Who could forget the memorable moment when Cornwall’s very own Great Wall of China became the constantly evolving guerrilla art installation it is today – and the home of course to a great family of porcelain ducks.

The first mug appeared on the normally nondescript and rather boring wall bordering one of Cornwall’s busiest commuter routes between Truro and Falmouth in 2017. A line of mugs congregated there for weeks before moving on to mugs’ heaven (the nearby dump no doubt!).

Mugs became all the rage in 2018 when in those pre-Covid days it was safe to be a mug on the wall along the A39. Those were the heydays when 40 mugs congregated on the Wall. What a time to be alive this was. But then the mood changed and mugs sadly disappeared and the Wall remained grey, empty and dull for years.

After being removed some time ago, mysterious mugs have begun reappearing over the past couple of months, glued onto a wall next to the A39 between Playing Place and Truro, which has been described as Cornwall's 'Great Wall of China'.
One of the mugs that once took pride of place on the Great Wall of China earlier this year
(Image: Greg Martin / Cornwall Live)

The towards the end of 2023, there was this great resurgence of A39 wall art when the mugs were replaced by a bizarre array of items. First came the sex toys to raise the smiles of drivers passing the spot to the south of Truro towards Falmouth, followed by ducks of several varieties – rubber, ceramic. There even was a dedicated Facebook page to all this roadside creativity.

Once the ducks migrated to a new roosting place, bricks of the red variety popped up, wanting their 15 minutes of fame, no doubt. These included what people said looked like a ‘family’ of bricks, including two small ones on a see-saw. The adult bricks, presumably wanting to ensure their brick children remained safe at all times on the busy road, wore yellow hi-viz jackets, one tauntingly even emblazoned with the Cormac logo.

The bricks went home – with the help of the council’s highways team – then there was a blip of time when the Great Wall of China was neither great nor had any China of any sort on it – and lapsed back into being just a boring wall.

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But then someone once again showed their sense of humour and over-the-top creative flair when they decided to turn Cornwall’s nearly empty Great Wall of China into a great ducking work of art. The flock of China ducks appeared on the wall sometime after Saturday lunchtime on February 24, when only an eclectic assortment of junk took pride of place on the bridge.

The latest display of ducks was by far the most prominent the Great Wall of China had seen of late. Some 20 or so colourful ducks, some attired in their Easter best, appeared that weekend following the interlude of junk of the previous weeks.

Cornwall Council, which had previously denied all involvement in removing any items from the Wall, also finally admitted that its Cormac crews had been removing items for health and safety reasons.

The dildos on the side of the A39 between Playing Place and Truro that appeared on New Year's Eve
The dildos on the side of the A39 between Playing Place and Truro that appeared on New Year’s Eve
(Image: Mark Woolcock)

At the time, a spokesperson for the local authority said: “When we were originally asked in December, we made some immediate enquiries and were unable to identify anybody within the local highways teams who had any knowledge of the mugs being removed. More recently, through further discussion, it transpired that the removals were undertaken by someone else in the wider team who was not contacted as part of the original enquiry.

“As we explained before, the items have been removed for safety reasons as they could prove a distraction for drivers at a known accident blackspot.”

However when the monster flock of ceramic birds appeared it seems that the Cormac crew simply gave up and the ducks have remained in situ on the Great Wall of China ever since, even with Storm Darragh doing its windiest best this December to knock them off their perch.

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