Ashbourne’s Millennium Square has been prepared for its role in this year’s historic Royal Shrovetide football ahead of planned redevelopment as part of the Ashbourne Reborn programme.
Millennium Square is one of a series of public spaces along with the Market Place, Victoria Square and Shrovetide Walk that will be transformed as part of the £15.2m Ashbourne Reborn programme, which includes over £13m of central government Levelling Up funding. The exciting initiative will also pave the way for a more pedestrian-friendly town centre and seven-days a week community facilities in the Link Community Hub at Ashbourne Methodist Church.
While a number of partners are involved in the overall programme, including the District and County Councils, Ashbourne Methodist Church, Ashbourne Town Team and AshCom, plans for Millennium Square are led by Ashbourne Town Council. Following an options appraisal, Town Council Members agreed to a landscaping development strategy to remove existing walls and replace with soft landscaping and stepped seating, providing a shared external community space which wraps around the Millennium Clock (Image: Visualisation of Millennium Square once the work is finished, prepared by landscape architects Guy Taylor Associates).
Ashbourne’s historic Royal Shrovetide football game is played on Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday each year (13 & 14 February 2024), and work has been carefully planned to ensure that Ashburnians can enjoy the game without disruption. In October last year, the first phase of redevelopment saw the demolition of the elderly person’s rest room, while construction work in the town centre will start later in the year.
In the interim, Millennium Square has been made good with a temporary surface to ensure that Royal Shrovetide players can safely use the space, which is one of the key thoroughfares for the game. Since the surface will be improved again when the scheme is delivered, there are plans for the materials to be reused where possible when the main construction period starts for Ashbourne Reborn, later in the year.
In January 2023, central government approved a Levelling Up Fund (LUF) bid designed to transform the town centre. LUF is contributing £13.4m and the total programme will cost £15.2m.
Ashbourne Reborn is led by Derbyshire Dales District Council working with Derbyshire County Council and Ashbourne Methodist Church as key delivery partners, in collaboration with Ashbourne Town Team, Ashbourne Town Council and AshCom. Partners will continue to work closely to ensure that residents, businesses and visitors to Ashbourne are informed and involved throughout the delivery of the project.
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