[1] Notable figures involved with establishing the scheme were the aristocratic landowner Major James Pennyman and his wife Ruth Pennyman, an idealistic young Cambridge University graduate called Rolf Gardiner, Manchester Guardian Journalist David Ayerst and local trade unions.
[2] The scheme was ostensibly created to enable the miners, with the help of student volunteers, to cultivate rough moorland with the aim of growing crops and keeping livestock.
In addition to these practicalities, music and entertainment events were also staged with the aim of helping the student volunteers integrate with the miners.
At the second camp, staged in September 1932, Georg Götsch was replaced as musical director by the composer Michael Tippett.
[4] It was through the work camps that Tippett met Franks and he later described the relationship as 'The deepest most shattering experience of falling in love'.