North West Transport Museum

Lesson: History

Class: Year 2 Year: 2023 - 2024

George Stephenson- Rocket and development of the Railways

Transport Trip February 2023

This half term Year 2 have been learning how transport is different now to how it used to be in the past. They have compared how jobs and homes were different 200 years ago. They have also learnt about a significant person in history, George Stephenson from the same era! They have discovered lots of new facts about George Stephenson and how he impacted the world with his engineering work. He built a steam locomotive called the Rocket for the Rainhill Trials in 1829.

During a recent trip, Year 2 visited the exact site where the trails took place in 1829. The Rocket was the only locomotive to complete the trials successfully! A team of local historians took us on a tour of Rainhill Station where we imagined jumping back in time 194 years. It looked a lot different then but the same bridge still stands to this very day. From that day travel changed forever. A new railway line was built from Liverpool to Manchester that made carrying goods and people a lot faster. Small villages along the railways became larger due to people moving out of the city and into the countryside. Even the time of the days changed to match the train time tables.

During the same trip, Year 2 travelled from Garswood to St Helens along the same track Stephenson and his team constructed via train. They explored old and new transport at the Transport Museum and viewed artefacts. We then hopped on a Heritage London Bus to the actual site of the Rainhill Trails and visited the local museum to view more artifacts from the Trails. The children were well and truly submerged in history for the whole day.