Tourist attractions in Wisbech will get a boost when long-awaited brown signs are put up around the town in Spring.

Cambs Times: Tourist sign Wisbech. Picture: Steve Williams.Tourist sign Wisbech. Picture: Steve Williams. (Image: Archant)

A total of 15 attractions are to be signposted thanks to a £25,000 money pot from Cambridgeshire County Council.

As part of the financial deal there will also be 20 black sign posts installed around the town centre to direct visitors to facilities like public toilets, the library, church and museum.

Tourist attractions to benefit from the brown tourist signs include Mile Tree Brewery, the Secret Garden campsite, Fenland and West Norfolk Aviation Museum , Peckover House and Wisbech Park.

Councillor and deputy town mayor David Hodgson said the signs were due to be put up before Christmas but due to budgeting we decided to wait and combine brown signs and town centre flag signs so they could be done together under one financial package.

“Design plans for the signs have been sent to me but are yet to be approved by committee. The money is available and the design process is underway and about to be approved.

“The signs are not far away now.”

Brown tourist signs began in France in the 1970s and in the early 1980s Britain introduced them in Kent and Nottinghamshire as an experiment to see if they might work here too.

Kent had signs with symbols to denote the relevant attraction while Nottinghamshire used just text to see whether including a recognisable image on the signs made them easier for motorists to use.

The signs with symbols proved the winner and regulations for them were written into the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions Manual.

Since then the system has taken off and brown signs are now a standard part of the recognised sign system on UK roads.

Brown signs will direct visitors to Octavia View, Wisbech Tennis Club, the Hudson, Octavia Hill Birthplace Museum, Angles Theatre, football ground, Wisbech and Fenland Museum, Mile Tree Brewery, Secret Garden campsite, Peckover House, Elgoods Brewery, the harbour, Fenland and West Norfolk Aviation Museum, Wisbech Park and St Peter’s Church and gardens.