News

Restoring our railway heritage

The goods shed with its new roof

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 is being 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. At the time of writing the works the interior interpretation displays are still being created, but by the time ACID is published everything will be installed and the goods shed will be ready to receive visitors. 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

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.”

Effigy of Plague victim revealed

The desecrated effigy of a possible victim of the Black Death in the 14th century found in a south Derbyshire church is believed to be the earliest alabaster effigy of a priest known in the UK. The newly discovered monument of a local priest, John de Belton, in St Wilfrid’s Church, Barrow-upon-Trent, dates back to 1348, and still has significant traces of gold paint, as well as more exotic minerals such as cinnabar and azurite. “It would have been a very bright, blingy type of statue when it was first made,” said Anne Heathcote, church warden of St Wilfrid’s, who made the discovery. “It is wearing priest’s robes, which have been very finely sculpted by someone who was obviously a master sculptor.” During the Reformation, the face of the effigy was smashed, his hands, once clasped in prayer, were cut off and the angels who cradled his head were decapitated. Afterwards, his shattered form lay hidden for centuries behind an old pipe organ, forgotten and enveloped in dirt. De Belton is thought to have lost his life to the Black Death while serving the parish in 1348. “We have two Black Death pits in the churchyard and because it’s a Knights Hospitaller church, we think that the Hospitallers looked after plague victims and buried them,” said Anne. She received a phone call from the Church Monuments Society five years ago saying that they knew of an effigy of a priest in the church. She confirmed this was the case and sent them a photo of the “filthy” statue. “I immediately got an email back, full of excitement, saying that this looked like a very important effigy. I was dumbfounded.” After raising £10,000 to clean, analyse and preserve the statue, it was due to be unveiled to the village in December last year – but the church was unable to open because of Covid restrictions. “Considering that De Belton may have been infected by the Black Death in the course of his duties, it’s ironic that we’ve put him back there in full view in the same year we had another pandemic,” said Anne. George Challenger, who has died at the age of 84, devoted most of his life to conservation, recreation and local history in Bakewell and the surrounding Peak District. George was brought up in his father’s vicarages in Sutton Coldfield and in the Shropshire countryside. He studied horticulture at Reading University, took a post graduate Diploma in Landscape design at Newcastle, and a planning course at Nottingham. George’s first four years of employment, from 1959-63, were with the Government agricultural department in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Not long before going to Africa he met Janet who followed him to Bulawayo where they got married. George came to the Peak District in 1966 when he was employed by the Peak Park Planning Board. As a landscape architect, he was involved in pioneering project work on the facilities for public enjoyment of the National Park, providing many of today’s popular car parks and trails. George always brought great skills, experience and commitment to his work. Later in his career George managed the Heritage Conservation Group and he recruited a part-time archaeologist (Ken Smith from Derbyshire County Council) and an ecologist in the early 1980s, and as the archaeology and ecology staff gradually grew, George remained in that role for the rest of his career. He took voluntary early retirement in around 1995. Early in his time in Bakewell George joined the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust and continued as an active member for the rest of his life. He was involved with the management of Millers Dale Quarry nature reserve for almost 50 years. Over the 50 years that he was a volunteer at Bakewell Historical Society’s Old House Museum he was involved in every aspect of the running and maintenance of the building. He was chair of the museum committee for many years and contributed a deep knowledge of the history of the Old House, details of the building, and its former tenants. His tireless commitment over the years has meant that the museum has continued to thrive (see p31). George was involved with Caudwell’s Mill from the time the National Park became involved in trying to protect the building and keep it going as an historic flour mill. George’s former colleague Ken Smith, now a National Park Authority member himself, was full of praise for his former manager. “George always gave me my head and allowed me to develop my role,” said Ken. “His knowledge of wildlife was legendary, but he was also steeped in local history, and those two skills were entirely complimentary in his position.” George leaves Janet together with a son, a daughter, six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.