If you’ve ever wandered past a freshly gleaming sign or a once-grubby bollard that suddenly looks spotless, chances are you’ve walked past the work of John Edwards, a man who’s become something of a local legend for all the right reasons.
John doesn’t work for the council. He isn’t paid. He’s just an enthusiast with a motorbike, cleaning products and a determination to keep Shrewsbury looking tidy, one sign at a time.
Meeting John in Coleham
I met John recently just after he had been hard at work on the filty (but still functional) telephone box near Greyfriars Bridge. John used a product called Gelsolv to shift layers of sticker gunk and grime from the glass.
He was mid-clean on a sign near the traffic lights in Coleham when he stopped to chat to me.
“The phone box near Greyfriars bridge in Coleham was covered in old stickers, notices and sticker residue. Four hours later, job’s a good ’un.”
And it really was, the before-and-after difference was dramatic. While we chatted, he also pointed out the signs and street lamps he’d just cleaned around the Coleham traffic lights. The improvement was clear.
I snapped a quick photo of him next to his motorcycle, proudly sporting his signature muscle shirt, and he handed me one of his flyers to mark the encounter.
Tackling Stickers and Grime Across Shrewsbury and Beyond
Much of John’s recent focus has been on cleaning up after visiting fans of Djurgården, a Stockholm football club whose supporters plastered their stickers all over Shrewsbury during a match day last November.
"Every lamp post, crossing and street sign from the station to the football ground has at least one Djurgården sticker stuck to it," he wrote. “It’s not an easy job.”
Armed with WD40, scourers, cloths and his go-to graffiti remover “Graffiti Go!”, John’s been painstakingly removing them, often starting early in the morning and working into the afternoon. By mid-May, he’d already cleared over 650 signs in Shropshire.
And it’s not just signs. He’s cleaned litter bins, crossing poles and even the Clive memorial’s granite plinth in The Square, restoring the gold lettering by hand.
His updates, shared regularly in local Facebook groups, are always friendly and full of character. From thanking bus drivers for a quick beep to chatting about familiar faces he sees along the way, it’s clear how much he cares about the town.
“If you see the Goldwing parked up on the pavement with a blue sign hanging off of it, gimme a toot!”
Recognition from the Mayor
In May, John’s efforts were officially recognised with a Mayor’s Award, and rightly so. While he might downplay the fuss, his dedication hasn’t gone unnoticed by those who live and work here.
Still, even with the recognition, John continues to self-fund his supplies, including £13 a bottle for graffiti remover and £70 per month in total on cleaning materials. He's even reached out to the council in the hope of a bit of reimbursement to help keep things going.
John’s work is about more than just cleaning. It’s about pride in place, about not accepting that our public spaces have to be dirty or ignored. And it’s about someone quietly deciding to do something, and then actually doing it, week after week.
See More & Follow His Work
You can follow John’s ongoing clean-up efforts on Shrewsbury focused facebook groups or via the sign cleaning enthusiasts facebook group, where he shares before-and-after shots, updates, “notice of intention to wipe”'s.