THE life of a prominent campaigner for women’s rights will provide the inspiration for a play based on in-depth archive research.

Miss Heys, who was a member of the Dalton branch of the Unionist Women's Association and prize-winning public speaker in the 1930s will be focus us of the play, which draws from a scrapbook of newspaper cutting about her life and work.

The Speaking Out project, run by arts group Dalton Creatives, is on the hunt for relatives of the campaigner and members of women's association to bring Miss Heys and the movement she was linked to life.

The group will work Karen Cranberry and Walney poet Kate Davis, who has been chosen as the writer tasked with the translating the glimpse of history into a radio play, which will be broadcast on community radio next year.

Shaun Blezard, the artistic director of Dalton Creatives said the project would lift the lid on interesting period of history.

He said: "The period covered is a fascinating period for women in public life as women had won full equal voting rights in the Representation of the People Act in 1928.

"We will explore the changes to public life that suffrage presented to women and explore the local Women’s Association movement.

"This scrapbook is such a fantastic document to be working with, and to be working with two such talented women as Karen and Kate we are very excited about the project."

The team are searching for Miss Heys' relatives and appealed to them to get in touch.

Mr Blezard said: "We are looking for individuals who were involved in women’s associations and are trying to track down relatives of Miss Heys. It would be lovely to sit down and show them the scrapbook before we pass it onto the local archive for safe keeping."

Mrs Davis, who has been involved with a number of creative writing projects in Furness, said she felt compelled to work on the project.

She said: "'I've been so busy and thought I wouldn't be able to fit in any more projects this year but when I was asked about this I couldn't turn it down because it sounded so interesting.

"The scrapbook is a great piece of history and was so eager to produce something which drew from it."

The collection of newspaper cuttings has been fully digitised and is available to view online by visiting daltoncreatives.uk/speaking-out-update. If you have any details or want to get involved, contact Shaun Blezard on 07743822114.