People’s War (Tin Hats ‘n Telegrams), 1987 Tin Hats’n’Telegrams was a large scale community play initiated by High Peak Community Arts as part of The People’s War Project. It aimed to research, record and present the experience of ordinary people during World War Two in the Sett Valley, providing an opportunity to work with older

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Who Shot Big Ted, 1986 Who Shot Big Ted? Was a play devised and produced by members of the Fairfield Centre Youth Drama Group in Buxton. The plot involved characters from the TV programme Play School on a work to rule, a presenter mysteriously disappearing, a threatening letter, and blood and stuffing in the sand

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  Merry Christmas Mr Trash, 1985 Merry Christmas Mr Trash was a pantomime produced by Hayfield Youth Club. It told the story of Doomslayer, who wanted to ruin Christmas, battling with Mr Trash – a dustbin man who turns into a superhero called Superbinner. It was written by members of Hayfield Theatrical Company and performed

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Grids playscheme, 1985

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Mrs Higginbotham’s Bridge, 1984 In 1984 New Mills celebrated the centenary of the High Level Union Bridge, a bridge across the Torrs linking New Mills with New Mills Newtown, with a series of events including Mrs Higginbotham’s Bridge. This was a musical documentary looking at the fortunes of four teenagers living in 1884 and 1984

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Commutiny on the Bounty, 1983 Commutiny On The Bounty was an ambitious project involving over 70 children aged from four to sixteen in a performance based on Mutiny On The Bounty. A series of workshops in music, drama, games and costume making was followed by a three hour open air performance that travelled from Buxworth

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Kick One and They All Limp, 1982 Kick One and They All Limp was a musical drama production written and researched by New Mills Youth Centre. It presented the history of New Mills in a series of flashbacks in which a grandmother told her granddaughter things that she remembered and stories she was told as

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A performance of Cinderella, 1981, with Clare Torkington, Nidge Gregory. Bill Clemo and Belinda Dawson. Drama projects featured heavily in the early years of High Peak Community Arts, and this is a newspaper cutting about a production of Cinderella. It was the first pantomime to be produced by members of New Mills Youth Centre who

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Suitcase Circus, 1980 High Peak Community Arts began in 1980 and for the first three years it organised a Suitcase Circus in the school holidays. These were designed to develop children’s abilities in music, drama and circus skills and took place at Chinley Youth Centre and Whaley Bridge Primary School. Not sure if this type

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