We Built a Railway

5 children walk across parallel wooden planks whilst carrying rods like they are train pistons

24 August, 2026 | Claire

Twenty-four six and seven year olds at Longton Lane Primary school in Rainhill have spent three wonderful days listening to stories and making music inspired by the Liverpool to Manchester railway as part of a project by Sensory Creative Lab CIC.

Two children in a field are standing with their feet on two wooden planks, holding onto rope that is connected to the plank.

Using their playground equipment and following a pictorial map, they have traced the route of the line, solving the same engineering problems that George Stephenson faced; creating tunnels from tyres; bridges from blocks; finding out why Rainhill was chosen as the location for a fair competition; and stomping past the bog monsters of Chat Moss. Combining storytelling, imaginative play and sensory activities has given this Year 2 class an understanding of an important part of their local and nationally significant history.

With this understanding, they have created a range of artworks. David Bixter guided them to experiment with the creation of sounds inspired by the railway. Working with accessible technologies, they used the school iPads to make sound loops that are inspired by the story of Rocket and the railway. These are paired up with digital motion drawings that flash past like a landscape reflected in a train window in a short film.

Building on their physical exploration of the route, the children have printed pictorial maps, filled with shapes, words and sounds. When everyone in the class unfolded them, their maps opened out to make a drawing nearly as long as the railway.

A page with colourful prints and patterns including green and purple trees, the words 'off off'

The children have thoroughly enjoyed being involved in the project. It has been well structured and engaging and the aspects covered by both Claire and Dave have inspired the children, with some even going home and continuing what they have learned. They have been so proud of what they have produced and some of our most reluctant learners have spoken in great detail about the exciting activities that they have taken part in. We are really happy to have been involved and would like to thank Claire and Dave for providing the children with such an enjoyable couple of days.

Helen Brougham, Y2 teacher

children are climbing through a tunnel of car tyres

Longton Lane is a new school building and grounds, so the school asked if there was anything permanent that could go into their grounds. We’ve donated the two pairs of bog-stompers (wooden plank-skis) inspired by the navvies who built the line across Chat Moss to their play equipment, and on day 3 the children used all their creative skills and knowledge to make a series of clay tiles, that when fired, will return to school after the summer. The tiles feature imprints of textures they discovered in their explorations, station names and railway sounds, creating a tactile storytelling trail for the school to install in the grounds.

We’ve had a fun and imaginative time at Longton Lane Primary exploring the Liverpool to Manchester railway. We’ve read stories, created music inspired by the rhythms of the railway, unfolded maps to guide us past the Chat Moss bog monsters and created artworks along the way. The children have enjoyed exercising their imaginations and experimenting with creative processes and it’s been a joy to support them to create this wonderful work.

Claire Weetman, Sensory Creative Lab CIC

Drawing of carriage from Rocket with projected drawings in windows

A child touches an ipad screen that is streaked with colourful stripes

A child presses a piece of model railway track into a slab of clay

children are kneeling on the floor joining planks of wood with rope to form a railway track

A child is in a canoe on a field. Other children are running past waving sheets of hessian in the air.

‘We built a railway’ was commissioned by Manchester Histories as part of their Rocket All Aboard programme. Made possible by Heritage Lottery Fund, supported by National Lottery Players.

The Giant’s Blankets at Sefton Park Palm House

10 June, 202610 June, 2026 | Claire

On a hot May morning, I doubted the sensibility of my past decisions to create a storytelling performance where I cover myself in 11 blankets and headed to Sefton Park Palm House to perform The Giants Blankets. Thankfully I was able to complete the performance in a very large greenhouse without passing out and I also now know that I can perform this with amplification as I channelled my inner Britney and used a headset mic.

Part of a line up of three storytellers for WoWFEST’26, the Giant’s Blankets story of kindness, and community in the face of punishing storms and loneliness fitted the festival theme ‘New World Disorder’. Jude Lennon gave a masterclass in storytelling with her recounting of both classic tales and her own ‘Lamby and the Liver Bird‘, and following my performance, Patrick Graham brought the audience onto the stage where he shared the secrets of his magic book of storytelling – if you couldn’t see the stories on the (blank) pages at the start, Patrick’s tales exercised everyone’s imagination to see the stories of a tortoise called everybody and an excerpt from his own tale, The Golden Water and the Enchanted Forest.

There’s plans for the Giant to head out on another adventure in October this year, if you’d like her to come and visit your community, library or school, get in touch and keep an eye on my socials for where she will take TWO GIANT STEPS to next.

The Giant’s Blankets – Barnsley Library

A person stands on a hillside, with their outstretched arms covered in patterned blue blankets that blow in the wind.

28 June, 202424 August, 2026 | Claire

I’ve been working on something a bit different lately. During the creation of The Many Uses of a Blanket project in 2021/2022 lots of beautiful exchanges happened between a wide range of people and the blankets – they were gifted to a cold baby at a charity football match, they comforted a member of the public who fell outside one of the exhibitions, we’ve had picnics on them and brought colour and comfort to lots of public arts events. As a result of this I decided that there was a story to tell. So with a lot of support I’ve written it, and worked out how to bring that story to life by using the blankets.

In The Giant’s Blankets, a lonely giant shelters from the storm under a mountain of blankets. Travelling two giant steps at a time, she secretly gifts her blankets of kindness and care to people and animals in the town, but nobody notices the giant. The audience travels with the giant through the storm to a place where she eventually feels part of a community. At the moment, I am the performer, bringing this story to life using the Giant’s Blankets which transform into crashing clouds and twisting tornadoes; the giant uses her blankets to make a hammock that rescues a cyclist, a tent to protect an engineer and a sling for a baby; and the blankets make a space for a wonderful community picnic when everyone returns to thank the helpful giant who has made some new friends.

On a beautifully sunny weekend in June, Barnsley Libraries invited me to come and share the story of the Giant’s Blankets to their family audiences as part of their programme of Refugee Week events. The two performances were followed by a stay and play activity where we built dens, created fuzzy felt blankets and enjoyed the colouring sheets.

Magical – it was a lovely performance, really creative and imaginative.

Really enjoyable. My daughter who is 3 was fully enjoying the story and loved the den building

The Giant’s Blankets has been developed so far with generous support from Wonder Arts in the form of rehearsal space, advice and arranging scratch performances; Kevin Dyer as mentor and dramaturg; R&D funding from St Helens Council Borough of Culture grants; Thatto Heath Primary School and Buzz Hub who took part in workshops to develop and test the story and St Thomas of Canterbury and St John Vianney Primary schools who have both hosted scratch performances of the work.

I’m hoping to develop the project further, if you’re interested in hosting a performance and activity, or can support the development of the work, please get in touch.