I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from our visit to Crich Tramway Village.
I knew there’d be trams, obviously. But what I didn’t expect was to step into a fully recreated street that could very easily be mistaken for a village where people still live and work.
Cobbled roads, vintage shopfronts, original signs from old businesses, and a general nostalgic atmosphere make the whole village feel like a very special place. I love learning about the history of vehicles, and Crich Tramway Village has lots of vehicles with some incredible stories to learn.
Each tram on display is in a different state of repair that coincides with its previous life. Some are still operational and take visitors on a mile-long trip through the centre of the village, while some have been retired a long time ago and now act as static displays of a specific time in history.
What I found most interesting was seeing the development and evolution from the early trams to the more recent versions, with each one seeming to get a little bit closer to the buses you see on the road today.
As Nick and I were given a guided tour of the village by Amanda, we got to see pretty much everything it had to offer. This included the restoration workshop where a small team of volunteers restore trams from various eras. Obviously, this was something we were both very keen to see, as it was something we had in common with the village.
The entire experience of Crich Tramway Village is very immersive. The conductors and drivers are in character and check tickets, and announce which stop is approaching, and you can just lose yourself in the atmosphere of your visit.
More history can be found in the Red Lion pub, which used to be a working pub in Stoke-on-Trent but was moved and rebuilt to Crich brick by brick. It was a very cool thing to be able to stand in a pub that once stood miles away but is now the centre of this nostalgic village.
Of course, being in the Peak District, the surroundings were very pleasing on the eye too!
More to come in the next issue of Driver Magazine (out in August 2025)
You can also read about the rest of our Great Northern Road Trip:
A Visit to Great Northern Classics
A Visit to the Great British Car Journey
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