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Restoring our railway heritage
Installation of interpretation underway inside the restored goods shed
Visitors to the Monsal Trail will have noticed that the former good shed at the station in Miller’s Dale has undergone a transformation from a roofless shell to a new multi-use space. This is the second phase of works at the site – the first phase saw the renovation of the former ticket office and waiting rooms and the much-needed provision of a café and information hub. Since the railway line at Miller’s Dale closed in 1967, the goods shed had fallen into disrepair – the original roof had been lost and the walls had become structurally unstable. The Peak District National Park secured a grant of just over £320,000 from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development to fund a new roof and repairs to the goods shed. This has been used to transform the shed into a free, interactive information space for visitors. The green credentials of the building are enhanced by the inclusion of solar panels. Both station building and goods shed at Miller ’s Dale are part of a number of structures that once formed a bustling stop-off
on the former Midland Railway line. The Monsal Trail is now a hugely popular walking and cycling route, attracting around 140,000 visitors a year, so the National Park is excited to be able to offer an enhanced visitor experience at this site. As well as securing an important piece of our railway heritage for the future, the project will support the rural economy in the area by signposting visitors to other attractions and businesses and extend the season by providing indoor space that people can enjoy at any time of the year. The National Park put out a call for people to share any memories or photographs they had of Miller ’s Dale Station while the trains were still running, and their stories contributed to the interpretation of the site. The goods shed was ready to receive its first visitors during the Christmas holiday last year. Please come and enjoy the new facilities, have a cuppa, and maybe take a walk or a cycle along the trail too.
Pop-up archaeology in Bakewell One unexpected benefit from the Covid crisis saw pop-up archaeological displays erected in the fronts of unoccupied shop premises in Bakewell. The Bakewell-based Archaeological Research Services consultancy teamed up with the Bakewell and District Historical Society and the local parish and diocese to produce displays in Portland Square explaining the “Decoding the Bakewell Crosses” project which it undertook in 2012. The pagan and Christian iconography of the Anglo Saxon and Anglo Scandinavian crosses in the churchyard of Bakewell’s Parish Church of All Saints was in urgent need of interpretation and conservation. Excavations showed that the Great Cross standing outside the eastern end of the church was not in its original position but had been moved there some time after the Anglo Saxon period. The discovery of a late Anglo Saxon grave of a young woman holding a child beneath the cross showed that the cross had been erected there at a later date than the burial. The grave 26
ACID | 2022
A visitor inspects the Bakewell Crosses panels in Portland Square
was probably in the graveyard of the original Saxon minster at Bakewell, which was known to exist prior to the construction of the originally Norman church now standing on the site. Reuben Thorpe, Head of Field Archaeology with ARS, commented: “We have always thought it was important to try to give something back to the community, and this was a way to assist both local people and visitors to the town.”
