9th November 2009: 60th Anniversary of Leicester’s Last Tram
The date slipped by with no mention or memory of the closing of the tramway system. Amazingly a photograph appeared in the local newspaper showing a Leicester Tram but the caption and article made no reference to the anniversary. Instead the photograph was used to promote the ‘Friends of Humberstone Park’ group who were trying to encourage members of the public to write in with their memories of the park and visit the cafe (a good cup of tea can be had there i’m told!). The Trocadero terminus at Humberstone Road is located immediately outside of the park and is still present to this day; so the image was used in the context of memories of the park with only a minor mention of Trams.
I couldn’t help but think about my visit to No.31 in October and I’d spent the first days of November trying to pursuade local museums to take on the project. This was of course a tall order and I settled on the concept of a group of us taking on the tram ourselves, getting it to a stable condition and then presenting it to a museum when it was fit for exhibition.
I visited No.31 on the 9th to talk to the farmer again and we agreed a deal whereby if I could get a group together he would give us the tram car.
Now the pressure was on to find a team that shared my passion for this forgotten Edwardian transport relic!