For Hartlepool's 2023 Wintertide Festival, A Man Called Adam (Sally Rodgers & Steve Jones) created a sound installation that examined the significant cultural and economic contributions of the Herring or Gutter Girls—women who worked in the British fishing industry from the late nineteenth century through the 1960s.

These remarkable women—daughters, wives, and sisters—migrated seasonally along Britain's coastline, following fishing fleets from North West Scotland down through Hartlepool and beyond. With their exceptional knife skills, they gutted and packed herring catches, working punishing hours while forging tight-knit communities. They lived together, earned independent incomes, and crafted the iconic "gansies" (fishermen's sweaters)—becoming early pioneers of women's emancipation.

Rodgers and Jones facilitated a series of workshops with local families employing sound play, sonic ethnography and creative writing to create collaborative spaces to explore the sensory experiences of these historical figures. The resulting audio work merged documentary elements with contemporary electronic composition, transforming the industrial sounds of the gutting yards into a resonant tribute to female resilience.

The installation, positioned beneath the historic Heugh Battery on Hartlepool's Headland, featured a striking illuminated "gansie" (traditional fisherman's sweater) constructed from LED wire, knitted by local residents—a visual representation connecting the women's textile art to their industrial labour.

This innovative project, funded and commissioned by Tees Valley Festivals Volunteering, ACE and TVCA, reclaimed a vital chapter of northeastern maritime heritage while resonating with modern themes of women's economic independence and community-building—connecting Hartlepool's present-day families with their industrial heritage through innovative sonic and visual interpretation.

Sally also presented an episode of BBC Radio 4’s Open Country about the Gutter Girls, Hartlepool and the Wintertide Festival. Listen here