New home found for love locks after outcry

The campaign group calculated that 40,000 love locks had been attached to the bridge

A new home has been found for thousands of love locks that were set to be removed from a landmark bridge and melted down.

Derbyshire County Council said it needed to remove the padlocks from the bridge in Bakewell to do maintenance work.

This caused an outcry among people who have locks attached to the bridge, including in memory of loved ones.

But the owner of Thornbridge Hall, a nearby stately home, has now said the love locks can be relocated there.

'I'll look after them'

"I can't bear the thought that anyone would melt down all those memories and just throw them away effectively," said Emma Harrison, owner of Thornbridge Hall.

"So if no-one else will have them and look after them then I will."

Mrs Harrison made the offer after being contacted by the Save the Love Locks at Bakewell campaign.

"I looked on the Facebook page and I saw how much it meant to everybody," she said.

"I said if they really are going to melt them down why don't you ask the council to bring them up to my house and I'll look after them, and I'll reinstate them on wires so that people can visit them."

The campaign group intends to move the love locks to Thornbridge Hall

The campaign group is now in discussions with Derbyshire County Council to get the go-ahead for the locks to be moved.

Richard Young, who set up the campaign, became emotional after the offer was made.

"I'm ecstatic. I'm a grown man but I nearly cried," he said.

"We're aiming to take them up to Thornbridge and rehang them, and even the people that have taken the locks off are more then welcome to come and rehang them back up at Thornbridge.

"We just need to hammer out the finer details and move them from A to B, and let the guys get on and repair that bridge."

The council said it needed to remove the love locks for a "major repair and maintenance programme"

The council previously said it had tried to find "alternative options" to display the locks in Bakewell, but "unfortunately no site has been identified".

When the BBC asked the council about the option to display them at Thornbridge Hall, a spokesperson said: “We understand a few possible options are currently being explored for the future of the locks, and we are happy to look into whether any of these are possible.”

The council intends to change the design of the bridge so that people will not be able to attach locks to it in future.

It said this was necessary for public safety, as there had been reports of people injuring themselves on the locks.

Mike Hall, who lives in Suffolk, still visits the bridge in Bakewell to remember his wife Carol

Widower Mike Hall, who placed a lock on the bridge with his late wife Carol back in 2014, said he felt relieved that the locks were being preserved.

"Yes, going to Thornbridge Hall isn't the same as going to the bridge, but you can still say that was the padlock that we touched and we placed," he said.

"It is a precious piece of metal to me. It's just a little tiny brass padlock about the size of a first class stamp, that's how tiny it is, but I don't want it to disappear."

Mr Hall plans to help move his love lock - along with an estimated 40,000 other locks - from the bridge to Thornbridge Hall.

"If there was a threat of it being melted down I would have removed it, but at the same time I would like to keep it there [on the bridge] for as long as possible, and then move it with all its friends over to Thornbridge Hall and reinstate it as near as I can with its neighbours back on the wire over there."

Weir Bridge became known as Love Lock Bridge due to the thousands of padlocks

The plan is to create a fence at Thornbridge Hall that is similar to the bridge in Bakewell, with wires where the love locks can be attached.

The fence will be next to the cafe so that people do not have to pay an entry fee to see their lock.

It will also be near to a free car park, and people can access the estate by foot or bike when they are doing the Monsal Trail.

"It's not too far away from where the site was originally, it's only a couple of miles, it's easily accessed by road, by foot, by cycleway, and it's a nice peaceful area with lovely gardens," said Mr Hall.

"I'm happy for my lock and my family's lock to be there, and I'm sure the majority of people will also be happy that the locks have been preserved."

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