Barbara Wood--The Breadwinner

A small boy was kneeling at the edge of the pavement, his bottom in the air, revealing the neatly patched seat of his short trousers. A shock of dark blonde hair fell forwards as he looked downwards in deep concentration.

A short time earlier a youth stood on that pavement with a girl on his arm, fishing in his pocket for money to buy his girl a chocolate from the sweetshop just there behind him. Then, as the couple entered the shop and the shop door bell chimed, a coin rolled on to the pavement, down over the kerb and into the drain.

That is what the little boy was preoccupied with; fishing down the drain with a magnet on the end of a long string. He felt the slight tug on the string as the magnet made contact and he carefully raised it back up through the grill of the drain. You would think a small boy would then immediately run into the sweet shop to spend the sixpence, but not this little chap. He ran straight home, leather, steel-tipped clogs ringing on the pavement. He entered the back of the terraced house through the brick-lined yard, passed the tin bath hanging on the wall next to the outside lavatory and into the house to find his mother.

She was on her knees in the kitchen black leading the old range. Smiling at her adoring, first born son, she rose uneasily, being heavily pregnant. The boy stood with grubby knees, his woollen socks round his ankles, his arm outstretched proudly presenting her with the coin. Tonight she would have something to put in the stew pot to feed the family. Looking at little Freddie, Ellen’s heart melted. What had she done in her young life for God to think her deserving of this beautiful cherub?

Working class girls didn’t expect life to be easy when they married, but Frank commanded a decent wage as a coal hewer and he was already set up in a coal board house with a proper kitchen, a parlour and an attic as well as a wash house in the yard. Out of necessity he had married her soon after the death of his first wife as there were three motherless infants to care for, including newborn Archie, who had entered the world on the day of his mother’s departure. Then just nine months later Ellen gave birth to Nella, then there was little Freddie and then another baby every year following. She had been pregnant or nursing ever since she was wed; five healthy children of her own and three step children to care for.

The baby that died was never spoken of, but Ellen remembered her every day; the little girl who fed at her breast for ten months before succumbing to pneumonia. Ellen used what little savings she had from working in the factory prior to her marriage to buy a plot of land in the cemetery and the baby girl was buried deep within the ground. In those days it would not have been unusual to expect more of her siblings to join her in the grave, but the little child was to lie cold and alone sixteen feet down in the earth for some years to come.

There are very few certainties in life, death being one of them, but compared to many, the family got through the war years relatively unscathed. Freddie had been born early in 1914 when war was an inevitability. His big sister was already a year old and Ellen’s sweet little step son was nearly two. War started in earnest in the summer. Food shortages put a great strain on household budgets so her two older stepsons had gone to live with their maternal grandparents for a while.

Right from the start Ellen had feared for the young boys she saw eagerly queuing to join the forces, some of them lying about their age to go and fight for glory. What was glorious about going over to a foreign land to kill or be killed? She didn’t really understand what the war was all about, but then she hadn’t had much book learning.

It was supposed to be all over by Christmas. How could they know it would grind on for four long years with reports of the enormous number of casualties and the terrible conditions in the mud filled trenches eventually leaking back from the front. People became war weary and sceptical of the propaganda as so many wives and mothers received those dreadful telegrams

‘I regret to inform you….. ’ There were few words as telegrams were expensive.

Seeing the broken men who came home maimed or shell shocked it was hard to think of them as the lucky ones.

As a miner Frank was in a protected occupation and so did not have to go away to the Front as coal was in great demand to keep the country and the war effort going. There was something to be thankful for in that, though work in the pit was hard. When Frank arrived home after his long shifts Ellen had the tin bath ready in front of the range full of hot water that she had boiled ready for him to scrub himself clean with carbolic soap.

The war was still going on when the ‘flu’ pandemic started. It came in waves, mild at first with coughs, headaches and sore throats, but then the waves were much more severe affecting young adults who seemed fit and healthy in the morning, but were moribund by evening. Sufferers had difficulty breathing and their skin turned purple and then black before they died. It really was a dreadful way to go. And dreadful to see. Natural feelings of disgust cause human beings to shrink away from the afflicted, an instinct that protects from infection, and long before germ theory emerged people were aware that disease could be passed from one person to another. During the outbreaks people were scared and they didn't leave their homes unless they had to. The streets were eerily quiet with just a few pale ghosts hurrying by. There was little that could be done for those affected and seeing the great number of casualties people became inured. At first the church bells were ringing all the time for the dead, but then they stopped.There was no public mourning, graves were shallow and loved ones were not commemorated. The pandemic continued for another two years after the war ended until it finally petered out.

These were the years that Freddie grew up into the little man he was at five years old. As soon as he was breached he started to feel responsibility for his siblings, the big boy of the family who even his half brother, Archie looked up to.

Ellen went with her little son to the wash house and watched him wash his hands and face as well as the coin he had found. The pandemic was still not over and hand washing was at least one thing she felt might help protect them from infection. She scrubbed the blacking from her hands, smoothed her dress, put on her shawl and went out, leaving Freddie in charge of the three younger ones. Children had to grow up quickly then. It was not quite as difficult as it seems to mind a large brood since each one takes care of the next youngest and shows him how to behave.

At the High street butcher’s shop, where game and rabbits hung in the window, and juicy, red steaks and chops were on display, she bought some oxtail. Then she went to the baker’s for a 4lb loaf. She knew that Frank would return home from his allotment with some root vegetables and so their stomachs would all be full tonight.

Her purchases made, she walked the short distance to Hill Top school and arrived at the gates in time to hear the bell signalling the end of the school day and meet the disgorgement of pupils from its doors. Nella and Archie arrived separately from either end, Nella running to Ellen for her customary hug, but Archie, being a boy, was unwilling to display his affection in public. The happy threesome walked home swiftly with a little talk of what the children had done while at school and a lot of anticipation of what they would eat for supper.

The optimism that ordinary working class people felt at the end of the war had not lasted as there was a failure to tackle social injustice. As men returned home from war looking for work, labour was cheap. The Miners were on strike over pay cuts imposed by the owners and had been locked out. Frank came home with a sack containing dirty carrots, potatoes and onions, the basics that went into almost everything they ate. The children jumped up and down excitedly at the arrival of their father. Though they knew his love was not demonstrably physical there was always a twinkle in his eyes and a smile on his lips when he greeted them. His clever teasing made them all laugh.

‘Well Fred, that magnet thee uncle Bill gave thee will be the making of all our fortunes.’

When the sack was put down on the floor children delved into it to find the treasures it contained. Ellen had a feeling of warm contentment in her breast that came from having all her family home and safe. While Ellen and Nella made supper Archie and little Fred helped their father pick up the boots that needed mending and took them to the washhouse with him to watch him work on them. They knew they weren’t the poorest of families as some children went without boots.

Inevitably, their share of ill-luck was to come. Ellen’s baby was overdue, but that night she went into labour with a great show of blood. Alarmed at the blood loss she woke Frank who ran out to get a local woman. Ellen felt there was something wrong and was fearful for the loss of her baby. She was soon in strong labour and, standing against the iron bedstead her body expelled the lifeless child, quickly followed by the after birth.

‘Is my baby alright? Why isn’t my baby isn’t crying?’ She wept frantically.

The woman was torn between the need to try and revive the baby and to massage Ellen’s womb to stop the bleeding. She gave the lifeless child to Ellen and did the latter while Ellen blew into her baby’s nose and massaged him, shook him, rocked him, cried tears over him, but he never breathed. The local woman tried again, but she knew it was no use. The afterbirth had detached before the baby was born and starved him of oxygen.

Old Auntie Annie came to stay for a while to help with the children. Weak with loss of blood Ellen could barely stand. Freddie was worried.

Freddie found his precious magnet again and set off with determination to search the drains for coins. He wasn’t having much luck.There was nothing in the drain at the sweet shop Outside the Pack Horse Inn the drain smelled of ale, but there were no coins clinging to his magnet. With not much confidence he decided to try the drain outside the posh Draper’s shop. At last he pulled his magnet out. A farthing! At that moment the shop door opened with a clang and out came the Draper dressed in a fine suit.

‘What are you doing, you scruffy urchin, playing in the gutter? Don’t you know it's dirty in there?’

Fred stood up, red faced, stuffing the magnet into his pocket. ‘Please, Mister, my mum needs blood ‘cause she lost it all and my new baby brother didn’t make it.’ He held out his hand to show the man his farthing, ‘I’m going to buy her some meat’.

The Draper studied him for a moment. ‘You’ll not get much meat for that, lad’ He reached into his pocket and handed little Fred half a crown. ‘Mind you go home and wash your hands before you go into the Butcher’s shop,’ he said.

Fred’s face lit up, his eyes wide looking at the coin in his hand. It was a fortune. ‘Thank you, sir,’ he said and ran home as fast as his legs would carry him.

Aunt Annie had baby Emma on one arm while she poured barley into the cooking pot.

‘Where’ve you been, you little imp? Look at your knees! They are black! When he showed her the shiny half crown she was horrified. She put the baby down and clouted him about the ear.

‘Where did you get that? You must take it back right away or the bobby will lock you up.’

It wasn’t the first time he had been walloped by Aunt Annie. His ear stung for a week after he came home one day with windfall apples he had ‘found’. This time he pleaded his innocence and told her of the Draper’s kindness. She took the half crown off him and confiscated his magnet.

The next afternoon there was the most wonderful appetising smell in the kitchen. The children’s mouths watered like Pavlov’s dogs. His Aunt had been to check out Freddie’s story with the Draper and there was a plate full of liver and onions for everyone.

Ellen recovered her strength, but did she ever recover from the loss of her baby? Big families were insurance against the inevitable loss of some of them, but each loss was a heartbreak. Soon she was pregnant again.

Fred started school and did well. Children felt privileged to be at school then. Compulsory education up to the age of fourteen had only just been introduced, though some children still left at eleven. There was strong emphasis on reading, writing and arithmetic. Many considered that working class children didn’t need much more than that, but they were taught national pride and shown a map of the world with the British Empire painted red. As time went on Fred was given the responsibility for teaching younger children.

Each day when he got home from school he was greeted with excitement by the younger children. Fred and his brothers grew up kicking a blown up pigs bladder about with other children in the street. Archie had a weak chest and wasn’t able to run so fast, but he was good with his feet, controlling the ball and passing it. They wandered further afield into the extensive woods and open countryside around the town. Freddie devised a snare to catch rabbits and learned how to skin and clean them for rabbit stew. At the end of the summer they would pick blackberries for jam, carrying bowls of them home with evidence that they had already partaken of this welcome boost of vitamin C all over their faces. At that time of year the sun shone through the trees, on to the dying leaves, gold upon gold. They strayed onto farmland to scrump an apple or a pear from the orchard; irresistible for hungry little bodies. They could run like the clappers if the farmer appeared with his stick.

At home Fred watched his mother cooking, cleaning, washing, ironing and always pregnant or nursing, always struggling to put enough food on the table for her growing family. The 1920s were lean times for working class people. There were frequent strikes and layoffs in the mines. So by the time he was ten Freddie was rising early in the morning helping the milkman with his round. Up on the cart beside the milkman as the horse clopped around the quiet, cobbled streets, the crates of milk rattling; it was the pleasant morning sound that most people heard when they were still lying in their beds.

Unfortunately his milk delivery job made him late for school. The problem was that every day he had to pass through another class in the old Victorian school without corridors in order to reach his own classroom and every day the teacher in that class caned him for disturbing his lesson. Mr Weaver was a mean man, feared by all the children who called him ‘Micky’ Weaver behind his back.

One morning Freddie speedily traversed the asphalt playground and ran into the boy’s entrance, bumping straight into the headmaster and winding him.

‘I’m tired of seeing you coming in late, boy’ he said. He took Fred by the ear and caned his backside.

Later than ever Fred stealthily entered Mr. Weaver’s room, but there was no chance of creeping through without being seen and he was called to the front and caned viciously as usual. Six of the best. Always the left hand because you have to write with your right hand….even if you are left handed.

At last he arrived in his own classroom where his teacher had already embarked on a lesson and was in the middle of a complicated explanation. He was a decent man who understood the home circumstances of many of the children and normally he just nodded to Freddie and allowed him to tiptoe to his seat. However, this morning he was exasperated as the attention of the class was completely lost to him when all the children turned around to look at Fred.

‘Come here Freddie’ he said crossly. ‘I’m tired of you coming in late and disturbing the rest of the class. Hold your hand out!’ Fred was wacked again with the cane.

Fred explained that he had been caned by the headmaster at the school door that morning.

Fred’s class teacher told him to quietly take his seat, but from that day forth, although he continued to be late, Micky Weaver never caned him again.

He never felt bitter about the use of capital punishment at school, even when he received it unjustly. It was just a normal part of life.

Fred’s father was not a town boy. His origins were in the countryside. He had been born to the North of the town in a farm cottage, but as he grew up there was less and less farm work available and it was impossible to make a living. He married his first wife, Flora, his childhood sweetheart and they moved to the town together to find work, full of hope for a better life. Work in the mines paid a little better than factory work, but, just the same, the workers were at the mercy of the owners and pay was kept low.

Soon they had two little boys, but then Flora tragically died delivering their third child. She was just twenty one and Frank’s world fell apart. Family and neighbours rallied round and the two older boys were taken in temporarily by Frank’s sister and her family. A kind next door neighbour, Mrs Robbins, offered to look after the newborn baby while he was at work until he could get something permanent organised. But what could he do to keep his little family together? Young Ellen Robbins with her pretty, round, innocent face had already caught his notice. Still grieving for Flora, Frank moved quickly to court and wed her. They made a handsome couple and went forward with their lives together for better or for worse.

One day the children arrived home from school to find their father lying on the truckle bed in the kitchen, his face ashen beneath the coal dust. There had been a collapse in the pit. Frank had somehow arrived home even before Ellen heard about the accident. He had suddenly appeared in the kitchen supported by two workmates who laid him on the bed and then, with a few brief words to Ellen they ran back to the pit. The physician came and gave him laudanum. He shook his head as he pronounced.

Ellen was trying not to show her distress, but Fred knew. What would life be like if they couldn’t look forward to father coming home anymore. How dark their days would be without his cheery presence lighting up their home, his clever quips and teasing. And the thought that terrified them all….. how would they survive without father? At bedtime all Fred’s sisters were down on their knees for a long time crying and praying for their father to get better.

Overnight there was a miracle. When Freddie got up for his milk round the next morning his father was already up finishing his porridge. Frank struggled back to work with several cracked ribs, ignoring Ellen's pleadings for him to rest up for a few days.

Not usually a demonstrative man, he kissed her as he left the house. ‘Thank God, at least we didn’t lose anyone in the roof fall this time.’

There was rubble to clear and work to be done to support the mine roof. He was a strong man and if you didn’t work your family didn’t eat.

But sometimes there wasn’t work and sometimes there was hunger. Archie left school when he reached eleven and went to work in a factory. Freddie wanted so much to stay on at school and get his school certificates, but he knew he couldn’t. He must follow Archie into the factory and contribute to the family finances.

‘I must get a job where I can earn the most money. I can get 84s and 4d working as a labourer.

‘But you would hate it.’ Ellen knew something of factory work. ‘You would be so unhappy doing work that is laborious and repetitive and it would break my heart to see you so. You must stay at school. We’ll manage somehow. Archie has a wage coming in now and Nella’s earning a little with her sewing and mending. And I could take in washing…’

Freddie would not allow his siblings to make sacrifices while he continued on at school and the thought of his mother taking on more work cut him deeply. ‘

‘Nella must stay at school,’ he said. ‘She’s clever and good at drawing. Girls can’t earn much anyway and I can get a man’s wage after a while.’

‘Then go and work under a skilled tradesman. You'll earn something while you serve an apprenticeship and eventually you’ll progress.’

He looked at his mother’s sweet face. Her youthful prettiness all gone now. She was thin and pale; worn out by the demands repeated pregnancies made upon her body. In the end he agreed to do as she asked and got himself apprenticed to a tradesman.

No one was more disappointed than his teacher. He had hoped that Freddie would go on to get a scholarship under the government scheme that had just started. When Freddie told him of his decision to leave school he did everything he could to make him change his mind, but to no avail. It was a sad day indeed when Fred shook hands with his teacher, said goodbye and left the school building for the last time.

His mother’s advice had been sensible as some areas of the factory were especially dusty and there were poisonous fumes in the atmosphere. Freddie had avoided the worst of these as the area he worked in was comparatively clean. The work was interesting and learning it presented a challenge for a while.

Poor Archie was not so fortunate. Soon he was suffering working in the dusty factory, his breathing difficulties getting worse leaving him vulnerable to chest infections which were slow to get better. It was clear he was not going to be able to continue working in the factory for very much longer so Fred went back to helping the milkman in the early morning to augment his pay.

Nella stayed on at school, and Walter, Dora and Emma behind them were all doing well. The three youngest children had also started school. Freddie was determined that they should all have a chance to stay on and get their school certificates.

Ellen was pregnant again. She had had several miscarriages and babies born too early and sadly thought her body just couldn’t carry them anymore. Her womb had just slipped open and expelled her babies before their time . But this new pregnancy was different. The midwife said everything was normal and they were hopeful of having a new baby in the house again soon. Three weeks before she was due she lifted the heavy cooking pot onto the range and her contractions started. Nella was sent to run for the midwife as her pains progressed in earnest to a stage of being almost unbearable. She was bleeding and that terrified her, but there was no time to get to the maternity hospital and nothing she could do to delay it. Leaning over the bedstead she squeezed her fists tightly, emitting a primal groan as her body took over. The midwife arrived just in time to deliver the tiny child, but Ellen was exhausted with no milk to feed her and so the midwife told Frank to go and get beestings from the dairy farm to spoon feed the baby. Ellen just needed to rest in bed until she had recovered her strength. Nella stayed home from school to look after her mother and the baby until Auntie Annie arrived.

They were all pleased to see Annie, such was their worry about Ellen. She was weaker and couldn’t keep anything down, even liquids, but she wanted to hold her baby and so they put the child into her arms. The sweet, intoxicating smell of her newborn child!

When Ellen became fevered and complained that she felt cold, everyone knew how this would end. She lingered for just a week passing from delirium into quiet unconsciousness and finally died with Nella and Annie weeping at her bedside. It was childbed fever. She was laid to rest in the deep grave with her little ten month old baby’s bones.

People didn’t talk about their grief and men didn’t cry. Frank looked at baby Grace and gave her a sad smile, but then he went into himself and became melancholic. He just got up and went to work every day and came home and sat beside the range staring into the fire. He was no longer the young man who came to the town eager for work and hopeful for the future.

There was a gloom about the house where there had been so much joy. Nella had to leave school after all now to look after the baby and the rest of the household. Freddie saw her, at just thirteen years old ironing their fussy, intricate clothing with irons heated on the range. Watching his mother and his sisters had given him a great respect for women.

He spent his days, weeks and years clocking in and out of the factory working towards the goal of becoming a journeyman and then a master himself. He always had money in his pocket now and when Dora and Emma did not have the price of a theatre ticket to go and watch a performance it gave him pleasure to be able to treat them.

The siblings had always been close, but the loss of their mother brought them even closer. On the long winter evenings the lamp on the mantle shelf was lit and they would read together or play cards sitting at the table. Fred taught them to play whist and bridge.

The family weathered the economic difficulties and the financial crash of the world markets towards the end of the 1920s. Into the early 1930s more of the siblings started to work, all of them having been able to stay on at school long enough to get their school certificates. They all had office jobs and Fred was so very proud of them. Nella had learned well from her mother how to make very little money go a long way and so now there seemed to be money to spare. When Freddie had a pay rise he tried to give her more money, but she wouldn’t take it.

‘Buy something nice for yourself,’ she said. ‘You have never done that.’He saw that Emma and even Beatrix had serious boyfriends and Will had brought a girl home. Nella was keeping her young man at arms length for now, but he realised that the family would inevitably break up. Dora had been accepted on a nursing course. He was at a loss to know what he was supposed to do now, having felt needed for so long, it seemed his contribution was no longer important. He could not allow himself to feel dispirited for long and so he went out.

He got measured for a new suit of clothes. He went to a football match. He went to the dog track, put on a bet and won ten bob. Bertram Mills circus arrived in the next town and Freddie took Nella to see it with him on Friday evening and they ate fish and chips out of newspaper. They had never seen anything like it: elephants, lion tamers, clowns, high trapeze and all lit up brightly with electric lights. He wondered how they did that, camped on what was an empty field, when at home they had yet to be connected to the National Grid.

The next afternoon he went to the show again and afterwards wandered around the site. There was an exotic atmosphere of exoticism with people in colourful costumes walking purposefully about, the calls of wild animals and the smell of their dung, but he wasn’t interested in the caged animals and performers so much as the man on the great high ladder in the big top fiddling with the lights. The man descended and spoke to him

Fred obliged him and then watched closely as the man exposed the three smaller, coloured cables within. He threaded their copper ends into apertures inside a black box, screwed them down and screwed the box closed.

Fred borrowed a book from the Public Library called ‘Electricity and Magnetism’. He was fascinated. He returned before the evening performance and the electrician showed him how the various sets of lights worked. He talked about bulbs and filaments, conductors and currants, voltage and all manner of things. He showed him the noisy generator where the power came from and Fred stayed to help him with the show, climbing up the great high ladder and changing bulbs. It was marvellous how this dangerous charge of energy from the generator was tamed and transformed into something that could give clean light and heat, and could power machines. He returned again on Sunday.

‘We’re always a bit short handed,’ said the electrician. ‘ Why don’t you join us? Come on the road with us. We’re off back to London next week for the big annual show. You’re a bright lad. You could learn to be an electrician.’

‘Thank’s, but I don’t think I could do that. I’ve got sisters to look after and I’ve got a job.’

‘Well give it some thought,’ the electrician said persuasively. ‘You could be travelling all around the country with us. We’re here ‘til next weekend.’

Returning to work that week Fred felt the mundanity of his routine and the claustrophobia of the dusty factory closing in on him. He had always ignored it before. He sat down and talked with Nella that evening and told her about the electrician’s offer. Her answer surprised him.

‘You should go, Freddie. Get out of this small town and see something of the country. Learn something new.’

Nella confided in him. ‘Bill wants to marry me, but I won’t until Gracie is older. He says he will take care of us both, but there is father too. Bill says he will wait for me until Gracie is independent and that’s quite a few years yet.’

Fred felt a surge of emotion at this news. Bill was a decent, honest man and he was as happy as he could be that Nella would have a future with him.

Nella continued, ‘The family are nearly all grown up and making their own way, so it’s time for you to do something for yourself. The factory will always be here if you decide to come back, but you know, the country may be at war again in a few years time and we’ll all have to do our bit. You and all our brothers and sweethearts may be called up before too long so go and be free while you can.’

His father said ‘A bit old t’ be running off t’ join the circus, aren't you, lad? But better go while you can.’

When he said goodbye to his workmates they all thought he had gone raving mad to be giving up a good, steady job, but he collected his last pay packet at the end of the week and walked out of the factory gates without regret. Nella made a special meat and potato pie that weekend and the family presented him with a brown leather suitcase with his name embossed upon it. His sisters all shed a few tears of sadness and happiness for him. He shook hands with his father and brothers and he gave his sisters a quick hug which was the nearest thing he ever got to a display of physical affection.

*****

Dad gave me my values and somuch more. It was from his example I learned how to be a parent and, of course, he encouraged me to get the best education I could. I followed my aunt into the nursing profession, eventually becoming a midwife and then a health visitor. This caused me to move from the West Midlands of England where I was born, first to Southampton and then to Edinburgh where I now live.

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