derbyshire Archives - Neil Turner's Blog

Crich Tramway Village

December 31, 2024August 5, 2018 by Neil Turner

Back in May, on the way back from a wedding in Leicester, we dropped into Crich Tramway Village in Derbyshire. Crich is home to the National Tramway Museum, and has a large number of heritage trams from Britain and abroad that run up and down a mile long track.

At the lower end of the site is the village, with various heritage buildings that have been transplanted from elsewhere and re-assembled. There’s also the main tram sheds, for those trams that are still in working use, and a museum with some trams as static displays. The trams in the museum are arranged in date order, right from the first horse-drawn trams, to those that were built shortly before trams were withdrawn across almost all of the UK in the 1960s. Famously, Blackpool was a hold-out and kept its trams, and several examples are now here at Crich too. It was slightly weird seeing a tram that I’ve seen in service in Blackpool not too long ago, now in a museum.

Heading up the hill out of the village is a large park for kids to play in, and then a forest trail with various sculptures to look at. There’s even a wooden Mr Potato Head.

Entry to the site permits unlimited rides on the trams. The village has a variety of places to eat and drink; the pub on site was having a beer festival when we visited. And like many attractions, your entry fee gets you an annual pass, so that you can return any time within 12 months for free. Alas, it’s a little bit too far for a day trip for us so we may not be able to take advantage of a return visit unless we’re in the area for another reason.

Even if you’re not quite so interested in public transport as I am, it’s a good day out as there’s plenty to do. It helps if you choose a day with good weather, though, as it’s mostly outdoors.

A day out at Chatsworth

December 29, 2024May 2, 2016 by Neil Turner

I booked a day off work on Wednesday, and we went on a road trip to the Chatsworth Estate in Derbyshire. The estate is owned by the Duke of Devonshire, and has been in the Cavendish family since the 16th century. There’s a large stately home, gardens, a farm, an adventure playground, and a farm shop, all open to the public.

Christine and I have both been to Chatsworth before, but separately; Christine lived in nearby Chesterfield about ten years ago, and I’d been with my parents in August 2003. Going back was always on our to-do list, and now that we have a car, getting there and back in a day from Sowerby Bridge became do-able.

Google Maps did its usual thing of offering a choice of routes. There was the expected route on the motorways, via Sheffield, or a more direct and scenic one through the Peak District National Park. As it was sunny and the two routes would take about the same amount of time, we chose the latter. It was a great drive, which took in part of the route taken by the riders of the Tour de France when Yorkshire hosted the Grand Départ in 2014. Alas, a couple of sections of road were shut and we arrived about 15 minutes later than planned, due to diversions.

Arriving at lunchtime, our first activity was to fill our rather empty stomachs. Chatsworth offers a number of places to eat, although as we came on a relatively quiet Wednesday, our choice was limited to a couple of outlets in the Stables Courtyard. We went for the self-service restaurant on the basis that the tea room across the way would have probably maxed out my credit card. I’m sure the food is exquisite, but our budget doesn’t quite stretch that far as yet. In any case, the restaurant food was good, and it was busy, suggesting that locals with money to spare come here just to eat.

Our first post-lunch visit was to the farmyard – a part of the estate that I haven’t been to before. It’s not quite as big as the farm at Temple Newsam, and did cost more to get in, but there were more staff on hand to talk about the animals. We got introduced to Maggie the sheep, and were allowed to pet a days old chick that had recently hatched. The farm has over 30 guinea pigs and there are regular handling sessions throughout the day. Entrance to the adventure playground is included with the farm ticket, and I’m sure our little poppet will love it when they’re a bit older.

Afterwards, we went to look around the gardens. Sadly we only managed a small section – enough to get the classic photo of the house and fountain at the bottom, and to go into the temperate house. The temperate house includes some banana trees; Chatsworth was where the Cavendish banana was first cultivated. It’s now the most commonly-eaten banana in the world. We would have stayed longer, but in between baby feeds and staying out of the rain, which was starting to fall by the afternoon, we didn’t manage the upper sections of the gardens.

We called in at the farm shop on the way home. The Chatsworth Farm Shop is regularly voted one of the best in Britain, and it’s easy to see why – it’s huge, and the staff are knowledgable. We picked up some locally-cured bacon and sausages, made from pigs from farms on the estate, and some local cheese. If you’re a foodie, then the farm shop alone is worth the visit.

For the drive home, we decided to take the motorway route. But we had good day out and I’m sure we’ll be back there before too long.

Creswell Crags

May 17, 2025June 21, 2012 by Neil Turner

*Photo by branestawm2002, released under a Creative Commons License. My own photos will follow later…*

Last weekend Christine and I visited Creswell Crags on the border of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. It is a limestone gorge with various caves along the sides, in which evidence for occupation by human ancestors during the ice age has been found. They are also the only caves in the UK to have cave art on the walls, which was only formally discovered in 2003.

The gorge itself was a beauty spot in Victorian times, and various archaeological excavations have taken place since then. Many of the finds are now in a museum and visitor centre, to the north of the site, which we also visited, and this organises tours of two of the more interesting caves. The caves are normally closed to the public, so it is only by going on the tours that you can see the cave art, which are simple animal depictions carved into the rocky walls of the caves. There’s possible evidence that these were painted at one time, like in other caves in continental Europe (I visited Lascaux, or rather the mock-up at Lascaux II, back in the 1990s), but nowadays just the carvings are visible.

It’s a very interesting site, and the museum explains how the area was in different periods in time – before the last ice age, there would have been hippos in the water and hyenas hunting. The museum was opened in 2009 and is an interesting piece of architecture in itself, and has the ubiquitous café and gift shop.

It’s worth a visit – you can wander around the gorge itself for free, but the tours inside the caves and the museum cost money – up to £13 for adults to do both tours, although this is valid for a year for any repeat visits. There’s a picnic area if it’s a nice day, and the gorge is very pretty.