Ringing out the good news – 70 years later!

New stories about the lost villages of Derwent and Ashopton are still emerging seven decades after they disappeared beneath the waters of Ladybower Dam. Leonie Martin talks to Malcolm Thorp about his links to the valley – and the return of a long-lost artefact from his infancy.

MALCOLM THORP was just a babe in arms when the bell in Derwent Hall’s private chapel rang out across the valley for the final time – far too young to appreciate the significance of the occasion. Born in January 1940, he is said to be the last baby to be baptised in St Henry’s Chapel before the demolition squad moved in to prepare the way for Ladybower Dam…