Groundwork Stoke-on-Trent ran a project ‘Past on Your Doorstep, Future in Your Hands’. The purpose of the programme was to engage with 2 secondary and 7 primary schools (600 pupils) within Stoke-on-Trent, to increase the pupils’ learning on the heritage of their local area through the impact of the coalmining industry, past, present and future. The Schools chosen were in close proximity to Chatterley Whitfield, a derelict colliery, situated on the north-eastern edge of Stoke-on-Trent. It is a very significant site of important heritage value and is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, containing the most complete record of colliery buildings in England, and possibly Western Europe. The cluster of thirty four buildings, some scheduled, some listed, is surrounded by the open land of its waste tips and coal stocking areas. The landscape is now mostly green again but it is still recognisable for its industrial past.
The project incorporated a visit to Apedale Heritage Centre, a converted coal mine site. An experienced miner took the children down the mine, introducing them to a life working underground, past and present. A tour of the museum followed, which included maps, photographs and mining artifacts, plus an authentic reproduction of a miner’s cottage providing an insight into past family life. After this initial stimulus a variety of classroom based activities followed.
A number of schools were given the opportunity to study ‘Victorian children at work’ with specific reference to working down the mines. This involved using different sources of information to help them investigate the past through drama, pictures, children’s reports and census material.
Others studied the local area through visits to the Chatterley Whitfield site, studying old ordnance survey maps; interviewing ex miner’s to obtain information about their life underground and consideration of future use and regeneration of the Whitfield Colliery.
Click Here For Curriculum Links and Lesson Plans
Groundwork Enterprise Centre
Albany Works
Moorland Road
Burslem
Stoke on Trent ST6 1EB
T : 01782 829900
F : 01782
829901
E : stokeontrent@
groundwork.org.uk
