The Banksy of Bourne
AT A time when controversy over plans to demolish the Victorian Midland & Great Northern Joint Railway’s Bridge 234 in Bourne, Lincolnshire, has been growing, both in the town and much further afield, this striking steamy artwork created by a mystery artist appeared beneath one of its three arches in March.
Bourne History Group, which has been campaigning to save the classic brick-built bridge – the major surviving railway-built structure from the days when the market town was a four-way junction – are baffled as to the identity of the painter.
The artwork appeared ‘overnight,’ painted over the run-of-the-mill graffiti applied to the bridge over the years.
The group believes that part of the reason for the predicament currently faced by the bridge is that comparatively few townsfolk are today aware of its existence.
Within striking distance of the modern Elsea Park housing estate to the south and open land to the north, the bridge has become surrounded and somewhat obscured by decades of trees and thick bush growth, and in places by marshy ground – and is believed be a haven for wildlife.
As part of its campaign to raise awareness of the bridge, the history group recently erected waymark signs to point residents and would-be visitors to the site from Elsea Park’s Newton Abbot Way. In its heyday, the bridge would have acted as a gateway to Bourne for passengers arriving from the East Midlands via Saxby in the east, maybe heading onwards to Spalding, King’s Lynn and Norfolk.
➜ Campaigners make a vow to fight on and save Bridge 234 – News, page
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