Kirkgate Arts and Heritage were a part of the Our Freedom: Then and Now project in 2025. Sixty arts centres and libraries across Britain took part in nationwide celebrations reflecting on what freedom means 80 years after the end of the Second World War.
Cockermouth Community Musical
Marking 80 years since the end of WWII, our community musical is based on people’s memories of living in the area during and after the war – including the VE Day celebrations when the Billy Bowman band played to the crowds from the roof of the air-raid shelter on Main Street.
- Moving and powerful stories based on the memories of children who were evacuated to Cockermouth to escape the air-raids in the ship-building towns of the North East and who had to spend their first Christmas away from home.
- Reminiscences of refugees who lived at Moota YMCA camp after the war ended, working on local farms, helping to rebuild the country after the hardships of wartime, who used music, dance and song to build connections and relationships with people living here.
- Reflections from local residents on what ‘Freedom’ means to them today.
The show includes storytelling from Jessie McMeekin and an uplifting new song written for the project by JP Worsfold, and arranged for choir by Dave Camlin. It was learnt and sung by a scratch choir of local residents over autumn 2025, and performed in an open-air world premiere as part of the Cockermouth Annual Christmas Lights Switch On event in November 2025.
The choir in rehearsals
Our Sources
Boleslaw’s Story
Sources: Moota – Camp 103, the story of a Cumbrian Prisoner of War Camp by Gloria Edwards, 2005. The War Years – Life in Cockermouth and at Moota POW Camp by Gloria Edwards, 2009. Sources include the reminiscences of ‘Czeslaw’, ‘Boleslaw Blaszczyk’, and ‘Annie Nanson’. Re-telling by Jessie McMeekin.
My Happiness
Written by Betty Peterson Blasco and Borney Bargantine. This became a hit in May 1948 with 4 rival versions that year by Jon and Sondra Steele, Ella Fitgerald, the Pied Pipers and the Marlin Sisters, and was the first song that Boleslaw Blaszczyk used to learn to speak English. This arrangement by Dave Camlin, 2025.
My Happiness performed by Jon and Sondra Steele
Freedom Now
A composite poem made from original writing created as part of workshops at the Kirkgate in August & September 2025. Compositor Jessie McMeekin
Titch’s Story
Sources: Reminiscences from Mr Leslie (Les) Whitefield in Cockermouth Evacuees by Mick Jane, 2002, and The War Years – Life in Cockermouth and at Moota POW Camp by Gloria Edwards, 2009. Re-telling by Jessie McMeekin.
Freedom Road (Titch’s Song)
Sources: Reminiscences from Mr Leslie (Les) Whitefield in Cockermouth Evacuees by Mick Jane, 2002, and The War Years – Life in Cockermouth and at Moota POW Camp by Gloria Edwards, 2009. Song by JP Worsforld, arrangement by JP Worsfold, Jessie McMeekin and Dave Camlin
For more information and any questions, you have about the project, please get in touch with Helen Johnston at helen@thekirkgate.com or phone 01900 829966.
Our Freedom: Then and Now is part of a £2 million national creative programme marking the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. Supported by the UK Government through Arts Council England, the Future Arts Centres and Libraries Connected initiative, 60 arts centres and libraries across Britain presented community-led projects exploring the legacy of VE Day and VJ Day.
