VIP guest meets living history actor who plays her great-great-great-grandfather at Derbyshire tourist attraction Heights of Abraham

Joanna Brown met up with living history actor David Oxley, who plays her ancestor, when she pushed the button to signal the start of this year’s season.

Devon based Joanna said: “Last September when I stepped off the cable car at the top I was shocked to see a sign advertising daily tours by Benjamin Bryan, the very relative I was seeking. It was a wonderful feeling. I couldn’t wait to meet him again today, and to meet the current owners of the Heights too”.

The estate’s current custodians, the Pugh family, invited Joanna back to meet her famous relative at the beginning of a milestone year for the resort.

Rupert Pugh, development director at the Heights, said “2024 is a really special year for all of us here at the Heights. We are celebrating both a golden and a ruby anniversary, as it’s 50 years since my parents took over the stewardship of the estate and began their huge restoration project, and 40 years since they installed the cable car system, which transformed this estate into one of England’s top tourist attractions”.

As Saturday was also the start of the Lunar New Year, hundreds of guests were entertained by the Sheffield Chinese Lion Dance Team who visited the Heights to perform their Lion Dance of good fortune. The dancers were accompanied by three musicians who provided a percussive traditional beat, as dragon flag wavers and the lion created a spellbinding show to herald in the Year of the Dragon.

The Heights of Abraham is open daily until February 26, then Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays (long weekends) until March 18, then daily from March 22 to November 3, 2024. Between November 22 and December 30 the Heights will present its very first winter lights trail, the Lights of Abraham. For more information www.heightsofabraham.com