Sad news: Kath Aspinwall - Chair of the Hope Valley Rail Users Group

The Friends of Grindleford Station regret to announce the recent death of Kath Aspinwall, who was Chair of the Hope Valley Railway Users Group.  

Kath tirelessly engaged with not only all the train operating companies but also with all the MPs with constituencies along the line, ministers of state for transport and officials in the DfT to make the case for a better rail service.  

She motivated the station adoption ('friends') groups on our line and helped us to organise a successful summer of events to celebrate 125 years of passenger services on our line.

Kath was a great friend and inspiration to FoGS, who will be sadly missed.

Hope Valley 125th Anniversary of Passenger Rail Services

It is 125 years since passenger rail services commenced on the Hope Valley Line and, throughout the summer, stations in the Hope Valley will be celebrating this in a variety of ways.  Grindleford is no different, our station is festooned with bunting and the '125' display in flowers is growing nicely.

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Bug Hotel and Herb Garden beside Platform 2

To date, most of the gardening at Grindleford Station has been on a flower bed running along Platform 1.  However, over the past few months we have been planning a transformation to the area beside platform 2.  We now have a lovely bug hotel and herb garden, to give our pollinators and other insect somewhere to live and feed.

We are very grateful to our community partners in this activity:

  • Children from Grindleford Primary School, who designed the bug hotel
  • Peak Park Conservation Volunteer rangers at Brunts Barn (a Peak District National Park Authority group), who supported FoGS in the planning stages, offered up their facilities to be used for the design stage and helped with the build, then transported the bug hotel to site
  • Home Farm Trust, who helped us to clear the area of weeds (and who helped us in the early stages of developing the Platform 1 garden, too)
Now:

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Before:

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During: 


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Grindleford Primary School lend a hand at the station

On 2 July, Grindleford school children came to plant the cosmos, geranium, stonecrop, marigolds and sweet peas at the station. They needed lots of watering to help them adapt!  Many children are seasoned rail users, but they now have a rail itinerary direct from Grindleford to Moscow should England get to the finals of the World Cup this month.  (Tip: it’s via Strasburg.)  They showed impressive knowledge of plants and of stations along the Hope Valley line. Great to have so many youthful ‘friends’.

Photo (C) Grindleford Primary School