Year 9 Athenaeum enjoyed hearing about about the historical and economic geography of West Yorkshire in preparation of their upcoming visit. Mr Beattie the School Archivist and Geography teacher presented the places the students will be visiting and placing them in historical context; the Youth Hostel they will stay in was a former Mill owner’s house and the Five Rise Lock at Bingley demonstrated both a high degree of engineering skill and the importance of the Leeds Liverpool canal.
The students gained a sense of the changing fortunes of the county with the rise and fall of the textile industry and coal mining, to the resurgence of Leeds as a financial and tourist centre. The session equipped the students with a meaningful sense of context ahead of their visit.