As part of her educational role, ‘Poplar’ returned to her London roots from 15th to 22nd June to spearhead an immersive National Curriculum-based programme involving local primary schools.
The project is a partnership between The Terrier Trust CIO, The Kent & East Sussex Railway (K&ESR) and Global Learning London (GLL), enabling children to learn about history – such as how railways transformed the way people live, science – including sources of energy and changing environmental considerations, while railway-themed stories, poems, music and drawing will help develop English, music and art skills.
Today ‘Poplar’ continues to regularly haul trains of vintage carriages for visitors to the K&ESR – the country’s first Light Railway – and on her visit to London the engine was based at the Docklands Light Railway – London’s modern light railway.
There she was visited by hundreds of local school children. Despite the triple challenges of a heatwave, a rail/underground strike, and continuing Covid out-breaks, seventeen primary school classes – accompanied by their teachers and assistants – were able to attend across six special school opening days.
A lasting legacy of the project will be the ongoing provision of the teaching material accompanied by a Resource box which will be available through Schools Library Services nationwide.
The educational programme has been funded thanks to a £33,000 grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Over the weekend of 18th and 19th June, members of the general public were able to book to visit ‘Poplar’ and, thanks to publicity by Time Out and community sites such as Poplar London, the event was an overwhelming success attracting well over 400 visitors.
Tom White, Chairman of The Terrier Trust, said, ‘Thanks to National Lottery players we have been able to create this ground-breaking education project centred on our newly restored locomotive ‘Poplar’ dating from 1872, the year of the first FA cup final. The Heritage Fund grant will allow many local children to have the experience of seeing and touching a real steam locomotive named after the area in which they live.’
Robin White is a Trustee of K&ESR and the architect of the idea to bring the locomotive to London. ‘The Kent & East Sussex Railway has run Terrier locomotives for a hundred and twenty years and loves to share them with visitors,’ she said. ‘It is a privilege and a pleasure to bring ‘Poplar’ to the capital and to make a connection with the people of London and young people of Tower Hamlets in particular. Everyone will be very welcome to come out to Kent to see ‘Poplar’ steaming through the countryside. And new volunteers are always welcome.’
The project is being delivered in close partnership with local schools and Steve Nyakatawa, Director of Education, London Borough of Tower Hamlets, was enthusiastic about the unusual visitor within the shadow of Canary Wharf: ‘Our children in Tower Hamlets have benefitted greatly from this project, which explores the history of steam locomotives in their area and strengthens their sense of place in the community. After much work in the classroom, it is both exciting for the children and reinforces their learning to now be able to visit the actual steam train that travelled through their city 150 years ago.’
The visit of the engine would not have been possible without the generous co-operation of the Docklands Light Railway. Tom Page, General Manager, said, ‘The DLR is all about connecting local communities and we take pride in engaging with local schools, especially as it provides an opportunity to talk about the importance of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects. The visit of the locomotive ‘Poplar’ to our depot is a thrilling chance to engage school children again and I’m proud of everyone making it happen.’
More photographs from the event can be seen in the Terrier Gallery – 2022
Terrier 150 