MADE.

Children became ‘urban explorers’ along the Curley Wurley, handled original archival material at the local history centre, and interviewed older residents to develop a play about evacuees.

We brought together pupils from three Walsall primary schools to explore their local neighbourhood in a series of after-school sessions. They explored the Wyrley & Essington Canal (nicknamed the Curley Wurley) and experienced the cramped quarters of a canal tug. They investigated local family histories and traced the growth of Walsall, from original documents, photographs and maps at Walsall’s local history centre. And they worked with an architect to design the communal garden for a new Walsall Housing Group development.

They were particularly fascinated by the childhood stories of local residents, particularly their tales from the Second World War. These interviews were used to develop and perform a play, Walsall Time Detectives, with theatre director Gwen Williams and actor Gemma Stevens. (The script can be easily adapted for all Walsall schools and is available free-of-charge [download here])

Using archives, oral histories and the local built environment as resources, this groups of Year 5 children learned about the unique history of their own area. They worked with a range of adults other than their teachers, responded to different learning styles, and had plenty of fun.

All of this was made possible through a huge amount of goodwill from many partners and a grant from MLA West Midlands. Of the many partners who made this happen, particular thanks go to Walsall Housing Group who asked their architect to run one of the sessions and found two tenants who were very happy to be interviewed by the children. ‘Captain Bob’, skipper of Walsall MBC’s canal boat, arranged specially for a tug to meet us on one of our canal paths walks.

And staff at Walsall’s local history centre made us all feel very welcome on our visits and accompanied us on the canal tour. One serendipitous outcome for local schools is support to deliver the curriculum Chembakolli project: the local history centre is linking schools to residents from the Sikh, Hindu, Muslim, Gujarati and Bangladeshi communities who have supported the centre’s Asian Heritage project. And (There were plenty of challenges too, not least the snow which severely affected rehearsals of the play!)