Peterborough's WW1 soldiers tea stall visitors' book stories

The city was a transport hub during the war so the men came from all over the country

A three year project has been launched to tell the stories of World War One soldiers who signed a cafe's visitors' books on their way to the front.

About 200 soldiers signed two books at a tea stall at Peterborough East Railway Station in 1916 and 1917.

Peterborough's cultural trust Vivacity plans to transcribe the entries and research each man's story.

The project is funded by a £99,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Stuart Orme said the project hopes to "reveal the very human stories" behind the men who signed the books

The soldiers could also have been on their way home on leave

Richard Hunt, Vivacity's archives manager, said the "slim volumes" offered "a unique snapshot" of the servicemen passing through Peterborough.

He said: "The men waiting for their refreshments wrote little messages, poems, cartoons, even smutty comments about the ladies serving them their tea."

He believes the books are "quite unique".

While other railway stations also had volunteer-run tea stalls, the Imperial War Museum has told him there is no evidence they had visitors' books.

The stall was run by the Peterborough Women's United Total Abstinence Council, a temperance organisation set up in the early 20th Century.

The books are believed to have been donated to the museum when the city's temperance movement was disbanded

Vivacity's heritage events and programmes manager Stuart Orme said the project also hoped to find out more about the women who ran the stall.

The project is based on the two visitors' books held by the museum's archives, but because the stall was run throughout the war there may have been other books which are now lost.

Vivacity is recruiting volunteers to help transcribe the entries, research the stories and create an interactive website.

The biographical information and photographs they gather will be put on the website 100 years to the date that each man travelled through Peterborough.

The website will be launched in October and the project will culminate in an exhibition at Peterborough Museum in January 2018.