Lost Voices in Nidderdale.

Sweetheart: Angel of the Moor tells the deeply sad story of Mary-Jane Skaife, but surrounding her tragedy are the unheard voices of orphaned children, whose lives were also shaped, and silenced, by Nidderdale’s past. In the film, their voices become a haunting motif of the loss and the love they were never allowed to feel. Beyond tragedy, the children’s presence takes on a protective role: their voices surround Mary-Jane in the afterlife, a chorus of love and remembrance that ensures her story, and theirs, is not forgotten.

This motif is grounded in Nidderdale’s own history. During the 19th century, mills such as West House Mill employed orphaned children who were sent north from the workhouses of London and other cities. These children endured long hours, harsh conditions, and separation from extended family, their young lives consumed by the cruel demands of the industrial age. Their suffering often went unrecorded, their voices absent from official histories, yet they were an undeniable part of Nidderdale’s hidden past.

West House Mill, Blubberhouses

By weaving children’s voices into Sweetheart, the film pays tribute to these silenced lives. Their echoes remind us that Mary-Jane’s tragedy was part of a wider landscape of hardship, where love and protection were often out of reach. In giving them a presence on screen, the film seeks to restore dignity to the forgotten and connect today’s audiences with a past that should never be overlooked.

As you walk along the banks of Fewston Reservoir today, a place whose walls were built from the very stone of West House Mill, pause for a moment to remember them, to honour their lives and their loss, and to feel grateful for the peace and beauty we are able to enjoy in our world.

Further reading:

Scaife Hall Farm. The Historic Landscape

English Ancestors, WEST HOUSE MILL Janice Heppenstall, writer and professional genealogist.