Students combat graffiti with mural to lost ones

Students at Hopwood Hall College create a mural to people close to them they have lost

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Students at Hopwood Hall College have worked with the Canal and River Trust to transform Castleton’s graffiti covered canal tunnel into a mural to people close to them they have lost.

The mural arrives as a culmination of a six month project where the Skills for Life students, who have a range of physical and learning difficulties, have been clearing, cleaning and maintaining various sections of the canal as a service to the public and to gain community work experience.

As a send-off piece of work, the students were asked by the Canal and River Trust to design a tasteful mural to cover the heavily graffitied Castleton bridge section of Rochdale Canal.

With the help of a professional artist, the students designed a ‘Forget-me-not’ themed piece which used the flower as a framework to include hints of loved ones they have lost.

The names of people many of the students have lost are hidden amongst the art work, such as in the petals of the flowers and in the graffiti text.

Mandy Fletcher, lecturer on the Skills for Life course, was suitably proud of her students’ achievements:

“I think the wall looks fab, especially when you saw how bad it was before our students started working on it.

“Some people would maybe prefer there to be nothing on the walls, but I think this is a touching tribute from the students and is a piece of art that genuinely means something.

“I’d like to thank the Canal and River Trust for giving our students the opportunity to do this. We’ve put a lot of work into clearing and maintaining Rochdale Canal over the last six months and it is nice of the Trust to give something back to our students. It means an awful lot to them.

Students will continue to visit the mural weekly to maintain the artwork and the surrounding area of the canal.