Pupils get state-of-the-art at Rochdale Interchange

Pupils from three Rochdale schools have teamed up to create a new artwork for passengers to contemplate as they catch their bus from the town’s new transport interchange

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Pupils from three Rochdale schools, Heybrook and Broadfield Primary Schools and Wardle High School, have teamed up to create new artwork for passengers to contemplate as they catch their bus from the town’s new transport interchange.

Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) arranged for over a hundred local pupils to help create a colourful prose-text artwork, with help from the Young Person’s Literature Champion for Rochdale, author Helen Walsh.

Heybrook and Broadfield Primary Schools and Wardle High School will all get a special mention on the bold new artwork, which will grace the glazed walls of the transport interchange when it opens later this year.

With Rochdale the home to the Co-operative movement, pupils were encouraged to consider values such as team-work and community, and think about transport and the environment.

Helen said: “It was a privilege to work with this dynamic and diverse group of young people to help create this artwork. We explored some important community themes in the workshops to help inspire them, and encourage them to think about both their own and Rochdale’s future.

“It’s a prose artwork but their concerns and future hopes come across in an insightful, intelligent and often amusing manner, with thoughts on everything from co-operatives, friendship and family; and their concerns for their environment and the society that they live in.”

Chairman of the TfGM Committee, Councillor Andrew Fender, added: “My thanks and congratulations go to the local pupils who have helped create this striking text artwork for Rochdale Interchange.

“It succeeds in being both profound and amusing, and the ‘Manifesto for Living’ will definitely give people something to think about while they wait for their bus.

“When it opens later this year, Rochdale Interchange will be a great community asset and an important architectural landmark for the area. I’m sure many of the students involved in this project will be using the interchange services for many years to come.”

Councillor Peter Williams, Rochdale Council’s cabinet member for economic development and customer services, said: “Anyone who has visited the town centre recently can see that the new transport interchange is quickly taking shape.

“Its sustainable merits speak for itself, using hydro-electricity which harnesses the power from the River Roch. We are proving that Rochdale is truly striving towards a greener future for the benefit of all. Improving our public transport offering is a key element of this.”