Our Record Office in New Street, Matlock, will close to the public from 17 to 28 February 2025, with record office staff supporting colleagues at Buxton Museum with the final phase of packing, moving and storing remaining items including archives, displays and artefacts.
Buxton Museum and Art Gallery in Peak Buildings, Terrace Road, closed to the public in June 2023 as a precautionary measure as parts of the building were potentially identified as being unsafe. Although initially it was a temporary closure, a decision to permanently relocate the museum from Peak Buildings was announced in May last year.
Since then, museum staff have been concentrating on the complex task of packing away the 1,000s of artefacts and artworks housed at the museum and art gallery. Some items will go into safe storage until a new home for the museum is found and others will be displayed in Buxton Library, from where staff will be working temporarily.
We sold Peak Buildings at auction at the end of last month and completion of the sale is expected in early March.
There is now a final push to ensure all the remaining contents are safely packed, removed and stored, with extra staff from the Derbyshire Record Office needed to support the effort.
Derbyshire County Council Leader Councillor Barry Lewis said:
“The work to move thousands of artefacts, archives, artwork and displays from the museum has been extremely time-consuming and complex.
“We apologise for any inconvenience that temporarily closing the Derbyshire Record Office may cause and hope that people will understand that those staff are needed to support colleagues in the final phase of moving from the museum. It has been a monumental task.
“It is a new chapter for Peak Buildings and we will watch with interest what new use is generated for it.
“We’re pleased to say that we are making positive progress on identifying a new permanent home for the museum and we hope to be able to give an update on this shortly.”
People who have booked appointments at Derbyshire Record Office between 17 and 28 February 2025 will be contacted by staff to rearrange their appointments and will still be able to access archive material and resources online.
They can also email record.office@derbyshire.gov.uk or telephone: 01629 538347.