15/07/2026
As many of you have watched with heavy hearts over the past few days, our beautiful, beloved Dove Stone and its surrounding hills have been absolutely ravaged by devastating moor fires.
❤️Right now, a massive area of our landscape is blackened and scarred. Through day and night, a heroic force of over 70 firefighters, 11 fire engines, and four specialist wildfire units are waging an exhausting battle to get those flames under control.
Nearly all of us have walked those paths around Dove Stone or around our moorland. We’ve stood in awe of the stunning scenery and the vibrant wildlife we are so incredibly blessed to have right on our doorstep. To see it torn apart is simply heart-breaking.
The sheer scale of the damage inflicted on our wildlife, their natural habitats, and the land itself cannot be overstated. The overwhelming anger, sorrow, and raw frustration burning across social media right now is completely justified.
So many of us desperately want to help, yet feel completely powerless, staring at the smoke and wondering where to even begin. I know that myself and our team at the Old Fleece Inn in Stalybridge have been having those exact, emotional conversations.
But we refuse to stand by and do nothing.
That is why I am calling on our incredible local community to rise up and unite on SATURDAY 22ND AUGUST for a massive, unstoppable day of FUNDRAISING!
I am asking every single business—from our smallest independent shops to our largest workplaces—and every single member of the public to make this day a powerful dedication to our phenomenal emergency services, our resilient local farmers, and the tireless volunteers who are fighting on the front lines to save our moors.
We need your time. We need your skills. Run a fundraising event, host a cake bake, organize a raffle—do absolutely anything and everything you can to raise every penny possible so we can rebuild and restore our beautiful moorland!
Please, join our Facebook group right now: Together For Our Moorlands. That is where we will share updates on the day's activities, track our fundraising totals, and share the GoFundMe links we have launched to kickstart this mission. Message the group with any enquiries, and together, we will get them answered.
Let’s show everyone the true heart of our community❤️
'We cannot control the behaviours of others, but we can control how we respond to it'