Far Horizon Voices are to perform a double bill in Warkworth Memorial Hall

One performance is actor-writer Dave Stockwin’s ‘Bevin Boys - The Forgotten Conscripts’, which deals with the experiences of three Bevin Boys from very different backgrounds who are reunited at a commemorative event. Meeting again after more than 50 years, they relive their wartime memories of life at the Cramlington Lamb Colliery, with honesty, warmth and humour.

Bevin Boys, named after leading trade unionist Ernest Bevin, were conscripted to work in coal mines from 1943 to increase the rate of coal production which had declined during the early years of the war. They were sometimes targets of abuse from those who mistakenly believed them to be conscientious objectors.

The second performance is recently-appointed Poet in Residence for Hauxley Wildlife Trust Paul Mein’s play ‘Eagle Child’, which came as a result of a story of a baby being snatched by an eagle and the discovery of an old family photograph which included an uncle he never knew.

Paul’s father and another uncle rarely mentioned the unknown uncle, but Paul discovered he was called John Mein and had been a rear gunner in a Halifax bomber. He was killed when his plane was shot down during the largest bombing raid over Mannheim, south west Germany on September 5, 1943 at age 26.

It was during a holiday cottage stay in the Cheviots that Paul came across a newspaper cutting which told the story of a child being snatched from its pram by an eagle. ‘Eagle Child’ builds on the imagined and real fascination that human beings with flight and is a play for voices in which these two stories are imaginatively and poignantly intertwined.

The script-read plays are to be staged at the Warkworth Memorial Hall as ‘Remembrance’ on November 9 and 10 at 7.30 pm. Tickets are £5 and can be obtained at Warkworth Post Office, N&F Young of Amble or by emailing [email protected].

A donation from the ticket proceeds will be given to the local branch of the Royal British Legion.