The Coiners Wife

A play by Maurice Claypole Directed by Leighton Hirst Culturedale 2024 Year of Culture From a remote weaver's cottage on the bleak Yorkshire moors, a gang of counterfeiters (the 'Cragg Vale Coiners') launch a nefarious scheme that threatens to unsettle the currency of 18th Century England. Bound in marriage to their leader, known locally as 'King' David, Grace Hartley is torn between the forces of love, duty and conscience, whilst at the same time struggling with motherhood and the need to keep hunger at bay. After the counterfeiters' initial success, opposing forces gather, led by William Dighton, Supervisor of Excises, who sets in motion a series of events that have momentous consequences.