The Canal & River Trust has worked with partners along Walsall canal to add to its street art trail across the West Midlands.

This is part of a national street art trail that transforms spaces alongside canals in England and Wales with the help of local artists and community groups.

Supported by players of People’s Postcode Lottery, these new pieces of canal art have taken inspiration from the local community and its links with the canal.

In Walsall the new art installation has been created by We are Culla along the canal near Steep Bridge Way. Designed by Dawn Hamblett, a volunteer at the Trust, it shows a traditional working narrowboat being pulled by a horse. 

Across the West Midlands alongside Walsall, Coventry and Birmingham feature beautiful street art, and Sheffield, Oxford, London and Leicester already have street art along their canals, adding additional colour and life to the waterways. Jon Horsfall, interim director for the West Midlands at Canal & River Trust, said:

“It’s wonderful to see how art can help transform places and our canals are no different. Having these bright, fun murals along our waterways encourages people to come and visit and see for themselves why canals are special and feel the wellbeing benefits of spending time by the water.

“Our canals are enjoying a second gold age, used by more people and in more ways than the great Georgian canal engineers could ever have imagined. Our 250-year-old network brings much-loved wildlife into the heart of the diverse communities it runs through and is the vital green space used by millions of people in our towns and cities.

“It has an important role to play in the decades ahead, for the wellbeing of communities, protecting biodiversity and mitigating the effects of a changing climate."

The Canal & River Trust are a charity who care for over 2,000 miles of historic canals, rivers, reservoirs and docks across England & Wales and care for over 90 miles of canals, locks, reservoirs and historic assets across the Black Country.