The Historic Farm Buildings Group 2008 September Conference will be held during the weekend September 5^th – 7^th in Derbyshire. Accommodation has been reserved in the Alan Booth Centre at the Hayes Conference Centre, Swanwick near Alfreton (www.cct.org.uk and follow link to The Hayes) to enable us to visit buildings in central Derbyshire.

Derbyshire is a county with a varied agricultural past dependant on the underlying geology and relief. The gritstone and limestone of the High and Low Peak contrasts with the gentler landscapes of the coal measures sandstone in the east and the river valleys of the Trent and its tributaries to the south. Professor David Hey has agreed to talk to us about agriculture in the county in the 17^th and 18^th centuries on Friday evening.

Two very contrasting days of visits are planned. One will be spent looking at planned farmsteads of the early nineteenth century built by the Strutt family around Belper, now part of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site. For details for three of these farms see HBFG Journal Volume 17, 2003. The other day will be in and around the village of Bonsall, near Matlock. This will enable us to see the work a local group of enthusiasts are managing to do with an extraordinary heritage of field barns, over 100 in the parish. For further details of this visit www.bonsallfieldbarnproject.org.uk Time will also be spent in the village looking at surviving farm buildings within a constricted village site.