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ABOUT US
The Friends of Elvaston was formed in July,
2004, to fight the plans and proposals put forward by
Derbyshire County Council to dispose of the Elvaston
Castle Country Park and Estate, to a private real estate
development company (or any other private business), for
the purposes of turning it into an hotel and golf
courses.
The sole aim of the Friends of Elvaston is to
see the restoration of Elvaston Castle Country Park,
including the Castle, all outbuildings, Home Farm and the
redemption of the ancient and sacred connections with the
beautiful St. Bartholomew’s church which adjoins it.
Together, these places have formed the hub of village
life in the area for long centuries past and the Estate
has a direct link to royalty and historic figures and has
at times been the background to dramatic events in both
the Wars of the Roses and the English Civil War and as
such is an important part of our heritage.
The Estate was sold by the Stanhope Family in
the sixties and bought by a gravel-extraction company
that intended to remove all the gravel situated there, of
which it is known that there are millions of tons beneath
the Estate. Public opposition made this an impossible
venture and, following a public outcry, the Estate was
jointly purchased in 1968 by the then Derby Borough
Council, and Derbyshire County Council, using a Central
Government subsidy of 75%, through the offices of the
Countryside Commission (now the Countryside Agency).
Following boundary changes in 1974 however,
the Estate came under the single control of Derbyshire
County Council. Originally, a Working Farm Museum was
opened, together with a Natural History Museum, and
cafeteria. Various events were hosted at the Castle for
many years, including the County Show and Steam Rallies.
These events have been held in great stead by the general
public at large, who have continued to visit the Park in
numbers of approximately 700,000 a year, a figure which
has remained more or less constant for the last decade or
more, even though many of the events are no longer held
there. This means that in the last ten years,
approximately 7 million people have enjoyed the beauty
and recreational amenities of the Estate, a phenomenal
and proven demand for any public park or facility,
indeed, there are no doubt quite a few places open to the
public up and down the nation which would envy such vast
visitor numbers!
Derbyshire County Council has for some years,
claimed to be unable to support the maintenance and
running costs of the Estate. For the last six years the
authority has stated that the Estate costs £500,000 per
annum to run, and the Castle would cost £3 million to
restore, both of which are figures which the Friends of
Elvaston disputes. Now that we have applied for a
judicial review which has put the signing of a lease on
hold for the time-being, the County Council has increased
its running costs to the figure of £800,000! A figure
which we find impossible for it to justify. The County
Council has admitted by its actions that it is incapable
of maintaining the Estate, for financial reasons.
We believe that, with the restoration of the
Estate, its administration and management by a non-profit
making community group, run as a charity, with trustees
from a variety of backgrounds and public interest groups,
together with the input created by the hundreds of
thousands of annual visitors to Elvaston Castle, we can
provide not only a nationally and internationally
renowned tourist attraction, but also somewhere which can
provide jobs and employment for many local people and
business for local traders and suppliers
Further, we also believe that, in the right
hands it can provide training and educational
opportunities for the unemployed and underprivileged,
with a special emphasis on creating openings for young
people, many of whom are alienated and disaffected due to
feelings of frustration, brought about by the hopeless
situation that they find themselves in. We would also
like to encourage those young people of exceptional
talent who have not had the facilities provided for them
in order for them to fully achieve their potential. This
would be in whatever field or discipline which arose. All
this and more could be provided by the Estate, properly
run and administered.
The disastrous and harmful course of action
that the Derbyshire County Council planned way back in
1996 and began to implement in 1999, namely to dispose of
the Estate on a 150 year lease, and which, after many
twists and turns has resulted in an attempt to sign the
Estate over to a private real estate development company,
for the purposes of turning the Castle into an hotel and
the Estate into golf courses, has run into a whole raft
of opposition, not only from local people, who have
joined the Friends of Elvaston in droves, but from dozens
of Ex-Pats in places as wide apart as Canada and
Australia, who are in total opposition to what the
Derbyshire County Council proposes.
Sadly, the County Council persists with its
misguided and hugely unpopular policy of attempting to
dispose of the Estate. This is why the Friends of
Elvaston must now unite all opposition to the plans and
thwart the sale by legal means. We will do all that
we legally can do to protect Elvaston Castle
Country Park for the use of the ordinary people for all
time. We believe that Derbyshire County Council is
mistaken in its way forward for the future of the Estate.
Derbyshire County Council is attempting to
mislead the general public regarding Elvaston Castle and
Country Park. Like you, the Friends of Elvaston are keen
to see the Castle and Estate restored to it's former
glory. We want you, your family and friends to enjoy this
much loved facility for many years to come.
In 2004 65,000 signatures were taken in a
petition which stated it was against the sale or lease of
the estate. The cavalier treatment of the views of the
general public by the County Council is contemptible.
There is no difference as far as the community is
concerned, between a sale and a 150 year lease; all of us
who enjoy it now will be long gone before it ever comes
up for renewal. Where the council states that they INSIST
on public access to the Country Park, they mean the parts
that they can't fence off because they have been used as
public rights of way for at least twenty years and that
because of this, a legal precedent has been set, giving
the public the right of access by dedication anyway.
This has been one of the major stumbling
blocks for private developers because they don't want the
general public (who at present own the estate), anywhere
near the place. Where the Council states that it requires
major investment in the Historic Core Gardens, English
Heritage and the National Lottery fund had once already
pledged £8 million for the Gardens to be restored but
won't hand over any money until the situation has been
resolved. This means that the County Council, by its
obstinate and highly immoral standpoint in attempting to
get rid of the Estate against the wishes of the people,
is actually holding up the restoration work which could
be started straight away but for its obstinacy.
The council should agree that its attempts go
against what people want, and make a start on reinstating
the Estate to the people who have already bought it lock,
stock and barrel, namely, YOU, the general public! Let
the County Council know that you haven't been fooled by
its lies! Tell the Derbyshire County Council that you
don't want YOUR property to be sold off, OR leased out to
any private commercial companies, or developed
inappropriately. All we want is for the people's Castle
and Park to be returned to the people. It isn't rocket
science, or is it?
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