Exploring Crich Tramway Village

Back in October we spent a day exploring Crich Tramway Village and enjoyed their Starlight Spectacular after dark tram rides.  My son had never been on a tram before and as it was his Dad’s birthday we thought it would make a nice, memorable day out for all concerned.

The Crich Tramway Museum is near Matlock in Derbyshire and it opens again for 2018 on Saturday 17th March, through to Sunday 4th November. There are events throughout the year and we’d been wanting to visit for some time.  The Starlight Spectacular event which ran during the October half term was perfect for us and was a great introduction to the museum and all it has to offer.

When planning time exploring Crich Tramway Village, it worth noting that your ticket includes a free return visit within a 12 month period (excluding a few event days).  There’s plenty of parking available at the entrance to the museum along with toilet facilities.  We had made a stop on the way up to Crich and arrived at lunchtime, and knew that we’d be staying until late in the day to make use of the illuminated tram rides after dark.  I can imagine that on a warm day you could easily make a full day out exploring Crich Tramway Village, with a picnic, but without the late tram rides on offer, in October, I think a half day would have seen us doing everything we wanted.

Your ticket gives you unlimited tram travel along a mile long track with a couple of stops along the way.  As we knew we’d be spending some time exploring Crich Tramway Village, we thought we’d look around the tram depot before catching our first ride of the day.

You can walk up and down the depot sheds and admire the various trams from the walkways but you can sit inside one of the trams in the great exhibition hall itself.

There are also some interactive information points for children to enjoy and a variety of trams of various ages to enjoy looking at.  It was my son’s first experience of a tram and he really enjoyed looking around them.

The George Stephenson Discovery and Learning Centre is also really interesting and worth a visit.  There are more interactive points and anything that involves engineering is a hit with my son.  Working the bellows for the coal fire was a new experience for him.

We always make a beeline for workshop viewing galleries on our steam train excursions, and when we were exploring Crich Tramway Village it was no different.  Seeing the tram skeleton was fascinating and you could see the amount of work involved in restoring these vehicles.

My son’s excitement was growing and the boy who is normally a little apprehensive of new things, demanded that we get seats on the top deck of the tram for his first ride.

That set the president for the rest of the day.  He loved it.

They don’t go very fast and he especially loved the one where we could sit outside, even on a rather chilly October day.

There are a couple of trams running at any one time and through the day we got to go on all of the trams that were running.  Each was slightly different, and it was lovely to take life at a slightly slower pace and just enjoy exploring Crich Tramway Village.

The views across the countryside were lovely and we were all eager to get off and explore the site.  At the Wakebridge stop you can look at old Lead Mining machinery, which cause my son’s imagination.

At the Wakebridge end of the site there’s a woodland walk with wooden sculpture trail to enjoy, a labyrinth, picnic area and a play park to enjoy.  There were steps to be climbed and piles of leaves calling out to be walked through.

Perfect for letting off steam whatever the weather.  It was just before Halloween when we visited, so the walkway was dotted with spooky things for the kids to enjoy.

It did feel like were exploring a bygone age at times.

The light started to fade and the tramway village took on a different look.  We could imagine ourselves waiting for a train after a full day out exploring and it wasn’t long before we got to see them in their full glory.

We also got to enjoy the woodland walk with the tree illuminated, a perfect way to end our day exploring Crich Tramway Village.

We can recommend visiting the Crich Tramway Village when it reopens on 17th March, and to find information on visiting times, events days and ticket prices pop over to their website, or perhaps pin this post for later?