Sandhurst: Happy Christmas railway bridge repainted

College students first painted ‘Happy Christmas’ on the bridge between Yorktown Road and High Street in 1967, and it has since become a beloved local landmark.

In February, hundreds of residents called for the fading piece of graffiti to be repainted, and Network Rail said it was ‘exploring the possibility’ of granting permission.

Sandhurst Town Council and Network Rail have now collaborated to repaint the graffiti in its original form.

Harriet Fraser, who lives in Sandhurst, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that she ‘wanted to raise awareness to get it back up there, because my family were really involved in it back in the 1960s’.

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Her uncle Martin Malorie was one of the seven college students who painted the bridge after leaving a Christmas Party nearby.

She said: “They went to the rose and crown pub and then to a house for a party. My grandad was painting something in the garage and the boys took it with the piano.

“They wheeled the grand piano to the bridge and then dangled down and painted it.”

The art shop owner said the group wheeled the piano to Yateley across the border with Hampshire, when Hampshire police pushed the piano back into Berkshire.

Mrs Fraser said she was ‘really pleased’ to see it repainted.

She continued: “I’ve moved away and come back to Sandhurst and people say ‘go left under the happy Christmas bridge…they use it for directions.

“It’s a really happy message throughout the year.”

The graffiti was then repainted by Ian Langston and his friend in 1988 after Network Rail painted over the original.

Mr Langston told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that he was discussing the landmark at the New Inn, now known as the Village Inn pub, aged 23.

Ian Langston, who repainted the bridge in 1988, with the newly painted bridge (Image: Ian Langston)He said: “The pub regulars all bet my friend and I one pound from each of them if we repainted it. We went to my friends Dads house, got a large paint brush, a broom handle and sticky tape. Off we went – it took about an hour.

“We did one side each, hanging over the top, whilst being held by the trouser waistband!”

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Mr Langston said he was delighted it had been repainted as it was ‘part of his legacy’, and would be telling his grandchildren about it.

In February Bracknell Forest Councillor Guy Gillbe suggested the bridge be repainted, saying it had become ‘iconic’.

The cabinet member for planning, transport and countryside said: “I love the memory of coming back in the car and seeing The Happy Christmas Bridge, and it was that feeling of coming home.”