"This is just the start": closed Buxton Museum service to hold summer holiday activity events at community venues

The museum, in Peak Buildings on Terrace Road, shut in June 2023 following the discovery of dry rot in its timbers and, after lengthy inspections, the council ultimately decided to sell the building rather than restore it.

The authority says it now exploring alternative options in partnership with High Peak Borough Council and community groups but in the meantime museum staff will be popping up at various venues every Thursday, plus one Friday, during the school holidays to deliver activities which mix education and entertainment inspired by the town’s heritage.

Council leader Barry Lewis said: “I’d like to reiterate earlier reassurances made that we remain fully committed to supporting the museum service and to ensuring its future in Buxton for the long term.

“A lot of work and planning is going into ensuring a strong interim service while we work on a long-term solution for the museum, and these events are just the start of what will be on offer in Buxton and then more widely.

“We want the collections to be as accessible as possible to as many people as possible and as suitable venues and opportunities are identified that is what we will deliver.”

Residents can drop by and join in for 30-45 minutes any time from 10.30am to 3.30pm on the selected dates. No tickets are required and all materials provided free.

The programme kicks off on July 25 in the Buxton Country Park classroom with the chance to learn how Derbyshire lay beneath the sea 290million years ago, and make a rockpool filled with ancient aquatic creatures.

On August 1, again at Buxton Country Park, fast-forward to the Ice Age and the mammoths, big cats, wolves and bears which prowled the Peaks. Visitors can make animal masks then take photos of their wild creations in Grin Low woods.

Moving on from natural history, on August 8 at the Crescent Pump Room, youngsters can learn about the haunted houses and lost palaces of Buxton, and imagine new additions to the townscape and its population.

At the Pump Room on August 15, the theme will be the carved faces found all over Buxton – smiling kings, beautiful women, dragons and monsters – and visitors can craft new gargoyles from clay or cardboard.

August 22 will be a day to remember Buxton Museum’s beloved mermaid in a session at Buxton Library, on Kents Bank Road, and create some glamorous friends to keep her company wherever she is now.

The following day, August 23, at the Crescent Assembly Rooms, there will be a mini exhibition from the museum collection, featuring mastodon teeth, Buxton diamonds and paintings by Henri Matisse, and visitors can work with artists to make a ‘cabinet of curiousity’ to take home and display their own finds.

Finally, back at the library on August 29, participants can learn about the Victorians, Romans and wild cave dwellers who came before today’s local residents and make dioramas and peg-dolls of those bygone peoples.

For full details, visit derbyshire.gov.uk/leisure/buxton-museum/events/events.aspx.

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