The Penistone Line Partnership celebrated National Storytelling Week (26 Jan – 6 Feb 2023) with a special event at Honley Library, delivering a train-themed story time session to families with preschool children.

On Friday 3 February, a dozen families attended the story time session from the villages of Berry Brow, Honley and Brockholes (all of which have stations along the Penistone Line), as well as a few families that attended from other areas of Huddersfield.

The story time was kindly hosted and supported by Kirklees Libraries, with Sarah Wells of the Penistone Line Partnership leading the library activities. Rebecca Edwards developed the poster for advertising the session, as well as the train activity table, which was thoroughly enjoyed by all the children. The pre-schoolers listened to simple train stories, sang train rhymes, dressed up, and had train tickets stamped to take home.

Parents were given free rail safety books for their child along with Penistone Line’s Days Out for Families guide, which was developed using activities from the 50 Things to Do Before You’re Five app to encourage experimental learning with activity ideas while at the station and on the train along the Penistone Line.

Sarah Wells, Community Rail Support Officer at Penistone Line Partnership, said: “Families gave feedback that they would love to bring their children to future community and on-train events, especially with an emphasis on interactive games, which the Penistone Line host to build rail confidence with younger children, whilst offering a fun day out.

“The story time session was really enjoyed by all, and I have three more community organisations wanting to work with Penistone Line via parents and people in the library!”

You can keep up to date with future news, projects and events from the Penistone Line Partnership via their website.