Visitors flocked to Derby during the summer of 2022 to find 30 brightly painted rams in the city’s historic town centre. What a good excuse to go for a ramble around Derby! East Midlands Railway sponsored the Community Ram outside Derby Station to raise awareness of its two local community rail partnerships: NSCRP and the Derwent Valley Line CRP. Painted by local artist, Holly Aspinall, it featured the Heights of Abraham, canal boats, Peak District hills, Tutbury Castle, bottle ovens, a steam train, a racehorse and lots of figures representing our station volunteers.
The trail contributed an estimated £1.4 million to the local economy. The Derby Ram Trail culminated in a public auction, hosted by celebrity auctioneer Charles Hanson, which saw all 30 ram sculptures auctioned off to raise an impressive £172,000 for Derby Museums’ Endowment Fund (doubled to 344,000 with match funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund).
