Bacup's Evacuees
We kicked off our look at local history of evacuees in Bacup by looking at an object each of them would have had - a real gas mask. We had to think what it might have been used for, why each child had to carry one and what it tells us about the past.
Did you know our school has a part of wartime history? In September 1939, worried about bombing raids, children from Ardwick Central School in Manchester were evacuated by train to Bacup. When they arrived, buses took them to local schools. 89 evacuees were taken to Northern Council School, as it was then. We reenacted the moment they arrived in the hall, from where new families would have taken them to their billets. We thought about what it must have been like for the children in this very building! Lots of us thought it was sad, nervous, some thought it might have been a big adventure!