£1m mail museum plan to boost tourism

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PLANS have been submitted to build a new £1 million state-of-the-art tourist attraction in Peterborough.

Nene Valley Railway has drawn up the plans for a night mail museum, which will be centred around the history of the Travelling Post Office (TPO).

If approved, it will become an educational hub and popular attraction for the city.

The museum, which is proposed to be built on the Ferry Meadows station and sidings in Ham Lane, Orton Waterville, will contain a carriage shed for old TPO vehicles to be restored in, a museum for the vehicles to be displayed in, an archive for rail-related postal artefacts and an educational facility.

It will also include offices, a café, public and disabled facilities and a shop.

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Bosses at Nene Valley Railway, in Wansford, near Peterborough, have submitted the outline planning application to Peterborough City Council and are hopeful that, once funding is secured, work will get under way to build the museum.

TPO co-ordinator Brian White said: "We already have a station at Ferry Meadows, and there is a large site nearby that is not being used.

"It was very overgrown and untidy, so we cleared it up and came up with the plans to build a new museum.

"We have a collection of travelling post offices and wagons that we want to keep and be able to conserve and restore.

"Therefore, we are, hopefully, going to build a museum at Ferry Meadows that will also be home to the mail trains and other vehicles, so that they can be restored at the same time, and visitors will be able to see the process.

"Once built, the museum will also be a wonderful place for children to go.

"They will be able to see the development of the trains while also being able to have a go at sorting the letters and discovering more about the history of the travelling post office.

"Peterborough was once a very important mail centre.

"When all the railways converged, we were one of only 13 centres in the country.

"For now, we have submitted an outline application, as we still need to secure the funding.

"The building process might be a little slower than we would hope. We have got our teeth into it now. it will go ahead soon.

"We imagine the building will be done in three or four bite-sized chunks.

"Once completed, it will provide the area with a brilliant education centre for children.

"It will be a centre like no other in the country.

"It will also be open to groups and visitors of all ages, and we hope that it will be another reason for people to come to Peterborough."

Chief executive of Peterborough Chamber of Commerce John Bridge said: "A facility like this will be of national interest and should help attract more people to the city.

"We are very keen to see further development of Peterborough's tourism industry."