Bakewell ABC Celebrates 10 Years in Style

30 September 2008

The facility – owned and operated by Derbyshire Dales District Council – is not only now widely recognised as home to one of the UK’s top five livestock markets, it also has the second largest farmers’ market in the country.

Only Winchester can boast a larger turn-out than Bakewell’s increasingly popular farmers’ market which regularly attracts 5,000 people on the last Saturday of every month.

With 9,000 conferences staged at the Agricultural Centre since it opened in 1998 and 75 livestock auctions a year involving 300,000 animals, it all adds up to a thriving operation and the ABC is now established as the hub of the Peak District economy and a true ‘one-stop shop’ service for the rural community.

“The interesting statistic is that only 2% of bookings for our main conference room have an agricultural theme,” said the District Council’s area and centre manager Neil McGregor, who has been at the ABC since it opened.

“Recent bookings have included a sewing show, a fine arts auction, a group that carve wooden ducks and a meeting of the UK Orienteering Championships – it really is diverse!”

The main conference suite at the ABC seats up to 130 people theatre-style and even the main show ring, with a capacity to accommodate around 1,000 people, has been hired out for non-agricultural events. The Bakewell complex also features 12 agriculture-related shop units.

ABC occupants include Derbyshire Dales Council for Voluntary Service, East Midlands Business Ltd, Natural England, and Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Chamber. The centre shares facilities with users including Derbyshire Dales District Council, the Peak District Land Management Advisory Service, Social Services and Primary Care Trust Farming Health Support. For more information call 01629 813777.

* Bakewell ABC will host the first of a series of Area Community Forums in November. The forums are a chance for local people to have their say on local issues and the ABC event takes place on 10 November, followed on 18 November by a forum at Dale Road Methodist Church in Darley Dale and on the 24November by a forum at Mary Clowes Hall, Cubley. All start at 7pm - for more information email communityforum@derbyshiredales.gov.uk or telephone 01629 761302.