Get Coggin’ on... (From St Helens Star)

Get Coggin’ on...

1:57pm Friday 31st July 2009

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If you like Monopoly and board games in general. you will love “Coggin’ On”, the new St Helens Trolleybus Heritage Board Game. It was designed by local artist Bernadette Hughes with assistance from myself and others.

You start at one of the seven Trolleybus turning circles, Dentons Green, Moss Bank, Haydock, Parr, St Helens Junction, Ackers Lane, or the Prescot circle.

Each player is given three Mission Cards, for example “Go to the Penny Crush at the Parr Dog, the local nickname for the cinema”, or “Go and get Holy Water for your family from Lowe House Church”. Each card contains additional information and quite often the quote from senior citizens that triggered the mission.

There are both Positive and Disaster Squares en route, for example “Peasley Cross Bridge flooded”, and, if you leave the route and cross country, you may meet Ginny Greenteeth, or the Griffin, or Hell Bess of Hell Bess Lane, or be eaten by the Piranhas in the Hotties.

If you land on a Coggin’ On square, the person on your left picks up a Coggin On card and reads the question to you, for example, what was “coggin on”?

A – Jumping on the bus when the conductor wasn’t looking or was upstairs, to ride a few stops before jumping off or getting thrown off?

B – A miner’s term for a piece of the Pit Head machinery?

C – The term used for the start of a shift at work?

The game is aimed at children aged 7 to 11 and is intended as a teaching resource. It was designed by children themselves, with Bernie’s assistance. It provides local schools with a tool they can use in the classroom as part of the national curriculum, allowing children to find out a little bit about their local history.

It is suitable for both Key Stage 2 and 3.

The first batch of sets you cannot buy. Any St Helens Primary School can have one for free. So can any Community Centre, Hospital Ward, young groups such as the Guides, or any other similar or mixed adult/children group.

See the contact details and contact the CEN office. Hopefully we will have more in time for Christmas, for sale to individuals, groups and organisations. The game was produced as part of a larger project about Trolley Buses that has been supported by the Heritage Lottery.

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