AN all-female cast of school children performed in a play touching on the role of an East Lancashire town during the Great War.

Students at Blessed Trinity Roman Catholic College, in Burnley, staged the moving performance of ‘For Your Tomorrow We Gave Our Today’ at Burnley Youth Theatre on Thursday (March 14).

The Ormerod Road college secured a £10,000 grant from National Lottery Heritage Funding to finance the play, which had an all-female cast, coming a year after the celebration of 100 years of female suffrage.

Around 350 children from local primary schools have watched the performance and the college's curriculum leader for performance arts Rosie Wright said: “We hope this isn’t just a one-off and we can perform it again."

The play tells the story of Bea, who who finds a diary which flicks between World War One and the modern day. It talks about the difference between a woman’s role in the army during the early 20th Century and now. The performance is based on real-life people from Burnley.

Mrs Wright said: “The cast went to the Imperial War Museum in Manchester as part of their research and took it extremely seriously.

"We were pleased the National Lottery Heritage Fund thought it was a strong project for the community and for the children at school to learn and develop as well as produce a really good piece of theatre.”

The college had worked in collaboration with Burnley Youth Theatre and historian Mike Townend, senior curator at Burnley's Towneley Hall.

Mrs Wright added: “We talked to Mike and read his books, where there were lots of stories about local people who had a big influence during World War One.

“Taylor Barnes, from Burnley Youth Theatre, worked with the cast and created and devised a play based on real-life people all from the local area."

Mr Townend said: "The students wanted to look at the war from the point of view of women. We were able to help by focusing on individuals stories and relationships between women and their loved ones. The students have obviously enjoyed the experience but in doing so learnt a great deal."