Our latest project celebrating Railway 200 culminated in a wonderful performance of Rocket - The Past, The Present, The Future at The Fratry, Carlisle Cathedral by GCSE students from William Howard School, Brampton and singer songwriters, Gareth and Bronwen Davies-Jones.

With the support of Avanti West Coast, we sought to undertake a project celebrating the final working days of Stephenson's Rocket.  It is well known that Rocket was built in Newcastle,  but less well known that the locomotive ended its working days hauling minerals at Brampton. 

Gareth and Bronwen led the project helping students to learn and write lyrics for a song about the history of Rocket, from success at the Rainhill Trials in 1829 to it's use at Brampton from 1837 until its abandonment in 1840.  Some twenty years later, Rocket was donated to the nation and since then has been on display at the Science Museum, National Railway Museum and at Locomotion at Shildon. Stephenson's Rocket led to inspired further innovation in locomotive design and today, technology and design continues to develop in the railway industry.  

Watch the performance of the three songs, The Past, The Present and The Future on our YouTube channel