Making History: the Makers’ Dozen Trail launches this week!

 

After two years of hunting down property owners, researching and writing, sketching and painting, the Makers Dozen Trail launches this weekend. The last few murals will be appearing in the days ahead, hot off the easel of our brilliant artist Paula Woof, and on Saturday at the Midsummer Fayre you can pick up a free booklet which takes you around the trail explaining the stories behind each one.

The trail has largely been funded by Telford & Wrekin Council’s Pride in Your High Street Fund, the aim of which has been to resource projects that support revitalised high streets in the borough’s towns. We’ve never claimed our mural trail will be the magic bullet for Wellington, but it’s one way that we can literally brighten up the streetscape – to inject colour and creativity into its buildings and, in the process, shed light on a whole host of stories about past lives, trades and talents.

The focus on makers – that is, craftspeople, manufacturers and creatives – is designed to remind people about the sheer amount of stuff that Wellington, like so many towns, used to produce. But it isn’t just about looking backwards – in choosing to celebrate those past makers we want to tell the outside world that we value making today; that we are a town defined by makers throughout our history and, perhaps, that making can also shape and define our future.

With that in mind, the Makers’ Dozen booklet not only takes you on the mural trail but also includes a directory of sixty modern-day Wellington makers – butchers and brewers, potters and portrait painters, jewellers, woodworkers, photographers and more.

So – look out for our booklets at the Midsummer Fayre this Saturday (9th June) – you can pick them up from the Nell Makes stall near The Lychgate. And thereafter they’ll be available at shops around town, including Ken Francis Butchers, the new Wrekin News office at the railway station, and also at Wellington Library. Or you can follow the trail – and seek out those modern-day makers – at the Made in Wellington website: www.madeinwellington.co.uk