A re-enactment by a community railway of the evacuation of children during the Second World War has been honoured.

Last July’s event staged by Epping Ongar Railway (EOR) took schoolchildren from Barking and Dagenham dressed in period clothes by steam train to educate them about the experience of their wartime counterparts as they were moved out of east London.

The English Heritage award, presented by singer Billy Bragg at a ceremony last night, was especially poignant ahead of Remembrance Sunday, railway manager Rodger Green said.

It was an acknowledgement of the railway's contribution to the Heritage Schools Programme, which also taught the children about the borough’s industrial heritage and the men on Barking’s war memorial.

Accepting the award at a special ceremony in Barking, Mr Green said: “I was delighted to receive this award on behalf of the volunteers at the EOR who worked to give young people from the east London a sense of the sacrifices made by the British people in the Second World War."