WGC station is 100 on Monday 5 October. Volunteers need the last £2,000 of £24,000 for a bronze welly boot sculpture by Ben Twiston-Davies.

Welwyn Garden City station turns 100 on Monday 5 October. The volunteers who look after it want to mark the birthday with a permanent bronze sculpture of a pair of wellington boots, and they are £2,000 short.

The station adoption group All Aboarders announced on Friday that local sculptor Ben Twiston-Davies has been commissioned to make the piece. He made the Ebenezer Howard statue that stands in Howardsgate.

The whole project costs £24,000, according to the group’s JustGiving page. A local charity and a company have already covered most of it. The appeal is for the final £2,000, and it had raised £475 when we checked on Sunday morning.

Why wellies?

The boots are a nod to how the town’s first commuters got to work.

According to All Aboarders, the first station was a muddy halt, slightly north of today’s platforms. Early residents heading for London walked across a field in wellington boots. They changed into their dress shoes when the train came in and left the boots at the station to collect on the way home.

A Punch cartoon of the time, called “Mud Modes”, captured the scene. It is reproduced, with permission, on the station footbridge.

Concept image of the planned sculpture: a pair of wellington boots filled with bronze flowers, standing on a plinth with a plaque reading Welcome to Welwyn G.C.
Ben Twiston-Davies's concept image for the centenary sculpture. Image: via the All Aboarders.

The concept image shows two boots overflowing with bronze flowers, on a plinth with a plaque reading “Welcome to Welwyn G.C.”. This summer the group put real welly boot planters on the station as a trial run. They were never meant to last outdoors, and the sculpture is meant to replace them as a permanent reminder.

A hundred years at the station

The current four-platform station on the main line was opened in October 1926 by Neville Chamberlain, the future Prime Minister, according to the group’s history of the station. It replaced a single-platform halt on the Luton branch, opened in 1920.

Some other facts from the same history:

  • the original station building was designed by the town’s architect, Louis de Soissons
  • it stood until the Howard Centre was built in the late 1980s, when the booking office moved into the centre
  • the station handles around 2.8 million passengers a year
  • a 1935 accident at Welwyn led to extra signalling safeguards, known as Welwyn Control, which were adopted across the national network

The centenary programme has run through the summer: a ride-on miniature railway in Howardsgate in August, an exhibition in the Howard Centre, and a celebration day at the station on Saturday 3 October. The group’s poster lists Great Northern, Hertfordshire County Council, the Howard Centre, Together for Welwyn Garden City and Wonderful Welwyn Garden City as supporters.

What it means for you

If you want to help pay for the sculpture, the appeal is on the All Aboarders JustGiving page. The group says the money will go towards making the piece and installing it at the station.

All Aboarders also looks after the station’s flower beds and planters, and it takes new volunteers through its volunteering page.

Travelling this week? Check our Welwyn Garden City roadworks and travel page for rail replacement buses, and our train times to London.