REACHING THE HEIGHTS AT MATLOCK LUNCHEON CLUB

Elaine Lovell with Rupert, Vanessa and Andrew Pugh

Matlock Luncheon Club were delighted to welcome the Pugh family to the June lunch meeting at the Peak Edge Hotel. Andrew Pugh gave us a fascinating presentation about the family business – the Heights of Abraham.

In 1973, Andrew was a power boat racer and Vanessa was a secretary to a property company in London. They decided that they would like to run a business together, their priority focus was not wanting a commute. They spotted an advert for a cavern and some woods. When Andrew asked for the details from the agent in Bristol, he was surprised to learn that the business advertised was not in Wookey Hole but in Derbyshire. He had no idea where Derbyshire was!

Having bought the business, they set about a ten year restoration programme. The attraction was popular but was not generating enough income to continue to develop the site. So they came up with a plan. To encourage more people to visit, they decided to commission a feasibility study to build cable cars to carry people to the top of Masson Hill. They would need planning permission and investors. A French company built the cable cars which were put in place using cranes and a helicoptor, an almost impossible feat given the terrain. But they succeeded and the first and only alpine cable cars in Britain were finally in place.

The Heights of Abraham is now a hugely successful tourist attraction which is constantly evolving with Rupert at the head.

After the vote of thanks was given, one of the members told us that her father had been a councillor at the time the planning permission was discussed. She remembered him telling the family that someone wanted to build cable cars to the top of Masson Hill. ‘He’s barking mad,’ her father said. Little did he know!