Just a short entry tonight after I spotted something of interest as I was dropping off some donations to the Hallswood Animal sanctuary Charity Shop on Drayton Road. On the wall opposite the entrance and next to one of the residential doors is a concentration of ‘graffiti’. On closer inspection some of the inscriptions are quite old. Admittedly they’re not going to get any of the medieval graffiti experts too excited but the shops were only built in 1929.
After a quick zoom in on Photoshop this small section of wall revealed quite a few initials and dates:

J.G. 1944, G. Oakley 2/2/46, D.M. 1963, E.K. 1950, J.Clayton 2/2/46 (two attempts, one aborted), B or D Clayton (possibly related to J?), G.Cooper May 1940, C.G. 1959, J. Pye 1951, D.M. 1968, J Moates 9/1/1942, G.C. 1945

They were just the clear ones, there are probably hundreds of people marked into that wall and all over the exteriors of the other shops in the parade, I’ll take a closer look next time I’m passing. Quite a few of them are from WW2 era and were probably made by youths with nothing better to do and ‘hanging around’ by the shops (nothing really changes, does it?). If you were one of the ‘vandals’, or recognise any of the initials I’d love to hear from you!

Thanks for reading,

Stu