SOME of The Mousetrap’s closely guarded secrets were revealed when one theatregoer was given a touch tour of the stage at the Wyvern Theatre.

Theatrical landlady Judy Furse has been blind since she was a child, but on Friday she was given a chance to “see” the set at close quarters before listening to the performance.

Company stage manager Adrian Quinn guided her around, describing the scenery and props of the old manor house and enabling her to feel the shapes and textures.

Almost all of the props are authentic to the 1950s, from the telephone on a side table, to the furniture. The visual trickery behind a beautiful stained glass window was revealed when she touched and found it was actually made of a fine mesh.

Afterwards she said: “Just having it described to me is not the same. To touch the objects you get a much more in depth idea of what other people are seeing.”

She explained: “It is a picture in my mind because I could see properly until the age of six. I can imagine it.”

“I try to imagine it as a room. I don’t have it all completely right in my head but I have enough of an idea.”

It’s not the first time she has taken a touch tour. She met Joey and the other life-size puppets from Warhorse during a tour at the National Theatre in London.

“Without touching the puppets you could never have described them adequately so I could have understood,” she said. “Otherwise I just have to conjour it up out of my imagination.”

It was the first touch tour for her sister Catherine, who found it just as fascinating. “It will make it so much easier when I’m describing the performance for Judy,” she said.

Judy, who runs Swindon Braille Transcription Services and is chairman of Swindon Amnesty, is also a theatrical landlady and two of the people from the company, including Anna Andresen, who plays Mollie were staying with her.

At Catherine’s suggestion she advertised the spare rooms in her Old Town home for the cast and staff of touring shows late last year.

Months later she had her first guest. “Someone rang and said she was playing Peppa Pig and could she stay in my spare room.”

“It is interesting collecting their autographs in my visitors book,” she added.