Chesterfield Museum among winners at Derbyshire Heritage Awards

More than 70 guests from a range of heritage organisations gathered for a night of celebration at Staveley’s Barrow Hill Roundhouse.

This was the 11th Derbyshire Heritage Awards, which is funded by the Derbyshire Museums and Heritage Forum with support from Museum Development East Midlands.

Chair of the Derbyshire Museums and Heritage Forum, Glynn Wilton, said “It’s our mission to show people what great, high quality heritage attractions Derbyshire has.

“So much hard work goes into looking after Derbyshire’s heritage and maintaining the brilliant visitor attractions by staff and volunteers, and the awards event is our way of recognising that.”

Among the winners were Chesterfield Museum who scooped the Enterprise and Innovation award for‘The Trench Experience’.

This year’s awards were judged by Sir Richard Fitzherbert, chief executive of Tissington Hall, Joy Hales, editor of Derbyshire Life magazine and Bill Bevan, a freelance heritage interpretation consultant. There were 33 entries from 16 different organisations. so the judges were forced to make ‘some very difficult’ decisions.

The results for each award category were...

Behind the Scenes

Winner - The Princess Royal Class Locomotive Trust for “Return of the Lady in Red: Restoration of Steam Locomotive ‘Duchess of Sutherland’”

Highly Commended - Barrow Hill Roundhouse for “Shunting the Collections 2017”

Award for Enterprise and Innovation

Winner – Chesterfield Museum and Art Gallery for “The Trench Experience”

Highly Commended - Pleasley Pit Trust for “Pleasley Pit. South Winder Drive Unit”

Best Volunteer Project

Winner – Markham Vale Heritage Group for “Walking Together”

Highly Commended - Stoney Middleton Heritage Centre Community Group for “The Heritage and Trails of Stoney Middleton”

Young People in Heritage

Winner – Midland Railway Trust for “Old Skills on Young Shoulders”

Highly Commended - Markham Vale Heritage Group for “The Story Mine”

Reaching New Audiences

Winner – Derbyshire Record Office for “The Amazing Pop Up Archives Project”

Highly Commended - Creswell Crags for “Your Crags”

Partnership Working

Winner – Erewash Museum & Long Eaton 50+ Forum for “Toton Sidings Remembered”

Highly Commended - Crich Tramway Village for “Conversations and Memories: Commemorating Tramway Families through the First World War”

Judge’s Special Award

To Buxton Museum and Art Gallery for “Wonders of the Peak – a journey through time and place”

Excellence – ‘Museum of the Year’

Winner – Erewash Museum