CALLS for a mural to be painted on walls in Darwen have caused a stir on social media.

Ex-Darrener Peter Yates posted mocked-up pictures on the ‘Darwen Then and Now’ page of murals on the wall of the former NatWest bank.

He has created artist's impressions of how the wall would look with different images on it including a shot of Darwen Tower and a Spitfire.

Last month, the Lancashire Telegraph reported about the £1.5million Darwen market square project where a peregrine falcon sculpture forms the centrepiece and Paul has even created an image of the bird in flight that would link to the plans.

He said: “Looking at the huge effort to revitalise the market area this wall is crying out for something.

“I’m not doing this to make any money out of it.

"I just thought it would be to give everyone ideas of what could be done. I’m sure there will be a lot of debate about this!

“I’m taking note of what ideas other people have commented and will try to make more examples. Something of Darwen’s heritage will no doubt be popular.

“The wall was exposed when the Treasurers House was demolished in the 1960s and it’s been laid bare ever since. It faces the market area.”

Peter's posts prompted a Darwen graffiti artist to volunteer his services to brighten up the wall.

Keiron Whitehead, known as ‘Curly’, has experience of similar projects including doing street art images at the Cheltenham Beer Festival.

The 31-year-old said: “There is a lot of regeneration work taking place with the three-day market with the peregrine falcon and then you have Darwen Academy with their structure.

“They are trying to combine the old with the new and something like this on the side of walls would benefit the area.

“This sort of thing has a great following and when I was doing the Beer Festival there were artists coming from everywhere to look at it and I think it will put the town on the map.

“I have a lot of family history here as my grandad Walter Hollings used to work for Crown Paints.

“I have tried to do something there in the past as I contacted the landowner and approached them to do it but it did not happen.

"Perhaps with all the interest on social media we could show the council that people want a mural and it could be part of the plans.

“The good thing is that I live nearby and if there were any problems with it getting more graffiti on it then I could just nip down and fix it.”

Cllr Roy Davies, who represents the Darwen area, said: “I think there is a time and a place for these kinds of things.

“We cannot have people just going around with spray cans and thinking it is alright to do it where they want.

“I think it is a good idea, maybe not Darwen Tower, but something that recognises the town’s mill history.”

Cllr Phil Riley, who is in charge of regeneration at Blackburn with Darwen Council, said: “This is something we would be interested in exploring."

In 2017, there was a Blackburn Open Walls project where empty walls across the town were painted on including the Youth Zone and the underpass near The Mall.