‘Preserve WWI graffiti as a window into our past’
IF YOU were to walk beneath the underpass at Berwyn station, near Llangollen, you would probably think it completely normal.
Most people have not come to this part of Denbighshire to explore a narrow underpass which is thick with weeds at the entrance.
However, if you were to stop and look up at dirty pale bricks at the top of the tunnel you would be able to make out some graffiti in what appears to be pencil. It is hard to spot initially due to the damp, dirt and algae that is creeping over it. But it is unmistakably there.
These notes are believed to be written by soldiers waiting to be taken to Flanders to serve their country in World War I. Some of these men would never return, staking their claims as among the 20 million people who lost their lives in the Great War.
Some of the notes are heartfelt, for instance, a man spelling out his wish to see his unborn baby.
However, a local man and selfconfessed “history nerd” is concerned that this window into the past is about to be lost forever.
Iwan Hughes, a teacher from Flint, saw the etchings for the first time recently.
“I had heard of them,” he said. “I am a bit of a nerd for the First World War.
“I was talking with a friend of mine. We had gone for a meal and were chatting. We had been to Istanbul together before and we were just chatting about a time we had crossed the Bosphorus and visited a war cemetery. There we found a grave to a Welsh soldier.
“I told my friend there was something nearby he might be interested in.
“We went looking for the handwriting. I knew it was in an underpass but we couldn’t find it.
“Then a lady approached us and told us that it was on the other side of the bridge. It is literally below the railway line.
“I think they are legitimate. All First World War soldiers were provided with a pencil.”
However, Mr Hughes is concerned that unless something is done they could be about to disappear.
He said: “Unless you were looking for it you probably wouldn’t notice it, but there they were. The ones at either end are in the best condition. The ones in the middle have been gradually obliterated.
“Algae and damp is creeping over them. I would not even want to try and clean them because it could damage them further. There is a big stain spreading down the wall.”
One of the soldiers whose writing is still legible is Alfred James Candy. His name matches a name listed on the town’s war memorial.
Three others also correspond to this memorial to the fallen.
It is in these men’s memory that Mr Hughes wants the graffiti preserved.
“I would like them to safeguard it,” he said. “Location should be no reason for ignoring it.
“AJ Candy was a human being and little did he suspect his writing would be looked at in this way.
“The people who wrote this were just normal people who thought this could be goodbye for them.
“One was written on Christmas Day in 1914.
“They had been told the war would be over by Christmas.”