To enhance their knowledge about our wonderful local geography, Year 6 visited the Monsal Trail this week.
The focus of the visit was on how the Peak District’s dales and valleys were engineered for the construction of the former Midland railway line, which carried freight and passengers for nearly one hundred years. As the line was closed in 1968 and is now a public bridleway, it has made the perfect safe route to investigate the cuttings, embankments, viaduct and tunnels, and what better way, than to hire bikes and helmets and discover these feats engineering on two wheels?
Back in their geography classes, the children will link their work with OS map exploration, so that the intricate use of symbols can be fully explored and the local area’s physical geography examined from a cartographic perspective. They will also be considering the ingenious work of Isambard Kingdom Brunel on the Great Western Railway and how Box Hill was tunneled. The children will study why our local the railway was closed and conclude their project by debating how the route may be sustainably developed for future generations.
Year 6 were impeccably behaved throughout the trip, and managed to cycle without incident, stopping to record thorough notes and absorbing lots of fascinating information. Did you know that the limestone in Wyedale is 5 million years old?
