The National Tramway Museum began life at its Crich, Derbyshire site in 1959 and the trams started to arrive shortly afterwards.
At first, the museum had just a dedicated team of volunteers, this gradually expanded with a small team of paid employees, who together have worked tirelessly to develop the beautiful Museum and visitor attraction that you can see today.
It has become an Accredited museum; a registered Charity and the collections are Designated as being of National significance. As an independent museum, it receives no statutory, or local authority funding and the visitors are the main source of income.
Since 21st March 2020, following the compulsory lockdown, Crich Tramway has been unable to open to the public. The Museum has furloughed as many of our employed staff as possible to reduce costs and has applied to outside funding bodies for assistance, but their fixed costs remain.
General Manager, Dr Mike Galer said: “We do not know with any certainty when we will be able to re-open and this will need to be on a limited basis, without most of our large income-earning events. There is a possibility that we may not be able to open fully at all during the 2020 season.
“Our losses this year will be immense and potentially crippling, whilst we are currently surviving on our reserves many of these have been given to us for specific purposes and cannot be used to support our ongoing viability.”
The Museum is appealing for funds to help keep it going.
There are three ways to donate:
• Through the website at https://www.tramway.co.uk/contact/make-a-donation (select “General Museum Fund”), by bank transfer or by cheque.
Please send cheques to National Tramway Appeal, Crich Tramway Village, Crich, Matlock, DE4 5DP (and make payable to “Tramway Museum Society”) and contact them for BACS details to enquiry@tramway.co.uk
If you are a taxpayer you can ‘Gift Aid’ your donation to enable the Museum to receive a percentage back from the taxman as well. A Gift Aid form is therefore available to download from the donation page of the website should you be able to increase your contribution in this manner.
There are a range of incentives available for people able to give larger donations. Please contact the General Manager by email for details: mike.galer@tramway.co.uk
