The museum site is made up of a number of different areas, with the museum's tramway passing either through or adjacent to all of them. The museum's main entrance delivers visitors to the Victoria Park area, but the trams start their journey at Town End, a walk or short tram ride under the Bowes Lyon Bridge and down Period Street. Amongst the buildings and furniture in the street are: • the
grade II listed 1763 facade of the
Derby Assembly Rooms, moved to the site in 1975–76. The modern building behind this facade houses a number of small exhibitions and the Tramway Museum Society's library. • the original workshop of Stephenson's railway, now housing the Stephenson Discovery Centre. • a cast iron and glass tram shelter, thought to originate in
Birmingham, at the Town End tram stop • a
Bundy clock, originally used in
West Bromwich to regulate departure times of trams from termini. • a cast iron
urinal, originally located at the Erleigh Road terminus of
Reading Corporation Tramways. • a
police box dating from the 1930s and a
police call post dating from the 1920s. Both were formerly used by the
London's Metropolitan Police and are
grade II listed. • a
Penfold pillar box, dating from 1872 to 1879, and a
K1 telephone box, dating from 1921. Both were used by the
Post Office and are
grade II listed.
Stephenson Workshop and Discovery Centre One of the few original buildings on the site that predate the creation of the museum, the Stephenson Workshop was built in the 19th century and was used as a
smithy and wagon works for George Stephenson's metre gauge mineral railway. Originally known as the Stone Workshop, the building has been fully restored and is now home to a state of the art learning facility on the ground floor and the Stephenson Discovery Centre on the first floor. The Stephenson Discovery Centre explains the early history of the museum site, including the story of George Stephenson and his acquisition of Cliff Quarry and construction of the mineral railway. It also describes how overcrowding in expanding towns and cities paved the way for in the introductions of trams to Britain in the 19th century. A modern glass bridge from the upper floor provides access to the viewing gallery of the tram workshop (see below). The tram depot includes a workshop, on tracks 1 to 3, used for the maintenance of the tram fleet. This has a viewing gallery, accessed by a glass bridge from the upper floor of the Stephenson Discovery Centre, which allows visitors to watch the work going on below and displays small exhibits relating to this work. Immediately to the north and west of the bridge is Victoria Park, a recreated
Victorian era public park. This has, as its centrepiece, a
bandstand that was erected here in 1978 but was previously at
Longford Park in
Stretford, Greater Manchester. From the park, a path leads to the museum's Woodland Walk and Sculpture Trail. Alongside the park is a tram stop, served by both inbound and outbound trams and named after the park. To the east of the park, on the opposite side of the tramway, is the museum entrance.
Wakebridge and Glory Mine Just past the Victoria Park tram stop, the museum's running track transitions from grooved tram track set in a road surface to sleeper track and becomes single track. The line passes between woodland to the west and the now disused Cliff Quarry to the east, before arriving at the Wakebridge passing loop and tram stop. Beyond Wakebridge, the line runs along an exposed hillside with vistas across the valley of the
River Derwent, which is here part of the
Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site. While now largely rural, this valley was one of the cradles of the
Industrial Revolution, where the modern
factory system was introduced during the 18th century to take advantage of
Richard Arkwright's invention of the
water frame for spinning cotton. At the end of the line is the Glory Mine tram stop and passing loop. A
public footpath crosses the line, giving access to
Crich Stand.
Woodland Walk and Sculpture Trail The Woodland Walk and Sculpture trail connects the tram stops at Victoria Park and Wakebridge, passing through the
mixed woodland that is native to the
limestone geology of the Crich area. Tree cover is mostly
ash, but also includes
sycamore,
alder and
silver birch, with a shrub layer of
hazel,
wych elm,
wild rose,
elder and
hawthorn. The combination of the ash canopy and limestone results in a range of ground-cover plants including
primrose,
early purple orchid,
cowslip,
marjoram, garlic and
strawberries. Most of the sculptures along the trail were carved by the sculptor,
Andrew Frost, using a
chainsaw and carving a basic shape from a tree trunk before working on the detail. Such sculptures do not last forever, with wood splitting, fungi and the claws of
badgers all contributing to their deterioration. The sculpture trail is therefore always evolving, as old sculptures are removed and new ones added. Also to be spotted in the Woodland Walk is a stretch of the original narrow-gauge track as used in the old quarry, and a
labyrinth made from old stones left in the quarry. There are views down into the valley of the
River Derwent and up to
Crich Stand. ==The museum's tramcar collection==