by Chris Pearce

Created on: April 10, 2010   Last Updated: May 06, 2012

(Industrial revolution period, 1810s, northern England. When their rented cottage in the little town of Middleton is sold to make way for a new factory, the Wakefields decide to move to Manchester.)

The next week was one of great upheaval for the Wakefields, though the children saw the impending move as an adventure, asking many questions about Manchester and where they would live and what they would do and eat. They were thrilled at the prospect of not having to eat potatoes all the time. Benjamin wanted to be an apprentice in a factory and become a spinner and earn lots of money. As for Emily, she would mind Thomas and Catherine. She liked the thought of being a little mother. As a spinner, Sarah would earn more than Henry, a humble handloom weaver, and teased him about it. He kept telling them they wouldn’t be in the city for long and would come back to the country, where he insisted they belong.

They would take everything with them, right down to the matting on the floor and the large stones that kept the doors shut, just in case the doors at their new house didn’t close properly.

Henry worried that their new house wouldn’t be large enough for all their belongings and thought of leaving the second loom behind. In the end, he decided to take it. If there was no room for it, he knew he could sell it to another weaver. Manchester was full of weavers, which made him wonder if he would get enough work. He would be too far from most merchants he had worked for at Middleton, but with Sarah working, it wouldn’t matter so much.

Something he hadn’t told her was that they might have to live on the bottom level of a terrace house, below the ground. They couldn’t afford much more, if they were to save up and return to the country. He wished he had arranged an apartment through an agent for one of the city’s mills, but such was Henry’s reputation for violence against agents that none had been game to visit him of late. Still, he was sure he would find a place suitable for his family to live in and for him to work in. And he wouldn’t be subject to the abuse of a factory master and could work in peace and quiet from home, the same as at Middleton. Then in the evenings he could go out for a drink and cards. Perhaps the city wasn’t going to be so bad after all, he felt.

Sarah busied herself finishing off some sewing, making sure the children had warm clothing for the trip, the weather being quite wintry. She visited

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