There are just two more opportunities to ride on Chesterfield 7 in its Recruitment Tramcar guise at Crich with the tram due to run for the last time with the decorations on Thursday 1st and Saturday 3rd October. 7 has been running as the Recruitment Tram for the majority of the 2015 season to help show how trams were used to help with the Great War recruiting process.
Laura Waters, Curator at Crich, explains more: “We always knew we wanted to do something special to mark how the country’s Tramways were involved in the First World War, and whilst we were delving through our Archive here at the Museum, we found some great illustrations and photographs of the stunning First World War recruitment tramcars.
Tramcars were an ideal moving platform from which to recruit men to join the Army, and we thought what better way to interpret this idea and share this unique aspect of tramway history, than to create a replica Recruitment Tramcar for our visitors to enjoy riding on, and learning about.
We’ve had a fantastic response to using Chesterfield 7 as our Recruitment Tramcar throughout the year, and it’s great to see our visitors engaging with all the posters, banners and decorations that the tramcar carries, including be wowed by more than 270 metres worth of ribbon that decorates the tramcar. We even recreated an historic spelling mistake on one of the banners, which has created an interesting talking point”.
Chesterfield 7 has run regularly during the year and was one of the star exhibits during the Great War Home Front event in July (along with the visiting London Battle Bus).
Chesterfield 7 is seen with in its Recruitment Tram guise on 19th September. (Photograph by Gareth Prior)