We wouldn’t like to call the general public muggles, but those not in the know may consider many engineering achievements to be magical, which is why our current intake of Bridge Wardens Arkwright Scholars ended their two-year scholarships with a trip to Harry Potter World.
The Scholars, along with their families and previous beneficiaries of the Rochester Bridge Trust’s support, spent a day at the theme park enjoying the activities and learning about the engineering magic responsible for the excitement of theme parks and films.
Mentored Scholar Freddy Bott commented: “I was particularly impressed by the amount of work that goes into props after the initial construction is complete. For example in the magical forest you would expect that the majority of the work would be creating 30 foot high strips of bark. The part you don’t necessarily realise is the number of contrasting coats of paint and filler, followed by highlights and detail painting, followed by the application of small bits of moss and mushrooms and other details so that they look like trees rather than pieces of rubber with a pebbledash texture.”
This enthusiasm was echoed by the other scholars, who were each impressed by different engineering details that appealed to their relative specialisms.
Caroline Chisholm, Education Officer at the Rochester Bridge Trust, added: “From the highly-trained Scholars to the younger family members, everyone was fascinated by the scale of the models and the attention to detail. These models and technical drawings were an excellent example of engineering and how designers have to work to scale between 2D and 3D.”
This was the final trip in a busy two years of activities for the Scholars, who are now preparing to take their A-level exams. Although the young people’s official time with the Trust is now drawing to a close, they will be invited to keep in touch with the Trust and given the opportunity to continue to take part in activities and events to support their development as young engineers.