Town Art Trail

Featuring highly visible pieces of artwork, Macclesfield Treacle Town Art Trail has raised the town’s profile as a creative destination and helped to increase footfall to support local businesses.

The trail incorporates existing art installations – including the mural of former Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis, in Mill Street and the new mural at Macclesfield station – along with two further new projects around the railway station.

Artwork has been installed along the station footbridge and on the shop shutters of nearby Sunderland Street.

• Here is a map of the Macclesfield Town Art Trail (PDF, 218KB)

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The trail also carries a really important public health message. The further aim of the project is to encourage more people to walk or cycle to the station, which in turn will help cut carbon emissions and improve air quality in so doing supporting the council’s ambitious boroughwide carbon neutral by 2045 target.

Funding for the art projects around the station was provided by Avanti West Coast’s Customer and Communities Investment Scheme. Avanti’s Pendolino trains serve Macclesfield railway station.

Macclesfield station mural

In 2022, artist ‘Peachzz’ installed a striking mural on one of the lift towers at Macclesfield railway station, which can now be seen prominently from the Silk Road and by rail passengers.

The mural, of two swifts, was inspired by local artist Charles Tunnicliffe OBE RA (1901-1979), who was born in Langley just outside Macclesfield.

Tunnicliffe is an internationally renowned naturalistic painter and was commissioned by the RSPB for his skills in capturing birds in their natural environment.

He also illustrated hundreds of books and, from the 1950s, created the artwork for collector's cards in Brooke Bond Tea packets.

Macclesfield Library has a wonderful collection of his illustrations and exhibits of his work are cared for by The Silk Museum.

The mural at the station has injected vibrancy into what was once a blank canvas and is now a welcoming sight for those travelling to or from the area by train.

Time lapse video of a mural being painted

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The artist

The artist who painted the mural (Peachzz) talking about her inspiration behind how she went about the project.