Creativity around canals with schoolchildren

Image Credit: MBBC Society; Canal at River Irwell, 1901

It was lovely to be invited by Walk The Plank to return to St Philips School in Salford in 2025 to create a piece with a new class of Year 5 pupils (age 8-9) inspired by Manchester Bolton and Bury Canal Society’s oral histories.

Following on from the amazing creation with Year 5 pupils last year,  “Don’t Disrupt the Animals”, this year we turned our attention to the humans who worked and lived on the canals last century, as told by 4 people whose lives revolved around the canal.

Fellow sound artist Anne-Louise Kershaw digitised the oral histories from cassette tape last year. I cleaned up and re-mastered snippets for the children to be inspired by. We talked about the history of the canal, played spot the difference comparing pictures old and new and then they scripted and recorded their impressions of the oral history accounts. They wanted upbeat music and appropriate sound effects like the water and the horse. I think their empathy and curiosity shines bright.

 This project was all about the Manchester, Bury and Bolton Canal. It actually went through Salford but they didn’t think Salford sounded as sexy as Manchester when they were looking for investment to build the canal. It is the Salford section of the canal that we are animating here, for an 8 location sound walk taking place in May 2024. I co-created a piece with school children, unlocking their imaginations as they create characters who are part of the non-human community by the old canal. My location is truly hidden and without water, it just looks like a derelict end of a road next to rubbish tips and scrapyards. But as one child narrates, this place may seem “drab, but it is in fact teeming with life…just not human ones”. The other 7 locations were animated with music and audio by a lovely bunch of Salford/Greater Manchester artists and fellow European collaborating artists. 

Part of the project is about European collaborations, which have been hindered somewhat since Brexit and Covid for many of us. I was matched with Wytse Dijkstra who is from Leeuwarden in North Netherlands – a city rich in canals. As part of the cultural exchange, I visited Leeuwarden, travelling by train.