Trespass Trail 9 - Police Station

9. The six arrested ramblers were held overnight in New Mills Police Station. A large group of ramblers had waited outside the Hayfield lock-up to press for the release of their arrested colleagues. The police then smuggled the six out through a rear door and brought them to New Mills.

The plaque on the former police station was unveiled in 1994 when Benny Rothman, then 82, returned to New Mills. As he started to speak, a fellow octogenarian began heckling him. It was John Anderson, who had made the long journey from his home on the Lancashire coast to protest his innocence, and it was the first time the two had met since their imprisonment in Leicester jail 62 years earlier. Anderson only calmed down when Derbyshire’s then Chief Constable, John Newing, stepped forward and told him he believed he was innocent. At the age of 83, John Anderson returned to Lancashire absolved.

Cross Hall Street and walk to the front of the Town Hall. Take a look at the carving over the right hand door to the building, indicating that it was formerly used as a court.

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