We were delighted to have some special visitors at our session on Wednesday 20th March 2013. Gemma Reed, Community Events Officer and Helen Barker, Head of Community Participation from Beamish Museum conducted an educational workshop to help our students understand the dangers miners faced. The young people were very keen to explore and understand the lives of miners and children that would have been a similar age when they were working down the mines.
The workshop included:
A demonstration of how explosions in the mines would have occurred and what happened when they did. The young people were amazed by the experiments and couldn‘t believe how easy it was for an explosion to occur. The picture to the right shows how coal dust would ignite if there was an explosion in the mine.
The picture to the left shows Ian from Beamish Museum with items such as a potato masher, old fashioned water bottle, pit ponies slippers and masks that would have been used in the everyday lives of miners and families. The children had to guess what the items were for before Ian explained how they were used.
The children also had the chance to create their very own miners banner. After deciding on which colours should be used (as each colour holds a special meaning) the children got to work painting the Enter CIC Ferryhill Mining Banner (pictured right bottom).
At the end of the workshop we presented our guests with a few numbers from The Wind Road Boys. The Beamish staff were overwhelmed by the standard of performance and are very much looking forward to seeing our young people perform at the Gala Theatre in June.
We would like to thank Gemma, Helen, Ian and Beamish Museum for providing the informative workshop that is very close to our hearts in the lead up to The Wind Road Boys production.
At Enter CIC we feel it is very important for our young people to learn about their local heritage. With the educational opportunities we provide we hope the knowledge gained can connect the young people to the communities they live in. Take a look at some photographs from the workshop below.
