Meet Reports
Welbourn - May 1st to 5th 2026
Back home again after our 4 night Bank Holiday meet in the lovely peaceful village of Welbourn.
This is one of our favourite sites because of the large flat field, the immediate access to a comfortable village hall and its accessibility to a regular bus route for those wanting to explore.
It was lovely to have a group of visitors join us who were happy to join in with the spirit of things. They made a valuable contribution to our evenings‘ entertainment with a quiz and line dancing, enabling our hard working MCs to offer a diverse programme.
Daytime activities for those remaining on site included a diamond art workshop- thank you Jacqui - , games, and opportunities for some of us to improve our musical skills.
Thank you David and Margaret for your hard work as stewards and see you all again soon
Spring Festival - April 2nd to 7th 2026
It was lovely to meet up with friends from our section at the Easter Meet and to be able to proudly display our NEW North Central Flag.
We spent an enjoyable 4 days of dancing, music sessions and enthusiastic skiffle workshops led by Gill and Keith.
There was so much choice of activities so hopefully everybody found something they could be involved with.
The large group of volunteers had worked so hard to make this event so successful.
Also useful to make contact with those who will be helping us when we host the Autumn Gather at Welbourn.
Janet
CHADS - March 20th to 22nd 2026
We have just returned from CHADS, our first meet of the year. It was lovely to meet up again with old friends.
The weekend got off to a good start with a shared soup supper, thanks to our hard working stewards, Nora and Clive.
We enjoyed two evenings of music, dancing and poems and it was great to see our visitors joining in with both the music and dancing.
Saturday afternoon was our AGM. We are pleased to say that all our committee members are happy to give another year’s service, and no arms were broken in the process!
All forthcoming meets now have stewards so we look forward to another good year.
We would like to wish Pat and Paul all the best in their retirement from caravanning. Their many years of hard work, stewarding, calling dances, making music and serving on the committee have been much appreciated.
The fish and chip supper on Saturday has become a successful formula at CHADS and this weekend was no exception. It all helped to give the weekend the ‘feel good’ factor that we associate with CHADS.
Thanks to Clive and Nora for all your hard work and we look forward to seeing you at the Spring Festival.
CHADS - October 31st to November 2nd 2025
Well, CHADS marks the end of another camping year for North Central. A club member referred to CHADS as being North Central’s “Spiritual Home” and that seemed such an appropriate term to describe our weekends here.
It always seems to offer a relaxed feeling whilst people made full use of the hall to play music together, do the jigsaw (can we have an easier on next time please!) or just chat. Margaret also ran two dance workshops.
The evening socials gave a good balance of dancing and music, with a Halloween theme running through the Saturday dance. Lovely to see the costumes worn by some of us - it’s only when you speak that we know who is who.
Look forward to seeing you all in March 2026 - same venue!
Hough - October 10th to 13th 2025
We have just returned from a lovely long weekend at Hough. We have not used this site for a while and we had forgotten what a lovely hall it is. One member described it as a ‘house party’, which was very nice. We made the most of having access to the hall during the day.
Diane kindly agreed to run craft sessions each day, which were well supported and produced lovely work with origami boxes and diamond art cards. The musicians provided the background music, either practising for their spots or just playing together for pure pleasure.
With a bus stop right outside, the adventurous took advantage of the local bus to explore the delights of Nantwich or Crewe. Crewe Heritage Centre is well worth a visit - if you are into that sort of thing!
Our evening entertainment gave us a good balance of dancing, music and poems; thanks to the diversity of the group and our visitors being happy to contribute.
Thanks everyone for a great weekend; now looking forward to CHADS.
Thoresby Park - July 31st to August 4th 2025
This was a well attended meet with many visitors from other folk group sections and DA’s.
Every morning we had a get together with plenty of home made cake provided by our stewards, Susan and Raymond. Then we all went off doing our own thing,walking cycling or just relaxing and in the afternoon we played a type of skittles game. This was played in teams with much hilarity and hilarious attempts at cheating.
On 3 evenings we had the village hall for dancing and many entertaining spots. on the first 2 night we had a 4 piece band led by Richard Steel.
There is always plenty of to do and see at Thoresby with the Morris car rally in the next field and the brass band on Sunday. All went home happy
Ashover Showground - June 19th to 24th 2025.
Report on meet at Ashover Showground from 19th to 24th June.
July saw us meeting again at Ashover, a pretty little village on the edge of the Peak District.
Our stewards, Clive and Nora, welcomed everyone with a ‘Meet and Greet’ wine and cheese evening, getting the weekend off to a good start.
During the weekend, people took advantage of the local bus routes to Matlock and Bakewell. Another attraction was Crich Tramway Museum, well worth a trip.
We had use of the village hall on Friday and Saturday evenings for our usual mix of dancing, spots and music. Hopefully, our visitors enjoyed their initiation into the joys of folk dancing.
Thanks to everyone for making it another good weekend.
Swythamley - May 23rd to 27th 2025
Back home now after a superb four night meet at Swythamley. Thanks to Pat and Paul for welcoming everyone to this regular fixture in our calendar. The weather was kind to us on the whole, even so access to the hall for the whole weekend was appreciated.
There was a really good mix of talents among us which meant that the evening ceilidhs could include singing, dancing, musical spots and poems.
Similarly, during the day, we were able to offer a dance workshop, skiffle, indoor games and impromptu gathering for the musicians. The piano also got a fair bit of use.
Some of us took advantage of the location for walking or cycling. Destinations included the Brewery (of course), Luds Church, Gun Hill, Rudyard Lake and the nearby well dressing at Endon.
Hopefully, the weekend was able to offer something to everyone.
See you at Ashover.
Welbourn - May 1st to 5th 2025
We arrived in brilliant sunshine and once everyone was set up we had A evening get together under our gazebo with plenty of cake. There was a terrific thunder storm later that lasted hours. We had long coffee mornings each day with cake and evening entertainments with yet more cake.
Everyone said what a great venue it was with regular buses to Lincoln and all went home happy and glad they came
CHADS – March 14th to 16th 2025
It was lovely to meet up again with old friends at our first meet of the year, and to welcome visitors to the section. Our stewards, Jacqui and Richard, did a marvellous job ensuring things ran smoothly and full marks to Jacqui for her initiation into stewarding. A ’Bring your own meal and eat together’ was a good start to the weekend followed by a dance / social.
The AGM went smoothly keeping a fairly stable committee to guide the section into the new camping year.
Paul T led the St Patrick’s Day evening dance/entertainment after the popular fish and chip supper.
Driving home on the Sunday, we agreed that CHADS had once again come up trumps. It had as usual provided a lovely relaxed weekend of talking, laughing, playing games, doing the jigsaw, all with like-minded people.
CHADS – Oct 25th to 27th 2024
Our final meet of 2024 was at the homely venue of CHADS. Friday night we kicked off with a shared tea followed by spots and dancing. On Saturday we had sessions of crafts, jigsaws, dance lessons and jamming sessions by the musicians. After a Fish and chip supper the evening began with a fancy dress competition won by a newbie to the Folk group. The whole evening was dedicated to Halloween. What a fabulous way to see out the season.
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As soon as you are a member you will be assigned to a DA (District Association). This will be the closest DA to where you live and shown on your membership card.
You are then free to go camping with any of the 93 DA's over 13 Regions in the UK.
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