Volunteers restore St Ann’s Well in Buxton to ‘its glorious best’ – as hotel opens

In a picture taken before the restoration job the centuries-old drinking fountain can be seen covered in ‘grotty moss and lichen’.

However after a ‘bit of elbow grease’ from Dave Carlisle the well’s Ashlar gritstone looks as good as new.

Dave, chairman of community group Friends of Buxton Station, told how as preparations for the opening of the new hotel came to a head he realised how ‘uninviting’ the iconic fountain looked.

He said: “It was covered in grotty moss and lichen so, working along with Buxton Town Team members Dave Lewis and Tina Heathcote, we Friends of Buxton Station decided to give it a jolly good clean.

“Thanks to water and electrical supplies from the Pump Room, courtesy of Louise Cross and Helen Haywood of Buxton Crescent Trust, the well was power-washed back to its glorious best.”

The well sits alongside the Grade II-listed Pump Room - built for the 7th Duke of Devonshire in 1894.

The elegant pump room is part of the Buxton Crescent Visitor Experience - which is located in eight rooms inside the Crescent.

It opens this month telling stories of the Crescent, Buxton and its famous water.

The Buxton Crescent Visitor Experience coincides with the reopening of the Crescent as a five-star hotel - after a £70 million, 17-year-long restoration.

Europe’s largest health spa operator Ensana - who run the hotel - hope to ‘remind people’ Buxton is not the Bath of the north but ‘a destination’ in it’s own right.

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