Town team aiming for a world record

Buxton Town Team is preparing to clean up by making a bid to get in the Guinness Book of Records.

The organisation is planning to clean the hundreds of railings around the Pavilion Gardens in just one day, and members are now preparing for the big clean up by working out how many there are and how far they stretch around the park, with help from students at the University of Derby Buxton and Buxton College’s Public Services Course.

The project will lead up to Buxton’s Spring Clean on Saturday April 12, when members of the public are being urged to meet at 10am at Turner’s Memorial to help tidy up the town ready for the spring arriving.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

And if the railing idea is a success this year, next year the Town Team are planning to make a bid for the world record under the codename Railing Against Grime, with other railings around public spaces included.

“The railings are looking a bit green about the gills, and the project is a fun idea to concentrate efforts on sprucing up the town,” said Town Team member Roddie Maclean.

“But there is an historical background to it all. Tourists used to have to pay to get into the Pavilion Gardens, and the railings were meant to make sure no-one sneaked in. Many a white-haired old man in Buxton can remember wriggling through gaps as a schoolboy to avoid paying the 3d - less than 0.5 of a penny in today’s cash - to get in.

“Now the railings are a graceful feature of the townscape, marking the boundary of Buxton’s historic “Central Park” and helping to keep children safe within it, so we thought returning them to their original condition would be a great start to spring.”