That bit of art down by our Precinct ......

It may yet be saved but I doubt it, and so this murial on the outside wall of the doomed shopping centre will soon be gone.

There will be some who judged it and found it not to their taste, but I liked it, and often wondered who the artist was and who commissioned it.

And I recently reflected that someone should record it before it becomes broken rubble destined for hardcore on some motorway development.

All of which is a lead into Peter Topping’s photos. He took up the invitation and snapped the murial earlier in the week, along with the closed and shuttered former retail outlets.

I suppose it is the way of things that street art has a short life.  I remember two pieces by the artist David Vaughan.*  

One was on the side of the railway viaduct behind the replica Roman fort in Castlefield, and the other was on the gable end of what was once a butcher’s shop on Egerton Street in Ashton Under Lyne.

The first was of a group of Roman soldiers on the march and fitted with the Roman fort, while the Egerton Street painting was of a smiling image of the old Queen and painted for a street party held in the Jubilee year of 1977.

Sadly, both are gone, the first after a slow flaky decline was obliterated sometime in the early 2000s, and the Queen just vanished.

So that just leaves me with Peter’s paintings of the happy murial and yes I used the word murial …… which of course only makes sense if you knew Hilda Ogden.

And raises the question of what has happened to the wooden sculptures in memory of Harry Goodwin the Celebrity photographer who was born in from Chorlton.

He died in 2013 and the two pieces were installed in his memory on the corner of the Precinct close to the car park entrance.

Answers to the blog on the Chorlton history site.

Location; Chorlton Precinct

Pictures; art and the doomed Precinct, 2024, from the collection of Peter Topping and Roman soldiers, Beaufort Street in Castlefield from David Vaughan, undated

*David Vaughan, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search?q=david+Vaughan

**Celebrity photographer Harry Goodwin dies aged 89, Chorlton-born Harry was well-known as the resident photographer on the BBC's Top Of The Pops, Paul Britton Reporter. MEN, September 24th 2013,  https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/celebrity-photographer-harry-goodwin-chorlton-6085656

David Vaughan

Roman soldiers on Beaufort Street by David Vaughan

I have always been fascinated by the artist David Vaughan, not least because he painted a mural on the side of the butcher’s shop on Whiteacre Road in Ashton.*

It was of the Queen and was done for the Jubilee in 1977 and as I lived in the next street I passed it most days.

Later still I came across another of his paintings on Beaufort Street in Castlefield.

It was behind the reconstructed Roman fort and once showed a unit of the Roman army marching across the wall of the railway viaduct.

Sadly both have now gone, although the Roman soldiers did last into this century but by then  the bright colours had begun to fade and the paint peel. So I was not over surprised when last week I discovered that it had been painted over.

That said much of his work can still be seen at https://www.thejoyousliving.com/art-david-vaughan-life-work/

And featured on  Radio 4 :The Artist Who Fell From Grace which “looked back at his life and times with the aid of newly discovered interviews" and the memories of the people who knew him.**

It was broadcast in 2013 and sadly is now not available.

Picture;   Beaufort Street in Castlefield from David Vaughan

*The murals of David Vaughan, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-murals-of-david-vaughan.html

** http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01sjjxx

The murals of David Vaughan

The Jubilee celebrations made me think back thirty-five years to the earlier bash in the summer of 1977.

And as you do I was reminded of what I was doing which was I recall still bruising from the end of a long relationship and living alone in a house in Ashton Under Lyne.

All around me in the tiny streets of terraced houses there were street parties and for the next few months I passed a mural on the side of the butcher’s shop in the next road.

It was painted by the local artist David Vaughan * and was a bright colourful depiction of the queen.  Later still I came across another of his paintings on Beaufort Street in Castlefield.  It is behind the reconstructed Roman fort and once showed a unit of the Roman army marching across the wall of the railway viaduct.

Sadly I didn’t get a picture of either painting and now that of the Queen has long gone while the Roman soldiers are fading and peeling, but there are some marvellous images painted by him at https://www.thejoyousliving.com/art-david-vaughan-life-work/

David Vaughan was born in 1944, studied in Ashton, and Bradford before going on to the Slade School of Art.

Picture; Beaufort Street in Castlefield from David Vaughan

*David Vaughan, Life & Work, https://www.thejoyousliving.com/art-david-vaughan-life-work/