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There was trouble in Leckhampton on April 13th 1906

Leckhampton Hill had long been a place where families would go and enjoy an afternoon out. It was also a short cut for children coming to school from outlying hamlets and villages. An area in Daisy Bank Road was a place where people congregated at holiday times, Easter in particular, to enjoy the stalls, swings and sideshows which appeared there.

The hill was part of the Leckhampton Estate, owned by the lord of the manor who lived at Leckhampton Court (now the Sue Ryder Care hospice). For generations the lord of the manor had allowed the hill to be roamed by the working classes, and anyone else for that matter.

But that all changed when the estate was eventually bought by Henry Dale, whose business interests included the Dale Forty piano firm. Dale set about restricting the use of the hill by fencing off 46 acres, effectively closing any paths and preventing access.

Over the actual footpath, where it crossed Daisy Bank Road, he deliberately built Tramway Cottage. The cottage twice became the focus of unrest. Local men – known afterwards as the Leckhampton Stalwarts - took the law into their hands, tearing down the cottage.

On the first occasion, although they were arrested, charges were not brought against them and they were released.

Negotiations with Dale continued for some years, with influential people in the area making their feelings known. For instance Miss Dorothea Beale, headmistress of the Cheltenham Ladies' College, decided that all pianos in the college hired from the Dale Forty shop should be returned.

In the end, the endless and seemingly pointless negotiations between Dale and the authorities led the Stalwarts to take matters into their own hands.

It was on Good Friday 1906 that the usual happy Easter celebrations on the hill turned very nasty. This time the ringleaders of the Stalwarts were arrested and punished - but not before the mob had destroyed the rebuilt cottage.

This is "Up the Hill ... to down Dale" created by dramatist Alan Morgan with Leckhampton local history expert Eric Miller, the pupils of Leckhampton Primary school and members of the Leckhampton Dramatic Society

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