To Win The Day

There will be an opportunity to see a performance of the acclaimed folk drama, To Win the Day at this year’s Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival as part of the packed programme in the Unite Marquee.

To Win The Day has been created and performed by the Dorset-based group, Time and Tide, and follows the extraordinary lives of the wives, mothers and families of the Tolpuddle Martyrs through local folk music of the time. 

Writer and musician, Sophie Wright, has worked with her theatre company to produce a powerful folk-drama about women facing adversity. Though the Tolpuddle story will be familiar to many, telling the tale from the perspective of the women caught up in the brutal oppression of agricultural workers trying to organise a trade union is a chance to see it through fresh eyes.

To Win The Day follows Betsy Loveless, her two sisters-in-law Sarah and Dinniah and her niece, Eliza and the impact on their lives after their men-folk are convicted for ‘swearing an illegal oath’ and transported to Australia.

These families lost their wage-earners, were refused parish relief and only avoided eviction and with the support of trade unions.

Sophie has used contemporary documents and music familiar to ordinary folk in the 19th Century to produce a script and songs. 

Sophie explained that, “Most melodies in To Win The Day are traditional and it is possible, even likely, that the women would have known and perhaps sung them as they went about their work.

“Many appear in the Hammond Collection of folk-songs collected from the working people of Dorset between 1905 – 1911.”

The songs have been arranged by Sophie and Mary Harrington and the words are often original, and have been adapted for the play’s plot line. Many of the lines highlight the family’s belief in Methodism and Chartism.

The last Time and Tide performance before their appearance at the Unite Marquee at the Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival was in the Digby Church Memorial Hall in Sherborne. The event was to raise funds for the local museum, and was a sell out with people queuing out of the doors to buy a ticket – so make sure you get along to the Unite Marquee in plenty of time to grab a seat.

Despite being performed across Dorset and beyond for nearly a decade The powerful folk drama has never been seen at the Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival before and Unite are thrilled to be changing that and would encourage everyone to get to the Unite Marquee at 6 pm on the Friday evening. 

Time and Tide is the opening event in the Unite and Landworker 2026 Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival programme.

Saturday will be packed full of sessions that you won’t want to miss with Unite South West Young members running a session on the World of Work & Apprenticeships for Young Worker, followed by the Landworker discussion around rural women with a selection of Unite women speakers telling how rural women and their union have changed lives.

The day will be wrapped up with dub ranting musician and punk poet, Attila the Stockbroker pulling in the punters for the early evening crowd pleaser.

Keep an eye on UniteLIVE nearer the time for more details.

By Keith Hatch

Photo by Chris Wallard (c/o Time and Tide)