Community Rail Lancashire (CRL) and the West of Lancashire Community Rail Partnership have developed excellent relationships with a number of groups based in Rufford including the Rufford Village Society, who adopted Rufford station in 2017, and the Rufford CofE Primary School.
Prior to the pandemic years 5 and 6 at the primary school enjoyed several rail journeys to Preston to explore the superb Harris Museum & Art Gallery and worked with CRL on the ‘Make A Bee Line to the station’ project which also introduced them to the art of beekeeping and bee friendly plants – see communityraillancashire.co.uk/make-a-beeline-for-the-station/. The National Trust based at Rufford Old Hall also welcomed pupils from the school and helped them learn more about the history of the Hall.
As Rufford Old Hall is close to the station the Village Society thought it would be a good idea to promote this to passengers passing through the station and encourage them to ‘Make A Bee Line for the station’ in future. To achieve this two attractive running-in boards have been designed and are now proudly on show at the station. The boards feature local flora and fauna and encourage passengers to alight at the station for Rufford Old Hall.
For the future there are plans to display artwork produced by the school to showcase other local attractions- watch this space BUT in the meantime why not ‘Make A Bee Line for the Station’? Trains run every hour between Preston and Ormskirk on Mondays to Saturdays and Rufford Old Hall is a short 10 minute walk from the station. For more details about the Hall and opening times go to: www.nationaltrust.org.uk/rufford-old-hall.