People flock to remove love locks at 11th hour from Bakewell landmark before deadline
Searching among thousands of padlocks on a Derbyshire bridge to find the one you placed there several years ago sounds a bit of a thankless task. But that's what dozens of people have been doing over the past few weeks as the deadline approached for county council workmen to move in on Monday (September 16) and cut the remaining padlocks off the Bakewell bridge.
Among those looking on Saturday (September 14) were father and daughter, Chris and Maisie Orme, from Sheffield, who put a love lock, as they have become known, because they have been hung to commemorate people, events and places, on the Weir Bridge on September 7, 2015.
Maisie knows the date well because it was her first day of school and the lock was put there to commemorate the momentous occasion for her. She said: "It's nice that it was put there but we cannot find it now. We have been looking but just cannot see it."
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Dad Chris said: "We know it was definitely in the area that we have been looking, but nine years ago there weren't so many here and I reckon it got pushed along as more and more people put their locks on and could have been moved quite a bit. It's quite sad that the writing on many of the locks has been erased with rusting and weathering over time, so some people may never identify their locks anyway."
Derbyshire County Council first announced that it wanted to refurbish the bridge back in 2021 but it was postponed to allow interested groups a chance to find an alternative venue for the love locks. Many suggestions and ideas were made but eventually the council announced in July that work needed to begin imminently and gave people a couple of months to remove them otherwise they were due to be recycled.
But at the 11th hour, an offer was made by Emma and Jim Harrison, of Thornbridge Hall, that if the locks could be cut off and saved they could have a permanent home in the grounds of the hall. They gave £3,000 towards the project and the hope is that it will be match-funded through a Just Giving campaign currently running.
Chris and Maisie said they weren't worried that they had not been able to find their love lock now that they know they are not going to be destroyed. Chris said: "Maybe we will be able to go and look for it when they have a new home at Thornbridge but we are happy knowing that it is with all the others somewhere."
Also searching for their love lock were couple Eddy and Gayle Yanez, from Bridgend in South Wales. They located their lock, which they put on the bridge in 2019, fairly quickly and even had a key for it but were stumped when they could not find the keyhole on the heart-shaped lock.
Eddy said: "I don't think this is meant to be opened again and so I think we will have to find a local locksmith to ask them about how to get into it. It would be good to be able to remove it before it is cut off. We put it on together in 2019 as a romantic gesture and because we love Bakewell and Derbyshire so much. If we can't get it off then hopefully it will be moved to its new home with the others."
Despite a steady stream of people removing the locks, it still looked as if there were thousands on the bridge and the county council workmen are going to have their work cut out to remove them. A county council message said: "Thank you to everyone who has already removed their lock from the Weir footbridge and taken care not to damage other locks or the bridge structure.
"We’ve been working closely with members of the group to co-ordinate the careful removal of the locks to their future home at Thornbridge Hall."
Amazingly, some people have also added locks in the past few days, knowing they will be removed but hoping to be reunited with them when they are reattached to the new structure. One couple on Facebook said: "We visited this week with our youngest two to add a lock to our original, we got married in 2021 and I bought my hubby a padlock as a wedding gift, I have been unwell since and we have never had the chance to come and place it on our original lock.
"This week after hearing the locks had been saved we came and added our padlock to the original and tied a big yellow ribbon around them in hopes it will mean we can find them again when they reach their new home. Thank you for all your hard work in saving the locks, they mean so much to so many of us."
Richard Young, who established the fundraising page and and also the Save the Love Locks at Bakewell Facebook page, warned people not to try to fix any locks on the bridge in the future, as it is being refurbished without exposed wires they can be attached to. He said: "The idea of creating an area at Thornbridge Hall is that any future locks attached there will be safe. Make no mistake anything attached to the bridge in Bakewell, once the repairs are completed will be cut off."
The thicker diameter of the tubes will prevent locks being attached to the bridge in the future, making maintenance of the structure easier and improving public safety by reducing the risk of any further grazes and cuts caused by protruding locks
Derbyshire County councillor Ed Fordham added: "It is incumbent upon all of us to make the next stage work. The locks are moving, the locks have a future and that is a lot of emotion, love and heart.
"I want and need the next stage to work. But I want the record to show just how much we all owe to Richard for what he has done. I have two constituent families in my electoral division who have been in constant touch with me about their locks. Those locks were affixed to mark a miscarriage, a marriage, a death and a hope for the future. This is now possible thanks to Richard."
The 25-year-old bridge will be closed for safety reasons during repairs. These will include:
treating any rust on the bridge structure
repainting the bridge structure with a modern flexible paint, designed to expand and contract in hot and cold weather, helping to protect the bridge and maintain its appearance
laying a new, long lasting, anti-slip, reinforced glass fibre walkway to replace the existing damaged surface
attaching new tubular railings to replace the wires used by people to attach their love locks
No completion date has been given for the work or when a new structure for love locks will be constructed at Thornbridge Hall.
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