An artist who was inspired by graffiti carved into the walls at Congleton Railway Station has created a book that preserves the memories left by generations of the town’s residents.
Engravings dating as far back as the 1970s were identified by Archie Davidson, who showcased a series of rubbings taken from the walls of the Congleton ticket office at an exhibition in Stockport earlier this month.
Mr Davidson said the spark of inspiration came last November as he sat on the train, travelling from his small hometown outside Birmingham to Manchester, where he now lives.
“The train usually flies through Congleton,” he said.
“But on this occasion, there was a delay and it stopped in the perfect spot for me to see the ticket office. I noticed the walls were covered in carvings, which looked really different to a lot of other graffiti you see.
“We’ve all seen people leaving their names on the back of bus seats or desks, which seems a juvenile thing to do, but it struck me how there were so many on the walls of the station and none of it had been removed or covered up.”
Mr Davidson returned in the summer and created rubbings of the graffiti, before taking them back to the publishing house, Shire Studio, that he runs with his partner in Manchester.
He said: “Using soft materials like pastel and paper felt like the best way to represent the carvings, because it gave you a better impression of the texture; you could tell whether they were done sharply or softly. It was also more manual, like the etchings themselves, rather than photographing it.”
After attempting to carve the word “Congleton” into a brick for the front cover of the book, Mr Davidson said he appreciated how much effort must have gone into carving the original graffiti.
“It wasn’t as easy as you’d think!” he said.
”People must have really taken their time to leave their mark. I loved the collective nature of it all being displayed together.”
The exhibition was held at Café International in Stockport, because Mr Davidson said he would have struggled to get to Congleton, with no train services currently stopping at the station on Sundays.
He said: “It was a shame I couldn’t do something in Congleton, but I work full-time during the week. The lack of Sunday trains was brought up to me a few times from visitors to the exhibition as well.”
Mr Davidson was not surprised that some of his more popular rubbings were of swear words etched into the walls.
“There were quite a lot of expletives,” he said.
”We had a lot of positive feedback on ‘Bollocks’, but what stood out most to me were the records of relationships or things that have altered over time.
“There was one on the outbuilding that said, ‘Steph loves Roady forever’, but then ‘not’ was added, so obviously that relationship didn’t last.
“You can imagine these teenage romances going on. There were some good nicknames as well, like ‘The Welder’ and ‘The Fiend’ that spark your imagination.”
Having grown up in a small town, Mr Davidson felt he could identify with some of the original artists.
Escape
He said: “For me, the train station felt like an escape. It was a sign that you were going to a bigger city, but also, it can be about returning home.”
Through social media groups online, he said he had managed to track down some of the people who had left their mark.
“The earliest carvings we found were from the late 70s and they ran through to the early 2000s, when people seemed to have stopped making them,” he said.
“The people we spoke to were from all different generations. The older ones remembered playing in fields around the station before the housing estate was built.
“Others had travelled to Macclesfield or Manchester for football or work. It makes you realise how many people use the stations for such a wide variety of reasons.”
He said of the graffiti: “It was just there, waiting to be documented, and I’m really glad we did after some of the feedback we’ve had. It’s really sparked people’s curiosity and definitely made me want to explore more of Congleton.”
The book is available to buy online at shire-studio.sumupstore.com, or from the “Chronicle” office.
Mr Davidson hoped that the book would also be available to buy from other Congleton outlets in the near future.
(Photos: Archie Davidson).
