All change at Crich this winter

A number of developments are taking place at Crich Tramway Village over the winter period, in an attempt to offer an improved experience for visitors to the attraction from next year. Although most of these don’t directly involve the trams themselves, some of these are likely to be of interest to our readers, and are therefore reported below.

Despite the surprise resignation of the museum’s General Manager recently, it is pleasing to see that several ideas which he had suggested before his departure are still to be implemented. Perhaps the most welcome of all is the addition of a new tram stop at Glory Mine, which will enable passengers to take a break from tram riding at the terminus, and offer new photo opportunities to visitors. Initially this will just be a basic stop with no additional facilities provided, but is still a very positive step and as a public footpath already exists to the nearby Crich Stand, this could encourage non-enthusiast visitors to stay on site for a little longer.

The 50th anniversary of electric tramcar operation at Crich will be celebrated by a weekend-long event in September, but also with a temporary exhibition in the Derby Assembly Room at Town End. This will focus largely on the major developments which have seen a derelict quarry transformed into a world-class museum attraction, and will replace the previous video theatre.

Other changes will include improvements to the Tea Room, sweet shop and the relatively new entrance building, which will incorporate sales and catering as well as the main admissions desk. A new cast iron shelter is to be provided at Town End which will be used as a buggy store, and plans are afoot for the remains of a lead smelter to be exhibited, for which funding has already been sourced. A new cool beer store is also to be constructed close to the Red Lion public house, to replace a temporary tent which is normally used for this purpose. However, the indoor play area is now set to be refurbished rather than relocated as was previously suggested, indicating that plans to use the Exhibition Hall annexe for tramcar storage has been quietly dropped. Therefore, there will be no need for the proposed new building alongside the Red Lion, but curiously, the embankment will still be excavated and a new retaining wall built.

The likely benefits of some of these projects could certainly be questioned, but overall the decision to invest in several ‘quick win’ projects seems to be a good move and will hopefully help the museum to improve its fortunes during 2014. With £100,000 set to be spent on the aforementioned infrastructure improvements, hopefully next year will be a good one for the National Tramway Museum so that further improvements can be made in the years to come.