This afternoon Friends of Hadfield Station and Friends of Glossop Station jointly hosted a Bumblebee safari from Hadfield station - the aim being to raise awareness of the environmental value of station gardens and planters for bumblebees. With 97% of wild meadows lost in recent years small connected areas offer bumblebees the chance to continue pollinating our flowers - vital for food production. Hence the Buzzing Stations project involving High Peak Station Friends groups coordinated by the High Peak and Hope Valley Community Rail Partnership.
  Joy Hallsworth - Friends of Hadfield - and Neil Williams - Friends of Glossop welcomed around a dozen children along with their families to Hadfield station. Joy then led a little tour visiting the platform planters and the approach garden where special emphasis was on plants that attract bumblebees. Getting particular attention was the planter on the platform created by Riordan and Finnan two local children whose enthusiasm for conservation last year led to a special hexagonal planter being created. And now it attracts bumblebees! the boys with help from FOHS continue to look after it.
 Joy then led the group to nearby Bankswood Park to the Wildflower meadow below the new cycle track. This gave everyone time to chat to each other and look for bees. The focal point of this walk was the newly installed Bee Alive seat bench created by GLOSSOP ARTS PROJECT. The bench is beautifully made with lots of bee motifs and illustrations. Here we were able to discuss bee facts read by Evora and listen to a bee poem read by Maisie. Natalie demonstrated how bumblebees land and take up pollen. And everybody ended up flapping their arms to try and emulate the 200 wing beats a minute of a bumblebee!! After another half hour the group meandered back to Hadfield station to allow connections for local trains.
 Before leaving Joy gave every child a Friends of Hadfield station mug as a memento of a very happy safari.
  Joy and Neil would like to thank everyone especially the parents who supported this outing and Becky Styles Community and Sustainability Manager at Northern for permission to meet at the station.
  Other High Peak Buzzing Stations bumblebee safaris and walks are available - self guided ones at Buxton and Chapel en le Frith.
   And finally a big thank you to the Bumblebee Conservation Trust for information and support. A new publication Walking with Bumblebees in and around Derbyshire is now available from local Tourist Outlets or direct from the Trust. 9 local walks are highlighted with lots of well explained information including how to spot our iconic rare bumblebee - the bilberry bumblebee.

Friends of Hadfield Station and Friends of Glossop Station are jointly organising another Bumblebee Safari! This will take place on FRIDAY 19th AUGUST at 1.15pm at Hadfield station. There will be a gentle stroll around the station to view garden and planters followed by a walk to nearby Bankswood Park to look for bumblebees and plants to which they are attracted. NO BEES WILL BE HANDLED NOR CAUGHT. Lasting about an hour and a quarter it is ideal for families with children from around 5 to 12 years old and is A FREE EVENT!
GLOSSOP ARTS PROJECT has recently installed a Bee Alive bench in the park which will be a focal part of our visit sitting in an area with natural habitat around.
Four teachers are involved in the planning of this little outing and they will be present on the day. All current safeguarding policies will be respected.
The outing has the support of the High Peak and Hope Valley Community Rail Partnership. Similar safaris have or will take place at Buxton, Edale and Whaley Bridge stations as part of a shared Buzzing Stations project raising awareness of the natural environments surrounding local stations.
In the event of bad weather on the day we will offer some fun conservation activities in the nearby Hadfield Hall for around an hour.
Connecting trains leave Glossop at 13.05 for Hadfield with a return to Glossop at 14.44.
You and your families are very welcome to turn up on the day. If you are however able to send a message in advance that you intend to join us that will be much appreciated! Use the contact form here on this site or either of the details listed.
We look forward to seeing you!

We are delighted to welcome back CHRIS TAYLOR as our artist in the Waiting Room Art Gallery.
Chris' pictures created quite a stir in 2021 as he uses calligraphy and hand lettering in the creation of his pictures. If you look closely you see the designs are like a mosaic of words!
Chris enjoys featuring the natural world in his pictures and often also features poems as part of his work.
There are nine of his pictures currently on display which can be viewed daily when the station booking office is open - from around 7.00 am to 6.30 pm weekdays and 10.00 am until 5.00 pm Sundays.
The pictures are for sale and Chris can be contacted on 01457 857315

THE SATURDAY of the Platinum Jubilee event saw former Lowestoft child evacuees gather together in the restored Parcels Office at Lowestoft station. It is now a remarkable 82 years since 600 evacuees came to Glossop on June 2nd 1940!
Hosted by the Wherry lines Community Rail Partnership and Lowestoft Central project 40 evacuees enjoyed an afternoon tea together in celebration of the Royal Jubilee and in commemoration of their 82 years together. Neil Williams from Friends of Glossop Station represented Glossop and he spoke to the evacuees about recent events in the town including the very successful revived Victorian Weekend.
Martin Halliday, Community Rail Development Officer, then carried out the traditional roll call as to who had attended former schools in Lowestoft. Martin commented, "It was wonderful to see friends reunited and hear some fascinating stories from their time as evacuees."
Martin and team had worked extremely hard beforehand with Platinum Jubilee themed decorations on every table and surrounds. The buffet tea was enjoyed by everyone and Alma Minghay, on behalf of the evacuees, thanked everyone for their hard work. 

PRIOR TO THE REIGN of our current Monarch, the previous longest serving was Queen Victoria whose reign ended in 1901 after 63 years and seven months. It therefore seems appropriate as we celebrate Queen Elizabeth II's seventy years on the throne that we launch our new Poetry Platform display on Glossop Victorian Weekend.
The new display highlights the Poets Laureate who have been in post during those seventy years. Appropriately there have been seven poets who have held the post, acknowledging seven decades of our monarch’s reign from John Masefield (Laureate 1930 – 67) through to the current holder of the position, proud Yorkshireman, Simon Armitage.
Drop by the station and take a look at the display. With brief biographies of each poet and a few lines from their work, it's an opportunity to reflect on seventy years of the Queen through poetry.

HADFIELD OPEN ART SHOW's 10th exhibition takes place from Saturday 28th May to Saturday 4th June at Hadfield Hall, above the library, for Adult exhibitors - 10am to 4am weekends 11am to 3pm weekdays. For children their exhibitions are on display at the Craft Barn, Station Road, Hadfield at the same times. The exhibitions are a fantastic opportunity to see local artists work on display in lovely settings. Workshops for beginners and families, Art Talks, an art trail and Hadfield's first Pro Loco are also available.
For more details click here

Monday 23rd May saw the launch of Community Rail Week, promoted by Community Rail Network. At Manchester Piccadilly station Friends of Glossop Station joined forces with the Mid Cheshire and North Cheshire CRP reps to promote tourist/leisure travel in these areas and the Peak District.
Organised by Danielle Lahan from Network Rail tables were set up with an array of free information to help travellers visit these lines and destinations. This included the new attractive Visit the Glossop Line Banner designed by Catherine and Helen at High Peak and Hope Valley Community Rail Partnership. Becky and Simon, Northern's Community and Sustainability Managers, were also on hand as was Chris McLaughlin Community Safety Officer for Northern. They also provided lots of material for visitors. We had a steady stream of interested people visit us and hopefully some potential new travellers!

TODAY over 30 guests met at Guide Bridge station to mark the completion of the four year project to equip each station on the Glossop/ Hadfield line with a generic but individual Heritage Information Board. All 12 stations now have these boards!
 The event was hosted and organised by Friends of Glossop Station and Neil Williams, from FOGS, welcomed guests to Guide Bridge. We were able to gather in the newly restored rooms on Platform Two soon to be the home of the WOODHEAD RAIL MUSEUM. Our thanks to Andy Kettle at Friends of Guide Bridge for organising this and his colleague Peter Burchill for opening the rooms and preparing them. Peter's artistic handiwork can be admired all around the station. Note the restored brickwork in particular and the recreated scenes of yesteryear under the road bridge.
Neil gave a speech of welcome to guests and thanked all those who had created contents for their stations from fellow station friends groups. And all who had supported the project over the years. Neil thanked Anne Michaelides of naturesigndesign.co.uk for all her hard work and patience in the creation of the very attractive boards. Anne was presented with flowers. Neil also thanked Eddie Johnson - EM Johnson - who had kindly allowed us to use historic photos from his 4 Woodhead Railway books " Scenes from the past Woodhead series"  - details Foxline Press.
 Neil then paid tribute to the late Paul Abell former Editor of Today's Railways who had played a major role in the project - the board contents at Ashburys and Gorton were created by Paul. It has been agreed with his family that a plaque, currently being designed, will be placed in memory of Paul at Ashburys station later this year.
 Neil then invited STEVE FORDE currently Community Rail Officer for Mid Cheshire, but originally SEMCRP Community Rail Officer based at Stockport, to undo the ribbon on the Guide Bridge board to mark the conclusion of the project. Steve ensured in the days of lockdown that the final five boards were paid for and created. So it seemed fitting to ask Steve to do the honours today!! 
 Guests then moved upstairs to the office of Theo MacLauchlan Northern Station Manager for North East Manchester and High Peaks for refreshments  (an excellent buffet provided by Sizzlers of Carrbrook, Stalybridge) and to view displays of the boards. Theo had kindly let us use his office for this purpose and his colleague, Lynn Norbury SQ Assessor for Northern, joined us too. Also present throughout was Becky Styles Community and Sustainability Manager for Northern who has given the project staunch support. Joining us from CRN was Paul Webster who has been a keen advocate of the work on the Boards. John Kenny current community rail officer for SEMCRP (who helped recover the final 5 boards from store last summer!) joined us for the event accompanied by his co share job colleague Sarah Morgan.
 We hope visitors and travellers up and down the Glossop line will enjoy spotting the boards in situ and when they use the stations we hope they will provide some interesting information about days past on what is now the last remainder of the historic Woodhead Railway route.