First love locks strung up at their new home

The first love locks have been strung up at their new home after they were removed from a landmark Peak District bridge.

The padlocks were previously attached to Weir Bridge in Bakewell but Derbyshire County Council took them off for repair work.

The locks were due to be melted down but were given to nearby Thornbridge Hall following public outcry.

Volunteers have now threaded all the locks on to wires and the first two wires have been attached to a newly-built structure called the Love Locker.

Emma Harrison, who owns Thornbridge Hall, said: "The Love Locker, which is where all of the 40,000 locks are going to end up living forever, is up and it's there.

"We've put two big heavy chunks of locks on it as a trial. I did that myself with my team to work out how we're going to do it, and they start going on with a vengeance this Wednesday."

She said the work would be completed in time for a launch day on 14 February, to coincide with Valentine's Day.

"I think this is going to be a longer job than everyone's guessing, but we're on the countdown to a couple of weeks so we haven't got long," she said.

Locks first appeared on Weir Bridge in 2012, and it became known as the Love Lock Bridge as the number of padlocks grew.

The council decided to remove the locks to carry out maintenance of the bridge, and change the design so more could not be added in future.

Richard Young, from the Save the Love Locks at Bakewell campaign group, asked Emma if they could be relocated to Thornbridge Hall.

She said yes, and enlisted groups of volunteers to thread the locks on to wires in order to create the new structure.

"We've had the most wonderful group of volunteers," said Emma.

"One family in particular actually found their locks. Each day we were only doing one particular wire off one side of the bridge, and it just happened to be that wire where they'd had their locks.

"Now the chance of that is incredible."

Builders will attach the lock-laden wires to the structure, due to the risk they could fall and injure somebody.

The structure will be decorated with small sculptures such as hearts, frogs and butterflies.

"People are coming in every day and painting these metal structures," said Emma.

"We're not just leaving it plain and boring, we're turning it into a little fantasy wonderland."

Emma said it was a privilege to work on the project.

"It's just utter pleasure," she said.

"I had no idea what I was saying yes to, but I'm so glad Richard Young asked me."

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