Shadows of the Workhouse

look after them?”
    “No’ as ’ow I knows on, do you, Lil?”
    “Nah, no one.”
    “They will have to come with me, and the effects sold to contribute to the Guardians’ expenses.”
    He looked around the room at the meagre furniture – one bed, one table, and two chairs, a small cupboard, a washing bowl, a chamber pot, a candlestick, some tin plates and cups – all back-breakingly acquired by the father, to provide for his family.
    “Will someone get them ready while I take an inventory?”
    Two women stepped forward, and Frank grabbed the back of the bed, clutching Peggy. “Where’s Mummy?” he asked plaintively.
    “Yer mum’s dead, luvvy, more’s the pity.”
    “No, my dad’s dead,” he insisted.
    “An so’s yer mum, dearie. Found dead vis mornin’ in ye office.”
    “Blue, she was,” chorused the women to each other.
    “Froze stiff, vey say, an’ soakin’ wet.”
    “Wet froo, an’ all, and ’er wiv her weak chest.”
    “No’ surprisin’, is it?”
    Frank looked from one to another, and horror struck his heart. Was his mother dead? He had promised his father that he would look after her! What had gone wrong? Peggy was beginning to whimper again. Kind hands were placed on him. He clung to the bars of the bedstead with all his strength and turned his back on the women, holding Peggy, who was beginning to scream now, between his body and the head of the bed.
    “You will have to get him free,” said the man. “They cannot stay here alone.”
    It took four women to loosen his fingers from the bars. A child’s fingers can be incredibly strong if they are curled around something. Eventually two women were holding him and Peggy in their arms. He was biting and scratching and kicking in a hysteria of fear and rage. He shouted at the woman holding Peggy, “Give her to me. She’s my sister. Don’t take her away.” Tears were streaming down his face.
    “We will have to go. Does anyone know where the key is kept?” said the man.
    The door of the room was locked, and they made their way downstairs. The woman holding Frank was badly bruised. They walked through the streets, collecting a crowd of onlookers as they went.
    Frank and Peggy were admitted to the infants’ section of the workhouse, where boys and girls under seven years of age were housed. They were undressed and bathed and treated not unkindly. In fact, Peggy’s tiny stature and wispy blonde hair evoked a stream of sympathy from the women who received them. Frank had exhausted his fury, and sullenly allowed himself to be washed and his hair examined for fleas.
    “We’ll have to cut it off. You know the rules.”
    He submitted to having his head shaved, but when he saw a large woman doing the same to Peggy, he rushed at her and butted her in the stomach with his head. She collapsed onto a chair winded, then grabbed the boy and thrashed him soundly, whilst another officer shaved Peggy.
    “It’s a shame, cutting this pretty hair. But it will soon grow again.”
    Poor little Peggy looked like a tiny Martian when they had finished, and Frank sobbed with impotent rage.
    The children were dressed in workhouse clothes and taken to the playroom to meet the other children. We would not call it a playroom today, because there was nothing to play with. It was just a large, bare room, about forty feet long by twenty feet wide, with high, uncurtained windows and rough floorboards.
    “Now you play quietly with the others until tea time.” The door was shut, and the officer left.
    They stood shyly in the doorway, looking at about forty other children, all wearing the same clothes. Frank, acutely self-conscious that he and Peggy had no hair, tried to hide her under his jacket. A boy of about his age ran up to them, shouting: “You’re new. You’re new. Where’ve you come from? What’s your name, baldy? An’ who’s this little squirt, then?” He pulled at Peggy’s arm and tickled her scalp.
    Frank flung himself at the boy, fighting with savage fury. All the rage that had been building up during the day was concentrated in his attack. The rest of the children stood back to watch the fun. The other boy was no slouch when it came to fighting and the two were evenly matched. There were no adults in the room to stop them.
    Peggy was terrified and ran screaming to a corner, where she crouched down, hiding her head. A little girl with dark hair left the others, came over to her and put her small arms around the sobbing child.