Above: The display board near the southern end of Fernilee Reservoir.
It’s good to see that the landowners, United Utilities, seem to be taking more of an interest in looking after the valley and promoting its rich cultural heritage. The packhorse bridge was finally repaired and reopened last month (click to view). And this month they’ve installed three information boards – two alongside Fernilee Reservoir and one by the pond at the top of the Bunsal Incline.
I just hope that they don’t suffer the fate of previous displays by falling prey to mindless vandals. It’s not that many years since there were similar boards at Errwood Hall, explaining its history with old photos of the building in its former glory. There was also one above the packhorse bridge, which once lay in the heart of Goyt’s Bridge before it was saved from drowning under the waters of Errwood Reservoir.
Above: The three new boards – click any to enlarge.
I’m hoping that UU will replace the display at the packhorse bridge using some of the wonderful old photos dating back to Victorian times (click here for more on the bridge). But the exciting new augmented reality app featuring Errwood Hall shows how new technology is taking over from static information boards. And they have the added bonus of being completely vandal proof!
The app was officially launched yesterday by Peak District Heritage Officer, Catherine Parker-Heath, and is free to download from your favourite app store. Just search for Errwood Hall. Unfortunately it wouldn’t work on my aged iPhone 8, so I haven’t been able to explore it in detail. But from what I have seen, it looks very impressive.
I’ll post a review of the app once I can get it working. But if you have a more recent phone than mine, it should work fine.
