Crich Quarry or Amber Rock Resort?



The road alongside the Museum car park which leads to the quarry.



I think this gate marks the boundary between Museum land and the quarry.

The Museum tramway runs behind the fence on the left of this picture.

We know very little about the proposal to develop a leisure resort in the quarry. The Tramway Museum Society has circulated its members with a press release, there have been a couple of reports in local newspapers and a website http://www.amberrockresort.com/ which used to contain some maps and plans has disappeared.

The maps and plans were not artist's impressions but quite detailed. The resort was shown in the base of the quarry with a leisure complex and water feature at the north end and a hotel against the quarry face on the east side. A proposed new tramway was shown branching off the current tramway on the left of picture 3 above and running round the the boundary of the development site and back to the existing line so that trams could run from Town End and back without reversing. A maintenance facility was shown near Glory Mine.

The press reports are conflicting and the only thing we know about the developers is that their agent is called Ian Clarke.

The Belper News reported that the quarry still belongs to Aggregate Industries and that quarring could be resumed if the scheme fails. "Mr Clarke, from Heanor, said the economic downturn had prompted owners Aggregate Industries to mothball the quarry but if plans for the holiday village were rejected quarrying could be resumed."

The Derby Telegraph thinks that the developers own the land. Ian Clarke, agent for the scheme, said he had presented the initial ideas to members of the regeneration team at Amber Valley Borough Council, but that many studies had to be done before a planning application was submitted. He said: "This is very much in its early stages and we have to go through may due processes and undertake a number of studies, such as transport and environmental ones, before we even think about putting the planning application together. "We own the freehold to the site and we believe the development would be a major boost for the economy."

The Telegraph also reported "Mr Clarke said he had already presented the idea to three members of the tramway board and would be presenting it to the entire board on June 4."