Pupils develop crows' foot trail of Westport

PUPILS at a Westport primary school have developed a crows' foot trail of the town.

Crows' feet are benchmarks that denote height above sea level and were engraved on buildings all around the country by the Ordnance Survey in the 1830s when the first detailed mapping of the country was undertaken.

The trail was developed by fifth and sixth class students at Holy Trinity National School and it is available online as well as in brochure format.

The school has been awarded a Heritage Keepers Award for their project, details of which are available to view at Westport Town Hall Theatre.

Speaking at the launch, teacher Meriel Donaghy explained how the project began with a pilot programme called Heritage Keepers, a place-based learning programme facilitated by Burrenbeo Trust and funded by the Heritage Council of Ireland.

Five workshops were held with Mary Dillon from Burrenbeo who led the children in an exploration of the natural, built, cultural and environmental heritage through a local lens, looking at archaeological remains in the area, surveying biodiversity along the Carrowbeg River, reading up on local folklore and beliefs from the Schools Folklore Collection of 1937-38, examining local placenames on historic OS maps using Heritagemaps.ie and inquiring into family records from the Census of 1901 and 1911 online at the National Archives.

Then came the difficult task of selecting one area to focus on, and finding an action that the children could take to enhance their own place, or to preserve, promote or improve an aspect of their heritage.

Their ideas were brilliant, she said, and could fuel a whole year’s worth of place-based learning. Suggestions included: making a comic book about Gráinne Mhaol; placing pollinator-friendly flower boxes on the windowsills of derelict buildings; restoring the old water pumps around the town for people to be able to refill reusable water bottles; gathering old recipes into a book; creating a calendar of local flora and fauna; doing a local clean-up and recycling the waste into a piece of art.

It was decided to create a treasure hunt of the historic buildings of Westport, with the pupils understandably keen that what they would do would be appealing to other children.

Said Ms. Donaghy: “With this in mind, I recalled a knock at my classroom door a number of years previously when surveyors from the OSI came looking for access to the patio at the back of the school. They were checking on a benchmark engraved into the building there.

“This crow’s foot carving intrigued me and the surveyors’ explanation of it led me to the 6’ and 25’ historic maps of Ireland. The benchmarks were intrinsic in the making of these maps and a network of them are marked on the maps linking every street and laneway across the country.

“Back to now and the children beginning their project, I thought perhaps the crows’ feet would make a child friendly link into the treasure hunt of the town. When I showed the children the mark on our own building they were hooked.”

Using 21st century technology to view 19th century maps the children navigated the streets of Westport, iPads in hand, painstakingly pinpointing where crows’ feet are still visible. Back in the classroom they created clever clues to lead others to these points.

They researched the history of crows’ feet and read up on the buildings and structures they found them on, wrote their own accounts of them, adding a personal note to each, reminding us of continuity in time, and that our surroundings have a past, a present and a future, not yet carved in stone.

They took photographs, made drawings, and worked through the process of planning how to present the treasure hunt.

Thanking all who assisted the pupils along the way, she commented: “They have created this wonderful resource for the people of Westport and visitors to our town. We hope that it is something that will continue to have impact in the future.”

The local Chamber of Commerce are going to fund a reprint of the brochure and the Mayo Heritage Office have also come onboard to fund further printing.

“It is rewarding and encouraging to know that others see value in this project also,” she added.