We’d found some initials scratched into the woodwork amongst the brickwork, so we put an advert in the paper asking people to come forward if they knew who they belonged to, and some people did contact us when the mill first opened. But the way we’ve written the story, we’ve been a bit careful about the names we use, because we didn’t want anybody to be offended or upset.

It’s not that anyone was a bad character, all they did was come out on strike because they couldn’t live on the pittance they were being paid. But striking was virtually unheard of at that time. It just happened that there was a chap in the town at the time called Ruffey Ridley, who was a Chartist and got everybody together to make a protest.

There was never really a "riot", and within a week everyone went back to work. What happened was that the mayor and the mill owners were worried when they saw a large crowd gathering. There were about a
thousand people and they were getting boisterous, and some windows were broken. But the situation was inflamed by the authorities bringing in a regiment of the Scots Greys and the Ilminster Yeomanry to curb the "rioters".

It’s only a short walk, taking people round seven benches in the town, where they can sit down and listen to each part of the story near to where it actually happened. They’ll be able to pick up a portable machine from the Tourist Information Centre, with a narrator giving directions how to get to the next bench. It will also be possible to buy a CD of the whole play, without the walking directions.

So far we’ve finished the scriptwriters’ workshop and this afternoon (February 24, 2005) we are having the handover of the official script. There were five writers who created a scene each. We recruited them by advertising in local papers, putting posters in libraries, and sending off directly to local writers’ circles and bookshops.

The youngest is 18, the oldest 50-something. When the 18-year-old walked in I think he was a bit overawed because some of the others had already had things published, but it’s been a great learning curve for him, and he has also expressed an interest in acting.

It’s been a really interesting thing to do, everybody was so excited by it and has gone away and done lots of research. We’ve all mucked in with finding out facts and checking that everything is historically accurate.

We’re using a professional sound recording company, but the actors are local people of all ages who came to auditions. Over 100 people are involved so far. One challenge we had to overcome was that there are not a lot of female characters in the play itself, because the key people involved in the historical events were all men, like the mayor and the lace mill owners. So we’ve had to write in parts for the women and the children, and we also wanted to make sure it could be understood and enjoyed by very young children.

Junior school children come and do walks around the town, drawing where the shops and factories are, and I’ve given little children tours of the lace mill in the past. That’s one of the reasons it all came about, I thought it would be nice to have the tour written down for them in a proper way.

I work in the community office in the town and this project has used all my community skills, linking people together and getting people doing things. It’s been very interesting to work on a project in such a planned way. When I look back and think how a couple of years ago Jill and I sat in a room and said “Let’s do a little walk”!

Unfortunately, Jill died a year ago, when she was about halfway through writing the first scene. But it’s really taken off from there, and if she is looking down on us from somewhere, I know how much she would just love the way things are turning out and how so many people have become involved.

This project has definitely made local people more aware of their history, and it has certainly brought the lace mill to life.