inHeritage has produced audio interpretation to celebrate the re-opening of the railway tunnels on the the Monsal Trail. The project was commissioned by the Peak District National Park Authority.
The Trail runs through some of the Peak District’s most stunning limestone scenery and was once part of the Midlan Railway between London and Manchester. The project’s aim was to interpret the railway history of the Trail to visitors through oral history of people who travelled and worked on the line. The line closed in 1968 and the tunnels have been re-opened in 2011 with multi-million pound funding from the Department of Transport’s Cycle England initiative.
inHeritage recorded interviews with people who remembered and used the line then turned these into themed exceprts for three wind-up audio players and a series of podcasts. The players are installed along the Trail at key locations and feature the voices of the interviewees as well as interpretation of railway archaeology, wildlife and ecology. Each player ends with a verse and chorus from a specially commissioned ‘Johnny Cash’ style rock and roll song written and performed by Sheffield’s Slingshots. This epitomises the culture of railway influenced popular music or the 50s and 60s.
You can listen to and download the podcasts from the Peak District National Park Authority’s website.
Started: November 2010. Completed: March 2011.
Client: Peak District National Park Authority.
Project Manager: Rhonda Pursglove.
http://www.peakdistrict.gov.uk/visiting/trails/monsaltrail