The Young Lewisham Project

Here is a Kids are Alright story from the kids themselves!

lewisham Kids

• JohnNewman
• Youth
• DaveNewman

Here is another little news story about kids and motorcycles. If you are wandering through the leafy 'burbs of Forest Hill in South East London of an evening and you hear chickens clucking, engines burbling and the sizzle of bicycle frame metal being welded, you may have just stumbled across the very industrious members of the Young Lewisham Project in action.  What you can hear is the sound of kids, aged between thirteen and twenty, having a very nice time while learning how to do all sorts of useful things.
One example of a project they recently got involved in concerns a moped, a homemade sidecar with built-in chicken shed and a rescued chicken called Morley - intrigued? - here's the story, told by the kids themselves...

Since November we have been attending the Young Lewisham Project every Tuesday evening. We learn about motorbike mechanics. Between us (Jesse, Ollie, Billy & Jordan) we came up with the idea to build a moped and sidecar, showing everything that the Young Lewisham Project does.We made the sidecar from a bicycle frame and built a wooden chicken shed to go on it.


Once the frame was together we sanded and painted it. The  the plants were added: cucumbers, strawberries, pansies and tomatoes. We then mounted some gardening tools on the front of the shed.


On June 28th we went up to Lincoln to the National Youth Bike Awards, a bike show for young people.

There were various categories and lots of interesting projects. Competition was fierce but we had a secret weapon in the shape of our live chicken that even laid an egg!

We won “Best Use of Non Motorcycle Parts”, thanks to Morley our chicken, as well as “Best Newcomers”. The show was great fun and the whole process taught us loads: mechanics, carpentry, gardening and chicken keeping.


If there are any young people who might be interested in this type of project, find the Young Lewisham Project on facebook and get in touch.

Young Lewisham Project