East Lancashire Railway is welcoming the Mayor Cllr Yvonne Creswell and her Consort on Wednesday 21st September 2011 to join a Radcliffe School on their visit to Bury Transport Museum, East Lancashire Railway and Bury Art Museum to experience life as an evacuee.
Following a visit to Bury Transport Museum in June 2011 to open a photographic exhibition by Bury Adult Learning Service, the Mayor and her Consort expressed a keen interest in seeing first hand how three of Bury’s major visitor attractions work collectively to help children understand what life was like for an evacuee during the Second World War.
Cllr Yvonne Creswell and Alan Creswell will spend a full day as evacuees with pupils from St Mary’s School in Radcliffe, complete with gas mask boxes and labels. They will visit Bury Transport Museum in the morning to get hands on with original artefacts including rations, an air raid shelter, how to pack an evacuee’s suitcase and looking at a fictional boy’s pocket content before boarding the steam train to Rawtenstall to undergo a mock evacuee selection process. The day will finish with an afternoon learning session at Bury Art Museum.
The Evacuee Experience is available from May to July and in September as part of the annual education programme. Suitable for Key Stage 2, the full day session is designed to let children gain an insight into daily life during World War II and the Home Front.
