During May the Friends of Handforth Station (FoHS) created a display to commemorate the 180th anniversary of the Manchester to Sandbach railway line. This triggered a request from the 1^st Wilmslow Cub Scouts to visit Handforth Station.

Accordingly, FoHS arranged for Northern Trains to provide the cubs with a complimentary return rail journey to Handforth. Accompanied by their leaders, the cubs boarded the 19.16 train from Wilmslow to Handforth.

On arrival at 19:19 the cubs were met by two members of FoHS who provided platform safety instructions before giving them a guided tour of Handforth station.

The cubs admired the station’s vintage running-in boards, planters made by the 1st Handforth Scouts, sculptures and totems in the Rotary Club Garden and the various posters and banners celebrating both the 180th anniversary of the railway line and the recent Platinum Jubilee.

FoHS then took the Cubs to Handforth Youth Centre, where they heard more details about the 180-year old railway line (see “Cubs Talk” on www.handforthstation.org.uk). The cubs asked some particularly searching questions during the presentation.

After being presented with a souvenir commemorative train headboard, some photographs and some certificates, the cubs caught the 20.25 train back to Wilmslow.

Georgina Dunn, Leader of 1st Wilmslow Cub Scout group said “Our cubs enjoyed learning about the history of the rail line in this 180th anniversary year. The station looks immaculate and is testament to the great work done by the Friends of Handforth Station for the benefit of the local community”.

To mark  ‘Community Rail Week’ 2022, Alderley Edge Station Volunteer Group created some unique new planters for the station.

They used  an old pallet and a kitchen shelf unit found in a skip and repurposed two plastic grit bins  deemed surplus to Northern Trains future requirements.

During lockdown the Group had purchased some  traditional wooden planters and some half barrel planters funded by grants and donations.

Group Chair Kelvin Briggs said:

“Group members felt it was time to be bold and think outside the box to acquire more planters.  We decided to  tackle the challenge of up-cycling waste items in to planters and combine the activity  with Community Rail Week. We invited members of ‘Time Out Group’ a local group for  young adults with learning disabilities to ‘Give the Train a Try’ and travel  from Handforth Station  to help plant herbs in the new  planters , enjoy a picnic lunch and socialise with  our volunteers and guests from Northern Trains and the Community Rail Network.”

Northern Trains had recently announced that they were organising a ‘Grit Bin Challenge,  a fun competition for station adopters  to repurpose and up-cycle old yellow plastic grit bins no longer required for operational use. Northern’s maintenance contractor, ISS kindly released the bins from their corroded fixings and volunteers pressure cleaned the hard plastic bins and drilled drainage holes.

Thick ‘Night Blue’ paint was applied and volunteers transformed the waste items in to bright blue planters with drain holes and dressed them with stickers, signage and hand painted features using acrylic paints and pens.

The young adults planted up the recycled kitchen plate rack, filling it up with peat-free compost and a mix of herbs and perennial plants. Some enthusiastic watering followed and painted stones were  added to the planters depicting the names of the herbs and the groups involved in the project.

A picnic lunch was enjoyed by all before Martin Clarke from the Community Rail Network treated the happy gathering to some violin Ceilidh music. Time Out Group then took the train back to Handforth with warm smiles and requests to come back soon.

The pallet herb planter was added a few days later . This involved  a few design revisions but finally it was fixed to a wall behind the Manchester  platform and planted up.

Kelvin added:
“ What a fun time we had making the planters and engaging with the Time Out group. The next challenge is to keep the planters  all watered and stocked with plants all year round. We are seeking new volunteers to join us and help make the station a more welcoming place. Another key goal is convincing Network Rail and Northern Trains that a renovation and repaint of the station is long overdue.”