As you will know, to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the Prime Minister has announced a new national lockdown in England, beginning at midnight on 5 January and with an indefinite end date. You can find all the information about the national lockdown rules here: National lockdown: Stay at Home – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

CRESWELL CRAGS WILL BE CLOSED DURING THE NATIONAL LOCKDOWN

This closure applies to the whole Visitor Centre (museum, shop, café and toilets) and to our car park. The gates to our Meadow area will also remain locked. You WILL be able to walk through site and to the gorge via the public footpaths from Creswell and Welbeck, but please be aware there will be no facilities or parking on site. This applies all seven days of the week. If you do walk through the site, please take your litter home if you can, to help our reduced team keep our site safe and clean.

One of the primary instructions of these rules is that people should work from home if it is possible, and only leave the house for exercise or essential activities.  At Creswell Crags, the safety of our staff and visitors is our highest priority. Our staff team will therefore be working from home as much as possible during the lockdown. We will utilise the flexible furlough scheme to help our charity through this latest period of closure.

Although the rules do not prevent us from opening our café or car park, providing these facilities puts our staff at risk and, we believe, encourages visitors to drive to our site during lockdown. At the present time, we do not recommend driving to visit Creswell Crags and would suggest that the gorge walks should only be enjoyed by people who can reach us on foot from the local area. Please do not park on the grass near our gate, this is dangerous and will be monitored by the local police.

We are currently in receipt of Culture Recovery Fund support from the government. This funding will ensure the survival of Creswell Heritage Trust until the end of March 2021. We are undergoing a thorough review of the business in this time and hope to reopen, when it is possible, with a resilient charity ready to do the important work of protecting our precious site and telling the stories of our past with our usual passion and enthusiasm. However, even with the funding, these will undoubtedly be difficult times. If you are able to support us with a donation, you can do so here, via our JustGiving page.

Look out for online content from our team during lockdown, particularly a programme of online talks which we will be advertising soon. All events and updates will be advertised via our website and on social media (find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn).

Please note that this statement supersedes any other information posted regarding our opening in January, and we will keep you up to date with any new developments. Thank you for your ongoing support since we first went into lockdown in March 2020. The support of our visitors, friends and followers is what motivates us.

We look forward to welcoming you back to Creswell Crags as soon as we are able to, and it is safe.