rights of way (footpaths, bridleways and tracks).
The Peak District National Park Authority owns and manages 34 miles of traffic-free trails, mostly along former rail routes.
Following the coronavirus lockdown, the numbers of those using some of our traffic-free trails to exercise doubled to almost 4,000 a day (nearly 230,000 visits over a three month period).
The Trans-Pennine Trail through the Peak District is part of the E8 European Walking Route, connecting the National Park to the Turkish border – a walk of 2,500 miles!
The introduction of new rights for access in 2004 doubled the amount of moor and heathland open to the public – from 240 to almost 500 sq km. (taken from https://www.peakdistrict.gov.uk/learn...)

Short video this week by drone only - ✔️🇬🇧 The Peak District was the first of Britain’s 15 national pa...

06/06/2024

This weeks video takes us to Kimpton Clocktower in - where we stay the night in a KingPremium room, and take a short walk around the hallways of the hotel - with bonus shots !

✔️🇬🇧 Refuge Assurance Company
The first phase of the Grade II* listed red brick and terracotta building was designed for the Refuge Assurance Company by Alfred Waterhouse and built between 1891 and 1895. The inside was of Burmantofts faience and glazed brick. The ground floor was a large, open business hall. It was extended, with a 217-foot (66 m) tower, along Oxford Street by his son Paul Waterhouse between 1910 and 1912. It was further extended along Whitworth Street by Stanley Birkett in 1932.

What is now the ballroom was previously the dining hall for employees, with males and females being required to sit separately. Around 2,000 staff were employed. Women had to reapply for jobs if they married, and some areas of the building were for men only. The ballroom in the basement was used as a dance hall for workers in their lunch hour.

After occupying the building as offices for nearly a century, the Refuge Assurance Company moved to the grounds of Fulshaw Hall, Cheshire, on 6 November 1987. The Refuge Assurance Company had discussed converting the building into a new home for the Hallé Orchestra with one of Manchester's cultural patrons Sir Bob Scott for over a year. The £3 million funding required for the project did not materialise and the Hallé subsequently moved from the Free Trade Hall to the new Bridgewater Hall upon opening in 1996. Local architecture critic John Parkinson-Bailey noted that "one of the most prestigious and expensive buildings in Manchester lay forlorn and empty except for a caretaker and the ghost on its staircase".

🏨 ✔️ Conversion to hotel
The structure was converted to a hotel by Richard Newman in 1996 at a cost of £7 million, and was named the Palace Hotel, owned and operated by the Principal Hotel Company. Principal Hotels was sold to Nomura International Plc in 2001, and they rebranded the hotel as Le Méridien Palace Manchester. When Le Méridien Hotels faced financial difficulties, the hotel was bought back by a reconstituted Principal Hotels in 2004 and again renamed the Palace Hotel. When Principal Hotels decided to brand all their hotels with their corporate name, the hotel was renamed The Principal Manchester, in November 2016. The current glass dome in the reception area was taken from a Scottish railway station during the conversion to a hotel.

In May 2018, the hotel was sold to the InterContinental Hotels Group. It was announced in February 2020 that the hotel would be renamed the Kimpton Clocktower Hotel in March, as part of InterContinental Hotels Group's Kimpton Hotels brand; however, the hotel was forced to close before the renaming due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It reopened under the Kimpton name on 1 October 2020.

The hotel is purported to be haunted. One of the staircases is said to be haunted by a grieving war widow who committed su***de by throwing herself down it from the top floor. The staircase in question was only accessible to men at the time. Room 261 is allegedly haunted, with reports of the sound of children playing at night. (all information taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimpton...)

This weeks video takes us to in - where we stay the night in a KingPremium room, and take a short walk around the hallways of the hote...