Blog post by Brutish Multitude member Dawn France, written September 2108.
1643. The English civil war. And people in Heptonstall were torn… to fight? Who for? To flee? To stay put? Who to trust? Who to believe?.. We are hill farmers and weavers of cloth…
And now it’s 2018, 375 years later. We, the Brutish Multitude, a small group of people who love living in this hilltop village, would like to introduce you to the people who walked these fields, moors and woods before us. To tell the human story.
Our vision is to dive into the rich history, to tell, sometimes for the first time, the story of the folk who lived and worked here, who called this place home, like we do now. We’d love for you to get a greater sense of connection with the village though our stories.
I live in one of the oldest weavers cottages, it dates back to the 1600s, probably earlier… is it haunted? Yes for sure. If you listen in carefully… shhhh… you can still here the sound of the shuttle going back and forth, weaving its magic. It’s all here. We are just hoping to throw a bit of light into some dark old corners. To give the spirits a voice, through our re-telling of the tale.
Listening to the first read through this week with the cast… it’s starting to come to life… The first threads of the cloth that is our play have been spun…