A special schools session on Friday afternoon is by invitation only, but the premiere of The Hammerman musical in the evening is open to all, and admission is FREE. Ticket information will be released shortly.

The main festival exhibition, including talks, workshops, heritage trails and more, will be in the morning and afternoon of the Saturday, which will be followed by another performance of The Hammerman in the evening.

The festival will take place at STEAM Museum in Swindon, which is located close to the Swindon Designer Outlet.

Click here for information about finding and visiting the museum.

The centrepiece of the festival is The Hammerman, a brand new musical by John Cullimore (music) and John Moorhouse (script), which will be premiered on the evening of Friday, November 12 and repeated the following evening, with each performance playing to a capacity audience of 550. There will also be a specially adapted children's event, based on the musical, on the afternoon of Friday, November 12.

The Hammerman will have a cast of 19 plus choruses and dancers, and a nine-piece orchestra. Director Linda Worth, musical director Andre Pysancyzn and song coach Rob Elliott, conductor of the Wessex Male Voice Choir, are working to ensure this community-inspired production has high professional standards.

Even so, thanks to a generous grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, admission will be free (ticket information will be released soon). An alternative ticket, including refreshment will also be available.

The Hammerman is based on John Cullimore's CD of the same name, which traces the remarkable story of Alfred Williiams's life.

Although specifically conceived as a celebration of the life and works of Alfred Williams, the Alfred Williams Heritage Festival is also aimed at providing a focus for all other local history/heritage groups in the area.

So the exhibition (on the morning/afternoon of Saturday, November 13), will feature artefacts relating to the life of Alfred Williams, but also exhibitions and displays by various other groups, providing what we believe is a unique opportunity to learn about many different aspects of our heritage under one roof.

The society is in the process of formally inviting local groups to participate. In the meantime, those who want to find out more or register an interest are encouraged to email us.

A key part of the exhibition will be a special themed display called Alfred's Decades. This will feature selected local history/heritage groups who have been invited to mount displays focusing on specific decades of Alfred's life, helping to put Alfred into his historical context and emphasize how he chronicled and mirrored the rapidly changing world he lived in.

Alfred's Decades will be in addition to other displays by other local history/heritage groups (see above).

Educational initiatives involving children are a key part of the Alfred Williams Heritage Society's projects, so the festival is aimed at all the family.

Education packs will be distributed to all local primary schools in September, but we will also be working closely with South Marston School and a handful of Swindon schools that also have a special relevance to Alfred Williams and the town's railway history. These will be invited to take part in a special event based on an adapatation of The Hammerman musical on the afternoon of Friday, November 12.

On the Saturday (November 13), the festival will feature a number of activities suitable for children, including the display of a large artwork made up of panels painted by local schools (see below). The festival will also see the performance of winning poems from our schools' poetry competition (see below).

Local schoolchildren will also be invited to take part in a special giant artwork project, the culmination of which will be displayed at the festival (see below).

In the weeks leading up to the festival, the Alfred Williams Heritage Society is sponsoring a poetry writing competition for children in the Swindon area.

Winning entries will be aired during the festival, with winners having the option of having their poem read or reading it themselves. Winning entries will also be published with official festival literature.

Details will be announced soon and distributed to schools in September, although children will be allowed to enter independently. Watch this space for more information.

A poetry workshop (for adults) will be held during the festival, run by local poet Cristina Newton. Details will be announced soon, so please return to this website for more information. However, numbers will be limited, so email us now to register your interest.

Various talks will take place on the festival stage, including readings of Alfred's work and a slideshow about his life, featuring rare photographs, presented by Paul Williams, chairman of the Swindon Society. Full details of the programme, which will take place on Saturday morning and afternoon (November 13) will be released shortly.

The Alfred Williams Heritage Society is producing a special Heritage Trail to guide visitors around Swindon's historic Railway Village, with small prizes for children who complete the challenge of finding clues.

The Big Picture is a project involving local schoolchildren which aims to create a large portrait of Alfred Williams. Schools will paint individual 'tiles' of the artwork, which will join together like a jigsaw to create the final picture.

There will be some opportunities to advertise in literature associated with the festival. We will be producing a 32-page full colour brochure about Alfred and the festival, which will be distributed free around town, during the lead-up to the event. There will also be a souvenir programme which will be sold during the two performances, which each have a capacity of 550.

The society does not have the resources to actively market advertising space, but we would be interested in talking to local businesses and others who would consider placing advertisements or negotiating a sponsorship.

We are a not-for-profit organisation. Although the festival is subsidised by a large grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, which has ensured it is a free event for allcomers, any additional revenue we can generate will be used to set up further projects involving the local community, including work with schools.

To find out more, please email us.

Don't forget to keep coming back to this page for more information about the festival, including news of other attractions as details are finalised.

If you would like us to supply posters for display, please email us with details of how many you need and your contact details.

To find out about downloading A4 and A5 versions of the festival poster, in colour and mono, click here.