A WHITEHAVEN baby is the latest local to play a part in an upcoming film about the murder of a Workington teenager 137 years ago.

The Ballad of Lucy Sands is due to premiere next February.

Eleven-week-old Marley Marie Newton travelled to Cornwall with mum Casey Herve and grandmother Donna Fidoe to take part in filming. She was playing the part of the daughter of a friend of Lucy's. Mrs Fidoe played the part of a maid.

The film has been written and directed by Steve Baldwin who has spent much of the past seven years trying to unravel the tragic true tale of Lucy Sands, 16, who was last seen in December 1881.

Most of it has been filmed in Cornwall, where he lives. But when Steve filmed in Workington last year he met Mrs Fidoe, who, like many others, is intrigued by the story of Lucy Sands.

"My mum went through to help when they were filming at the Helena Thompson Museum. When she told Steve she had another grandchild on the way he said she could play a part in the film," said Casey, a housekeeper at Center Parcs.

Marley was born at the West Cumberland Hospital on October 23. Eleven weeks later she was in front of the camera, being cradled by one of the film's actresses.

"She was brilliant," said Casey, who has another daughter, Lily Rose, two. "I think the way Steve has written the story is so good, it was fun to be part of it all.

"I'm really looking forward to seeing the film when it comes out next year."

Some Workington youngsters took part in filming when the crew was in town last October. Pupils at Workington Academy played the angry mob outside court and the mournful congregation at Lucy’s funeral in St John’s Church.

The Ballad of Lucy Sands is the story of a young orphan brought from Belfast to live with family in Workington. In December 1881, she left her home on Christian Street to walk with her friends and never returned home.

Lucy’s body was discovered three months later, hidden beneath a pile of old road cobbles by the side of the busy main road that led out of town.