National Tramway Museum (Crich Tramway Village)

About this place

On the lip of an old quarry above the Derwent valley, someone rebuilt a period British street, complete with rescued facades, cast-iron lamp posts, a sweet shop and a tea room, for one purpose only: so that real trams a century old or more could run down the middle of it. This is the National Tramway Museum, keeper of Britain's nationally designated collection of trams from the 1860s to the present, and the point is not to look at them behind a rope but to ride them. You pay once at the gate, then hop on and off all day, with trams running through the day along a line of about a mile that starts in the street and ends in open countryside. The site runs along the course of the narrow-gauge mineral railway George Stephenson built to carry stone from the quarries to the lime kilns at Ambergate, which is why the far terminus has such a lofty view over the green valley. Between rides there are depots full of restored cars from Glasgow, Blackpool, Leeds and a few from abroad, indoor galleries that follow the tram from horse to steam to electric and show how it shaped the British city before the bus and the car, and a trail of wooden sculptures through the small woodland beside the line. The open-topped double-deckers are the ones to catch on a sunny day; the wooden seats up top will please children more than any exhibit. This is a family destination first and foremost: a long half-day with nursery- and primary-age children, and about two hours for a lone adult who is not a railway enthusiast. The street is cobbled but a smooth path threads the whole site, so a pushchair is fine; boarding the vintage trams themselves means steep, narrow steps, though there is a dedicated access tram with a centre lift, and wheelchairs can be hired on site. The Red Lion, a period pub moved here from Stoke-on-Trent and rebuilt in the street, really does serve food and drink from late morning, and the family food in the main cafe is plain and simple. It is a day trip from the Peak District rather than a stop inside it. Crich sits just outside the national park, off its south-eastern side, about twenty minutes by car from Matlock, forty from Bakewell and eight miles from junction 28 of the M1. Driving is the practical option: the nearest railway station, Whatstandwell, is a mile away up a steep hill, and the bus service is thin, with little or nothing on Sundays and bank holidays. The season runs from mid-March to the start of November and the museum shuts entirely in winter; it closes on Fridays outside school holidays but opens daily from 24 July to 31 August. Booking is not compulsory, but buying online at least 24 hours ahead saves two pounds per person and three on a family ticket, and any full-price ticket gives free return visits for twelve months.