New mural for Biggleswade Station

A new mural is set to be unveiled at Biggleswade Railway Station this bank holiday weekend.

Biggleswade Community Gardens will unveil the mural, made possible by a ‘Your station. Your community’ grant awarded as part of Railway 200; a celebration of the 200th Anniversary of the first public journey on the Stockton & Darlington Railway.  

It has been designed to celebrate the town, its surroundings and connection with the East Coast Main Line.  Biggleswade station opened in 1850, bringing prosperity to the town and providing a means of transporting market garden produce to London and other cities.

Last summer, project leaders, Rhiannon Barrow and Nicky Thomas, asked the community what they thought represented Biggleswade.

Ideas included butterflies, cows and red kite to highlight its countryside setting, while other drawings included the wind towers, Shuttleworth planes, the Green Wheel path, Dan Albone’s Tractor, the Blue Mallard and Flying Scotsman trains.

Artist Rose Hill incorporated these into the mural.

Biggleswade Community Gardens is represented at one end of the mural.  The shed echoes a Shuttleworth design along with a colourful wheelbarrow, seeds and bright yellow wellies, under a notice board. The latter supplies information about the gardening group and their gardens.

At the opposite end, a Thameslink train makes an appearance next to Locomotion No. 1, reflecting time passing between the old and the new. Dan Albone’s tractor is ploughing the fields. The black dotted railway track indicates the connection between Biggleswade station, and the Stockton & Darlington railway line where the historic event took place in 1825. In another panel Biggleswade train station is covered in fruit and vegetables, as a reminder of the station on its opening day.  

There are items to spot, such as a ‘Black Cat', along with coins, bees, butterflies and vegetables and fruit.  The QR codes link to a webpage on Rose Hill’s Co-Creative Connections website.  

Next to the station, there is a self-portrait of a Biggleswade resident, Rita Edwards.

Her dad Michael explained: "Rita loves to raise awareness of the sight impaired and severely sight impaired (blind) communities, of which she is a part. As well as taking part in the design of the mural she has recently organised, along with her dad, a sponsored run for Royal Society for Blind Children (RSBC). RSBC help young people and their families though their 'sight loss journey'."

The work does not stop with the unveiling. Within the next few months, a ‘scavenger hunt’ quiz will be created - and Natalie Doig, creator of the podcast ‘Weird in The Wade’, has agreed to produce an audio description of the mural. Both will be available locally and on Rose Hill’s Co-Creative Connection website.

Rhiannon Barrow said: "This mural will brighten up our town and the gateway to Biggleswade.  As Biggleswade Community Gardens we set out to showcase the fascinating history of Biggleswade and its connection to the railway and the importance of market gardening. We try to carry on that tradition with our community gardens across Biggleswade, growing food for and by the people."

Nicky Thomas said: "We hope to submit this mural to the Railway 200 project for recording on their website. This will hold all the events that commemorate the 27th      September 1825; the day people were able to experience the first passenger railway that is now replicated across the world."

Rose Hill added: “This project is about far more than creating a mural. It is about bringing people together, celebrating local identity, and transforming a shared space into something people can feel proud of every day. The Biggleswade mural has been shaped through creativity, conversation and community spirit, making it a real reflection of the people and stories connected to Biggleswade. At Co-Creative Connection, we believe art has the power to lift areas, spark connection and leave a lasting positive legacy, and this project does exactly that.” Rose Hill, Founder and Artist, Co-Creative Connection."

The unveiling will take place at 11.45 am, Saturday, May 2.