News Archive

An industrious trip

11 April 2008

Not even gale-force winds and driving rain could dampen the spirits of Year 7 as they set off for Bradford on the 10th March 2008. Having spent the whole of the Spring Term learning about the Industrial Revolution and planning the detail of who would share a room with whom, the pupils were not going to allow the worst storms of the winter to get in their way. The Bradford Trip has become something of a rite of passage for 12-year-olds at St Bede’s and this year was no exception.
Conquering fears of deep, dark places, the children donned their hard hats and miners’ lamps for the gradual descent into the bowels of the earth at Caphouse Colliery. There they experienced the loneliness and misery of the small trapper at the door, and imagined the scratchings and scurryings of rats in the absolute darkness. What better way to develop empathy for the plight of children in that bygone generation?
One can only marvel at the ingenuity of those early engineers in overcoming the obstacles that stood in the way of industrial development. Our visit to the five-rise locks at Bingley drove home the point that these were no ordinary engineers working in extraordinary times. The tranquillity of the Leeds-Liverpool Canal these days belies the hustle and bustle of a place hectic with laden barges, and yet the marvel of the canal network and the locks remain as a testimony to people who dared to think differently. This year we were fortunate to happen upon a barge working its way through the locks, and the children were able to lend a little muscle-power to opening up the gates!
In spite of the abject misery of most industrial towns, the Industrial Age did have its more benevolent employers and our visit to Sir Titus Salt’s Saltaire made this point very clear. Surrounding the dominant Salt’s Mill, employing around 3,000 people at the height of its activity, stands the evidence of a well-considered, gentle arrangement of a church, houses, school, library, as well as the necessity of the canal and the railway station. However, Salt’s benevolence did not stretch to a pub, drinking being an evil that this staunch Congregationalist would not countenance, so the innovative, recent addition of the pub named “Don’t Tell Titus!” raised a laugh for our group. This year we were treated to a talk in the church by the Victorian, Reverend Cowan, which provided useful insights into Salt and his ideas.
In contrast, our visit to Haworth, home of the famous literary Brontë family, was a stark reminder of the precariousness of life in those times. Aside from the wonderful achievements of the various members of this family, the brevity of their lives before they one after another succumbed to consumption, brought home to us what life could be like without the medical advances we enjoy now. This was reinforced by our exploring the atmospheric graveyard, its tall trees rustling in the cold winter wind and the crows squawking, and discovered a family grave listing up to six children who had died in infancy or at only a few years old. Tuberculosis, cholera, typhoid - the lack of sanitation and the hilltop site of Haworth were a headache for the health inspectors of the time. In order to clear our heads and move on from all of this misery, we ended our Haworth visit with a brisk walk onto the moors – playground of the Brontë children and inspiration for their wonderful imaginations.
No trip to the Bradford area would be complete without considering the centrality of the textile industry to the Industrial Revolution. Our visit to the Bradford Industrial Museum, its huge halls filled with spinning and weaving machines, and its ground floor devoted to working steam engines, gave us an appreciation of people’s working lives. The noise of just one machine in operation was deafening, so it was possible to imagine the unbearable din in a fully-operational mill of the time. What is more, the physical dangers of all of these exposed working parts – no health and safety there – were evident to us all.
Of course our trip was not all work! The pupils had a thoroughly enjoyable time in the evenings, ten-pin bowling and ice-skating, not to mention the fun of staying at the Bradford Campanile Hotel, with its excellent food and comfortable rooms. A good time was had by all.


Janet Frame
Head of Integrated Studies