Award
Young Roots, £24,800

Background
The Trafford Youth Service (TYS) took part in the National Trust’s Untold Story project, which was a project developed to open access to National Trust sites and properties. A group of young people worked on a photography project with the Quarry Bank Mill in Styal near Manchester, to create their own unique interpretation of the Mill. Everyone really enjoyed the experience and were inspired to do something similar.

The Quarry also wanted to work in partnership with the group again, and so the TYS set about developing a performance project idea. The original group of young people who worked on the National Trust project, were called back in to do some work on the stories and history related to the mill, and to explore how a performance would work. The TYS then worked with them to develop the proposal for funding.

Drawing on interactive workshops and research from the Liverpool Maritime Museum, the group explored the lives of two young women in history - Hetty, a slave working in Dominica, and Esther Price, an apprentice girl at Samuel Greg's mill in Styal. The group discovered that Samuel Greg, who owned the mill, also owned cotton plantations in the Dominican Republic.

They decided to create a performance piece that would explore and re-create the experiences of the two historical figures, whilst also drawing on their own lives and experiences living in Manchester today.

The TYS employed the skills of a director who had worked with the National Trust and an African American scriptwriter who had experience of writing about the black historical experience. Together they helped to shape and develop the production.

Project Outcomes
Hettie, Esther & Me is a drama exploring the links between a slave girl from the West Indies, a young mill worker in Styal, and a group of young women living in Trafford today.

Three performances of the play have been presented on the Quarry Bank Mill site, in an atmospheric production set in the dormitory of the old house. The TYS have had really positive reactions to the performances and project, and people who were moved by the experience wrote letters.

Generally the production made people think about the lives that the young girls would have led, the impact of being taken from one country to another, and the terrible ways that slaves were treated.

A script, video, and photographs of the performance are available as a legacy for future reference and work.