Art project creators re-united at Walkden

Friends and supporters met at Walkden yesterday to formally celebrate the installation of our station art work with artist Mark Mennell, students from Salford City College, and representatives from Northern.

It was a chance for our members to thank the young people who helped produce the beautiful designs, and for many of the contributors who made the project possible to celebrate its successful completion.

Andy Barlow (Chair FoWS), Vicky Cropper (Community and Sustainability Manager, Northern), Nicola Worthington (Salford City College) and Mark Mennell (artist) beside a panel commemorating the old signal box at Walkden (and the day a Deltic visited Walkden in 1981!)

Our next meeting – Weds 17th May

The next FoWS meeting will be held next Wednesday 17th May at 7.30pm in Walkden Legion Club, Wilfred Road (a couple of minutes walk from the station).

We are delighted to welcome our Northern Station Manager Joan Nickson as our special guest.

FoWS meetings are open to all members of the public with an interest in our work or the station, so please feel free to come along!

Walkden station gardens get a spring clean

A big thank you to our FoWS volunteers who’ve been weeding, pruning, sweeping, planting, and generally tidying up the flower beds and planters at Walkden this morning: Kathy, Harry, Mike, Peter, Andy, Angela and Neil

Thanks also to the guys at the Car Wash for topping up our watering cans during this hot, dry spell – very community spirited of you 🙂

Certainly more public spirited than the lady passenger who didn’t mind that sitting on the planters has damaged some plants because “I didn’t ask you to” put plants here!

Quite right ma’am – in fact nobody asked us to do it. We just thought it would make the station a nicer place for passengers like you to enjoy while waiting for their train.

Rhododendron planter: dedicated to the lady who never asked for it

Artwork installed!

We are delighted to announce that Mark Mennell and the team from Carillion have installed our 10 art panels at the station this morning. We hope you will agree they make a huge, positive difference to the appearance and experience of using the station!

We would like to offer our sincere thanks to our financial donors – Salford City Council’s Recycle and Reward Scheme, Little Hulton and Walkden Community Committee, and Arriva Trains North.

Also thanks to the artist Mark Mennell and the students at Salford City College who assisted in the designs, Fay Flatt from Salford’s Neighbourhood team, and everyone at Northern who helped make this possible – principally Vicky Cropper, Lydia Hayes, Matthew Worman and Joan Nickson.

Big day at Walkden station tomorrow!

It’s going to be an historic day at Walkden tomorrow as the station’s first ever public art project is installed.

Watch this space for photos