Alan Jeffcote, son of Nat Hawthorn, Hindle's richest factory owner, meets Fanny Hawthorn, daughter of Nat's 'slasher' and oldest friend, in Blackpool and the two go off for what they believe to be secret fling in Llandudno. But after the death of Fanny's friend, Mary, in a pleasure boat accident at Blackpool the secret is revealed and the the two families are thrown into disarray.

The leading light of the so-called Manchester School of realist dramatists, Stanley Houghton wrote Hindle Wakes in 1911 and it was a hit both in Mrs. Horniman's Gaiety Theatre in Manchester and the Aldwych Theatre, London in the following year. Houghton's best known play, Hindle Wakes has been filmed five times, most recently in 1976 as a TV film starring Donald Pleasance. The play's title refers to the wakes week holiday in the fictional town of Hindle and is also a pun on the name of a traditional Lancashire chicken dish. (Summary by Phil Benson)