During 2023 Year 5 pupils at St Paul’s Church of England Primary School and Hippings Methodist Primary School have been working hard on a new artwork for Church and Oswaldtwistle Station. Working with professional artist Alastair Nicholson they experimented with different techniques and media and identified the highlights of their local area they’d like to include. With the title being This Is US! the pupils themselves feature in the artwork too! 

Over the summer holiday Alastair worked hard to put the artworks together to create the display at the station which was installed by Community Rail Lancashire Officers with help from the Rotary Club. With the artwork up it was time to invite the pupils and teachers to come and take a look at the final pieces and spot their contributions. We were joined by members of the community, rail employees, Mike Cliffe (Chair of the East Lancashire and Clitheroe Line CRP) and local councillor. The weather wasn’t always kind to us during this project with Hippings pupils heading out on a trip in torrential rain but the station looks fantastic this time of year with all the wonderful flowers cared for by a local station friends’ group and having the artwork really brings it all together. 

A special thank you and well done for pupils who gave speeches at the lunch party afterwards and to Cath Heap, Rotakids who has done a fantastic job of coordinating the project, and the school staff – especially Emma, Leah, Shaun and Mrs T. 

We hope that the children will enjoy taking their families and friends to the station to see their artwork and hopefully be inspired to take a Northern train journey too!