Special Event – Train Carriage

We have been asked by Blystra Arts to help out with a very special event.

We are building a train carriage out of willow and tissue paper to be paraded as part of the celebration to mark the 200 year anniversary of the journey of the first passenger train, a key moment in the development of train travel and in the history of our country too. Blystra Arts’ Stories from the Station project.

Our Carriage is going to be so much fun to make, it is based on 80s/90s graffiti culture mixed with the explosion of surf travel in newquay. Think Early days Boardmasters, neon colours wetsuits, bombed train carriages and long haired teenagers.

In 2025 Blystra Arts received funding from Great Western Railway’s Customer and Community Improvement Fund to deliver their project: Stories from the Station (SFTS), a creative heritage project that explores the impact Newquay station has had on the town.

SFTS is a multi-arts project which uses film, visual art, creative writing and performance to explore the heritage of Newquay’s railway station and the Atlantic Coast branch line and the impact they’ve both had on the town, its infrastructure and community.

SFTS will be delivered between April 2025 to February 2026 and will involve the delivery of 10 to 20 creative workshops across Newquay; the making of four heritage films; the delivery of a celebration event as part of the Railway 200 celebrations on the 27th of September and the creation of four new pieces of visual art – willow train lanterns, which will depict the stories from the station on the side and be paraded for an even wider audience to enjoy in the 2025 lantern parade in November 2025.

Newquay Museum are a key partner of the project. Their knowledge of old Newquay will be the starting point for the project. The project involves over 20 partner organisations from across Newquay and using these groups will connect geographically, socially and economically marginalised communities together through creativity. SFTS will use a shared sense of place (Newquay) to bring people further together through their shared heritage.