Three Bridges railway bridge receives mural makeover

The collaboration between artist Lionel Stanhope and pupils from Three Bridges Primary School, Pound Hill Junior School, Maidenbower Junior School and Milton Mount School has led to the creation of a mural adorning the railway bridge.

Schoolpupils created artwork on the theme of train travel after the project was put forward by local councillors. Lionel Stanhope then took all the pictures to create a composite mural and painted it during the summer.

The mural joins the existing artwork from Oriel High School currently on display in the underpass at the station.

Emma Collins, teacher at Milton Mount School, said: “I ran a workshop for our gifted artists for this project. The children absolutely loved it and I feel really proud of them. I know that in years to come they will look at the mural and think ‘I was part of that!’. For some of our pupils, it is a massive confidence boost to see their work up on display for everyone to admire. I hope that more projects like this are organised in the future.”

Fiona Morton, community rail development manager, said: “This beautiful mural is the result of lots of talented people working together to improve the environment around a key community asset, Three Bridges Station. Rowena Tyler, Sussex Community Rail Partnership Line Officer, was able to bring together the talents of five local primary schools, an artist, local councillors, the Station Manager and Network Rail to bring the wow factor to Three Bridges.”

Crawley Borough councillor Brenda Burgess thanked the Network Rail community rail officer, Southern’s station manager, the Sussex CRP Arun line officer for all the support on this project, and the pupils and staff from the five schools.