| Activity summary: |
- Pupils compare maps past and present and identify the changes that have taken place in the local street patterns
- They ask local residents to share their memories of what it was like to live in the streets at that time
- The activity involves pupils marking out the old street patterns in the school playground or the hall
- Pupils can mark on their street plan where they and other members of the community live
- Links can be made with National Curriculum schemes of work:
Art & Design: Unit 6C A Sense of Place, Unit 2C Can Buildings Speak?
ICT: Unit 5B Analysing Data
History: Unit 18 What was it like to live here in the past?
Geography: Unit 1 Making connections, Unit 5 Exploring England, Unit 6 Investigating our local area, Unit 25 Geography & numbers, Unit 1 KS3 Around our school and the local area
- Extension tasks:
Art & Design: Abstraction; develop the street patterns and names into repeated printed designs on fabric.
Make an artefact out of the fabric that reflects absence or symbolises an aspect of life in the past.
Literacy: Research the history of the local area. Write a story about what it might have been like to live in the neighbourhood in the past.
Geography: Investigate street patterns in another area/contrasting context and compare findings.
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| Introduction:
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This activity was designed by Salford artist Leslie Holmes working with
artist Marie Cash and 88 Year 5 pupils from St Clements CE, Radclyffe
Community, and St Joseph's RC primary schools, in Salford, Greater Manchester.
The project, 'Painting the Ordsall Triangle,' was funded by Architecture Week 2002.
Since 1922, 95% of the local streets in this inner-city area have been demolished.
Most of the churches remain yet only one of the original 83 pubs. The pupils
looked at old maps and marked out the streets that were located on the site
of their playing fields. Older members of the community visited the school and
shared their memories of life in the streets at that time.
The entire Ordsall Triangle was mapped onto the gym floor of Salford Lad's
Club, with help from Year 10 pupils from Hope High School. More than 1000
people visited the event and marked where they had lived onto the 11x10
metre map. All the estate's 83 original pubs were also added. The project
served to acknowledge the dramatic changes and redevelopment that had taken
place in the neighbourhood, commemorate the memories of times past and celebrate the local heritage.
Photographs by Jonathan Purcell and Bernadette Wright.
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| Lesson Plan:
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1. Introduce maps past and present
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Compare maps and identify the changes in the street patterns. (Maps of Ordsall in 2000 and 1922) |
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Ask pupils to trace a section of each map on separate sheets of tracing
paper using different colours and overlay them to see the changes.
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2. Ask local community members to participate
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Bring the project alive by asking older members of the local community, family or
friends to share their memories of life in the streets and compare them with life now.
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Consider what elements contribute to a sense of community; places of worship, pubs, schools, shops. What has changed?
(Keywords: street patterns, development, regeneration, sustainable housing, community)
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3. Use a simple form...
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Using a simple form ask pupils to collect as many names and addresses of people who used to live in the streets in the area |
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4. Measure the width of the streets, buildings, alleyways
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Divide into small groups and measure the width of the surrounding streets, houses and alleyways. |
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Ask pupils to stand in a line using outstretched arms.
Ask them to log their findings.
Convert findings into an appropriate scale for the playground or hall e.g. one pupil = 100 cm
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5. Map a section of the streets in the playground/playing field
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Select a section of the old map and divide it into equal sections
using a simple grid. Using the scale, map out the main streets using chalk,
stakes or bricks and plastic barrier tape. |
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Divide pupils into smaller groups and divide the sections into houses.
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6. Map an area in the school hall
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Select a section of the old map and divide it into equal sections using a grid.
Using an appropriate scale, map out the main streets using masking tape. |
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7.Add the remaining streets
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8.Divide the streets into houses
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9. Paint the sections
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Using paint infill the areas mapped out with masking tape. |
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10. The final map
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Remove the masking tape to leave the painted blocks. |
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11.Using a pink marker pen add the names of the streets
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12.Add the names of the people who lived in the streets in white
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Recommendations:
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- The intention is that this project would be adapted into an activity appropriate for the school timetable
(this version took 12 days to make).
- The support of a classroom assistant or parents is helpful.
- Alternatively the project could be led by a local artist.
- Contact the local planning department, local builders and architects for help with making the map. (Salford and
Trafford EAZ helped co-ordinate the project with local companies.)
- Streets could be mapped out in the playground using chalk.
- Wooden stakes and plastic barrier tape (Zebra tape) can be sourced from a large builders merchants such as Wicks or Travis Perkins.
- Alternative materials for the map could be to create it on large paper, or builders' sheet plastic, securely taped to the
floor, string can be helpful when marking out the long lines.
- Local maps can be sourced from the local planning department, library or HMSO bookshop.
- Past residents can be sourced from the local library for a current register of electors and the local history library for
a past register of electors.
- Collecting names: question forms can be left in local shops, the library and sent home via other classes.
- Use Excel to create a simple database of names, these can then be sorted by street, odd or even house number.
- The involvement of the local community was an integral in bringing the past alive.
- The final map could be used as the focus for a public event.
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Photographer: Jonathan Purcell
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| Make buildings Demonstration |
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| Find a map and highlight an area |
Compare street patterns past & present |
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| Apply a simple grid |
Select an area where the school is.
Orange=school grounds, Red=school |
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| Ask members of the community to visit |
Find out where people used to live |
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| Measure width of streets and buildings |
Gather mallets, gloves, stakes & tape |
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| Map out a street/streets in the grounds |
Label the streets |
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| Divide the street into houses |
Clear up at the end! |
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| Plan the scale of the map to be painted |
Mark out the main streets with masking tape |
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| Follow the gridded sections on the map |
Add houses to the spaces in-between |
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| Fill in the gaps with paint |
Use the masking tape as the guide |
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| Remove the tape and add street names |
Add the names of residents |
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| Completed map |
Share it with the community |
| Work completed by 88 Year 5 pupils at
St Clements CE, Radclyffe Community, and St Joseph's RC primary schools,
in Salford, Manchester and Year 10 pupils at Hope High School. |
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| What they said about it
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| Responses by the Ordsall Community
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"The children had a great time marking out the old streets on their
school playing fields but were shocked to discover that the toilets
were outside and nobody had a garden to play in."
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| Leslie Holmes, Artist
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"I found out that at one stage 300 children lived on one street!"
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| Emma Benjamin, Walker Simpson Architects
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"It took us two evenings to place all the 83 pubs on the map and then we could only agree on 82."
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| Brian Ball, Secretary of Salford Lad's Club, who grew up on the street with 300 children
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"Regeneration of people and not just the area is important for sustainability. Salford is our major
base and we would like to return something back to our local community."
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| David Pelham, Amec Developments
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"Beautiful and poignant."
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| Noah Rose, Old Trafford
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"Gives a very graphic view of the density of the housing then."
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| Jonathon Dale, Coronation Street, Ordsall
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"It brought back wonderful memories of my life in Pritchard Street and Cass Street."
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| Margaret Fagan, Salford (Margaret sent a letter listing everyone who lived in Pritchard Street,
this was one of the streets bombed during World War 2)
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"Very evocative and informative, it helps to keep a valuable heritage alive."
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| Peter Quigley, from Eccles, a former resident who grew up in Ordsall
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"Fascinating, excellent way of bringing community history to life."
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| Ross Spanner, Ordsall Neighbourhood Office
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RIBA Architect in the House
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