Welcome to Traces
What happens when star-crossed lovers like Romeo and Juliet don’t die, but live to fight the world? This is Charlotte Deans’ true story. At the age of seventeen she fell in love with an actor, was locked in her bedroom by angry parents, escaped and eloped with her lover to Gretna Green. That was only the beginning of a life packed with adventure. She joined a travelling theatre, tramped all over the northern counties, had seventeen children, lived to the age of ninety and wrote her own story, which was lost for two hundred years.

Traces was a collaboration between two rural touring schemes, Spot On in Lancashire and Highlights in the North Pennines. Inspired by Charlotte’s story we felt that there must be other tales hidden away in our rural communities.

This website documents a creative journey beginning with Charlotte’s story, to a play travelling across the rural areas of Lancashire, Cumbria and County Durham, all the way to the publication of a book: Traces. It has background information on the creative writing project: What’s Your Story? Blaize Theatre’s tour of the play: Once a Lady, and extracts from Traces.

With thanks to Maureen Lawrence for enabling a new generation to hear Charlotte’s story and to Blaize Theatre for taking it on the road. Thanks too to Catherine Caton for the stunning photographs and to Paul Greenwood for patient book and web design. To all the volunteer promoters in the northern rural communities we visited who willingly give time and energy to host professional theatre for their local communities, to all the audiences, the passionate writers and workshop participants who shared their creativity so willingly.

Thank you also to Gillian Morgans for Charlotte Deans’ portrait

About Spot On
Spot On is Lancashire’s Rural Touring Network. It exists to enable people living in rural communities in the county to bring professional live arts events to their villages. Spot On is a service delivered by Community Futures and is a project funded by Arts Council England North West. - Contact us spot.on@ntlworld.com

About Highlights
Highlights provides high quality arts events to isolated rural communities in the North Pennines and South Lakeland. We work in partnership with volunteer groups to provide a programme of professional theatre, music and dance events for village halls, community centres and rural schools. Highlights receives regular funding from Arts Council England North West. Contact us: info@highlightsnorth.co.uk

Spot On and Highlights would like to thank the LEADER + programme, Department of Food and Rural Affairs, European Regional Development Fund, Lancashire Economic Partnership, Heritage Lottery Fund, and the county councils of Lancashire, Durham and Cumbria for their financial support.