Sometimes a piece of company history turns up where you least expect it.
We recently spotted something familiar in David Hockney’s 2004 watercolour Street Scene. Bridlington: a VGC van parked on an ordinary residential street in East Yorkshire.
You’ll find the painting in the David Hockney Foundation’s 2005 chronology. Scroll through the gallery to the 18th painting in the series and see if you can spot the VGC van.
You can also view an example print of the painting on eBay.
The story behind the VGC van
Hockney painted Midsummer: East Yorkshire in 2004, capturing the roads, fields, houses and towns around the county. The 36 watercolours were exhibited the following year, and he continued painting around Bridlington and the wider East Yorkshire landscape.
The VGC van has its own story. We believe one of the Hepple family was likely driving the van, probably Raymond Hepple, who was working on the Rail Delivery contract supporting Network Rail at the time.
As far as we know, it was simply another day at work. Someone parked a VGC van on a Yorkshire street and, without knowing it, became a small part of a painting by one of Britain’s best-known artists.
One moment in a much longer story
VGC was founded in 1960, and the person who drove that van is one of thousands of skilled and professional people who have been part of our history in UK rail and infrastructure. Often, that means exactly what this painting happened to capture: turning up, getting on with the job and playing a part in the infrastructure and communities around them.
Most of those moments go unrecorded. This one just happened to be painted by David Hockney.
If you’re a past or present VGC colleague with a photo or memory of your own, get in touch at enq@vgcgroup.co.uk. We’d love to hear your story.
For more moments from VGC’s history, explore Our Journey.
