Kirkgate Arts and Heritage commissioned two local artists, storyteller Jessie McMeekin and musician JP Worsfold, to create a community musical inspired by stories from Cockermouth at the end of the Second World War and in the post‑war period, alongside reflections from people in the town today on what freedom means to them.

During the summer and autumn of 2025, Jessie and JP held writing workshops with local people exploring the theme of freedom and worked with volunteers from the Cockermouth Heritage Group to learn more about the history of the area in the 1940s and 50s.

The Cockermouth Community Musical was premiered by a scratch choir of more than 50 local people at Cockermouth’s Christmas Lights Switch‑On in November 2025 and was performed again indoors at The Kirkgate Centre in December 2025.

Marking 80 years since the end of WWII, the musical drew 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 crowds from the roof of the air‑raid shelter on Main Street. It wove together:

• Moving and powerful stories based on the memories of children evacuated to Cockermouth to escape air‑raids in the ship‑building towns of the North East, spending their first Christmas away from home.
• Reminiscences of refugees who lived at Moota YMCA camp after the war, working on local farms and helping to rebuild the country after the hardships of wartime, who used music, dance and song to build connections with people living in the area.
• Reflections from local residents on what freedom means to them today.

The show featured storytelling from Jessie McMeekin and an uplifting new song written for the project by JP Worsfold, arranged for choir by Dave Camlin.