DORSET’S New Hardy Players take a break from Thomas Hardy stories this year to bring to life – and new audiences – the true Dorset story of the men whose courage and sacrifice were the most important factors in the development of the English Trade Union movement. Six Men of Dorset will be performed in Dorchester from 13th to 16th June.

The performance will begin in Dorchester Corn Exchange and will move to the historic Courtroom in Shire Hall, where the Dorset farm-workers faced the trial which would become one of the major events in British industrial and social history.

In 1834, against a backdrop of extreme rural poverty and national turmoil, six lowly men found themselves facing the full wrath and power of the British establishment.

Commissioned by the TUC, 100 years after the  arrest of the six, this production of The Tolpuddle Play takes it back to its roots, with the first act at its original venue, Dorchester’s Corn Exchange, before processing up to Shire Hall Museum for the second act in the very courtroom where the Martyrs met their fate.

Under Tim Laycock and Emma Hill’s direction, this is guaranteed to be a spine-chilling, moving and immersive experience.