Farewell. We’ll Miss You

Published 31 January 2020

Graffiti/art work from an old railway hut on the Monsal Trail, with the 12 EU stars and the words "Farewell.  We'll Miss You" in the middle.

November 2018. I’m walking the White to Dark from Bakewell. Part of that stretch goes along a former railway line that is now the Monsal Trail.

There’s an old railway hut besides the track. Not sure what, but something makes me go inside.

On the wall I find something. Some will call it graffiti. Some will call it art.

Farewell, it says. We’ll miss you. And if you had any doubt as to why someone had put it there, the twelve rings of the European Union flag surround the test.

It’s hard, nay impossible, to tell who put it there. A Brit? Someone else from a European Union country? But the sentiment of the creator is clear.

As it happened, they were far too early. But how were they to know? How were any of us?

But today it happens.

This is not a political website. But this website is read by people across the world. And people come to the United Kingdom from all over the place to walk its paths. To stomp on its hills. To enjoy its scenery. Britain’s wonderful countryside. And as such I couldn’t let this day – this downright stupid day in our country’s history – go unmarked. And whoever painted that picture at least gave me a way to do it in a way that links up with the very topic of this website in a way that’s only slightly tenuous.

There’s nothing like a good bit of politics to drive comments on a website. Which is why they’re turned off on this one. Cos that’s the kind of thing I can do. Section nine says so…