Graffiti vandals target Bridgnorth heritage trail train sculpture

Town councillor Julia Buckley said one of the Catch Me Who Can locomotive sculptures had been vandalised in the town this week.

Located on Friar's Street, on the River Side beauty spot near The Cartway, the sculpture was sponsored by the family of six-year-old Rupert Beckett who died of cancer in 2018.

Residents of Friar's Street came out to support the clean-up alongside Julia and her family, using sugar soap and turps before re-painting.

But despite the vandalism, Julia said the amount of people who were passing by and offered to help goes to show the way the community feels about antisocial behaviour.

"It's the only statue that has been graffitied in four years. Most sculptures are in for seven or eight weeks before getting damaged or stolen," she said.

"It's the first in four years and I'm sure it will be the last."

Each locomotive tells a tale of the South Shropshire town, with 12 stationed across the town at its best beauty spots, for visitors to learn more about its heritage and history.

Julia added: "The scope of them is dedicated to the locomotive which was made here in Bridgnorth and it's part of our heritage.

"We cast 12 of them by apprentices who work here and we put them in beauty spots around the town and it was done with the aim that artists would paint them."

The trail was named after the 'Catch Me Who Can' locomotive which was built for Richard Trevithick at the Hazledine Foundry in Bridgnorth in 1808.

Richard Trevithick was a British inventor and mining engineer who was a pioneer of early railway transport and was responsible for the first working steam locomotive.

In 2001, the idea came about for the Severn Valley Railway to create a replica of the Catch Me Who Can locomotive, which is still under construction.

To find out more about the Bridgnorth 'Catch Me Who Can' trail, visit bridgnorth-art-trail.org.uk