Rainhill school children explore the story of the Liverpool to Manchester Railway.

Children at Longton Lane Primary School in Rainhill have been discovering the story of the Liverpool to Manchester Railway through music, storytelling, movement and art as part of a new Rocket: All Aboard project.

We Built a Railway, delivered by Sensory Creative Lab CIC, gave Year 2 pupils the chance to explore why the railway was built, some of the challenges faced by its engineers and the importance of the railway to communities then and now.

Over three days, 24 six and seven-year-olds turned their school grounds into their own version of the Liverpool to Manchester Railway. Following a pictorial map, they traced the route of the line and tackled some of the challenges faced by George Stephenson and the railway’s builders.

Playground tyres became tunnels, blocks became bridges and the children discovered why Rainhill was chosen for the famous Rainhill Trials. They even encountered the “bog monsters” of Chat Moss, learning about the challenge of carrying the railway across the difficult mossland.

The children also explored the sounds and rhythms of the railway. Working with David Bixter, they used accessible technology on the school’s iPads to create sound loops inspired by Rocket and the railway. These were combined with digital motion drawings designed to flash past like the landscape seen through a train window, creating a short film from the children’s work.

Their exploration also resulted in a series of pictorial maps filled with shapes, words and sounds. When the whole class unfolded their individual creations together, they formed one drawing nearly as long as the railway.

The project will leave something behind at the school too. The children created clay tiles featuring station names, railway sounds and textures discovered during their activities. Once fired, the tiles will return to the school to form a tactile storytelling trail in its grounds. Two pairs of wooden “bog-stompers”, inspired by the navvies who built the railway across Chat Moss, have also been donated to the school’s play equipment.

The project was commissioned by Rocket: All Aboard and funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, thanks to National Lottery players.