SABRES were drawn and blood spilled when swashbuckling star Sean Bean stormed into action...at a museum.

The Yorkshire-born movie and TV actor was at Helmshore Textile Museums, shooting a new series of the historical action drama Sharpe.

The museum fitted the bill for a two-hour adventure called 'Sharpe's Justice,' in which heroic British officer Richard Sharpe is sent north in 1814 to his home town, where the mill workers are furious about the introduction of new machinery.

He has to obey orders but instead of fighting the French or Spanish has to put down his own working class people.

During a break in filming, the star presented a £500 donation to nearby Airtours for their Children In Need Appeal fund, from himself and Sharpe's Films. Museums senior keeper Robin Green, said: "Sean Bean is very pleasant and has been quite happy to sign autographs for members of staff and schoolchildren who have been around."

Scenes have been shot both inside and outside the authentic working mill museums, which have heavy old machinery including spinning mules and a waterwheel.

Set builders have transformed the mill yard into a market square creating dummy shop fronts for a blacksmith and basket makers, and adding market stalls.

The white window frames of Higher Mill were out of keeping and have been repainted brown, grey and black.

Producer Malcolm Craddock said Helmshore, with its working machinery and authentic environment, was a wonderful location and everyone had been tremendously helpful and welcoming.

Three two-hour Sharpe films, a Carlton production for ITV, are due to be screened in the spring.

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