A GROUP of actors swapped rehearsals for a visit to a former textile mill to get a feel for life working in the cotton industry of 1900s Lancashire.

Next week, Hindle Wakes opens at the Octagon Theatre, Bolton — Stanley Houghton's play which was one of the first to have a working class female central character.

Natasha Davidson, who plays mill worker Fanny Hawthorn, and Tristan Brooke, who is mill owner’s son Alan Jeffcote, were among the eight cast members who soaked up the atmosphere at Helmshore Mills Textile Museum, Rossendale.

David Thacker, the Octagon's artistic director, said: "I think it's very helpful for the cast to get a sense of the world in which the play is set.

"Because most of the characters in the play are now working in a mill or have worked in a mill — from the weaver Fanny to the mill owner — it gives all of us a chance to imagine what it was really like."

In Lancashire in 1912 — the year the play is set — there were 800,000 looms weaving cloth, 750,000 people working in the textile industry and as many again working in jobs which depended on it.

Exploring the mill, which was originally built in 1820 and closed in 1978, Miss Davidson learnt about what her character would have worn, the dangerous and uncomfortable working conditions and the camaraderie among the women.

The actors also saw the original machinery at work in the carding and spinning room.

Miss Davidson, who is appearing in the Octagon's current production of A View from the Bridge, said: "It was good to see how much responsibility the girls had.

"It surprised me to see how many machines one girl would operate. I can just imagine her, she is so strong and independent. "

Hindle Wakes was considered to be hugely controversial when first performed in 1912, rejecting outdated attitudes and championing the role of women as they embarked on a new era of independence and freedom.

Set in the fictitious Lancashire town of Hindle, it takes place at the end of Wakes Week — the traditional Northern holiday following the industrial revolution when tradesmen, labourers and mill workers were granted a brief holiday while the cotton mills and factories were closed for maintenance.

Hindle Wakes is at the Octagon from Thursday, February 19, to Saturday, March 21.