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QUEEN VICTORIA'S REALM 1837-40:
In their previous adventures Jane and Sam had tackled child abuse in Victorian cotton factories, coal mines and schools. Now they are swept up in another history mystery when they are asked to find out about life in the Victorian workhouse. CHAPTER 1: THE WORKHOUSE SCANDAL Breakfast: to the seaside Sam and Jane had just tucked into their breakfast of tea, toast, scrambled eggs and bacon in Lord Ashley’s grand London mansion where they were staying. It was the school holidays; they were both looking forward to going to the seaside on Mr Brunel’s new steam train. In one hour’s time they would be at Paddington station. The train would leave Paddington in a cloud of sparks, steam, smoke and soot, its whistle shrieking loud and shrill to warn people and animals to get off the railway line. Beryl their maid had already packed their buckets, spades, towels and bathing costumes. On the way to the station Sam and Jane would pick up their friends Tom and Alice who were living with Mr Miller, their guardian. Mr Miller had adopted Tom and Alice after Sam and Jane had rescued them from a life of white slavery in a Manchester cotton mill. Lord Ashley Lord Ashley was hidden behind his newspaper, The Times. Jane knew that he was there because of the odd grunt that she could hear. She feared the worst: When Lord Ashley began to grunt something had upset him, usually something Sam had done. Last week Sam had painted Lord Ashley’s favourite spaniel red and black. Sam argued that Lord Ashley told him to paint the dog, using the box of paints Mr Miller had given him, and that was what he had done! Luckily for Sam the paint had washed off. Often when Lord Ashley was upset at something Sam had not done, Jane knew that he would ask her to solve a mystery or problem. What problem might Lord Ashley have spotted in the paper? What questions might he ask her to answer? The letter Charles the butler walked quietly into the dining room. He carried a silver salver, a special kind of plate, with a letter on it. Lord Ashley put down his paper, took the letter, thanked Charles, opened it and read it quickly. Sam and Tom noticed the clenched jaw, the piercing look, the knitted eyebrows and wrinkled forehead. Trouble lay ahead. Lord Ashley coughed and banged his teacup down on the table. Silence. Sam and Jane quietly put down their knives and forks and turned to hear what Lord Ashley had to say. Starvation! ‘The Times story alleges that thousands of children are starving to death in England’s new workhouses. This is even worse than white slavery in the cotton mills. Over the past three years the government has split the county into 600 workhouse areas, Unions, and built workhouses in 350 of them. Each Union looks after the old, the insane, orphans, the sick and men and women who are out of work who live in its area. The union workhouses are just like giant prisons, once orphans go inside they cannot escape. In the North of England riots have broken out against the building of any more workhouses.’ Spies ‘Mr Dickens wants you to find out what you can about life in workhouses and try to answer the question, who or what has caused the deaths of the workhouse children? I have written to Mr Miller for help. Mr Miller is due here in ten minutes with Alice and Tom. All four of you will go as a family of orphans to the workhouse. First you will dress up in rags from Jane’s fancy dress chest. We are asking you to solve the mystery of Britain’s dead workhouse children.’ The orphans A loud bang on the bronze front door knocker announced that Tom and Alice had arrived. With whoops of delight the children greeted each other, the girls chattering away like magpies. At once all four rushed upstairs to Jane’s bedroom to change into their ragged orphan clothes. The boys put on boots with holes in their toes and soles, grey short cotton trousers that were worn out and old bottomless check shirts with ragged collars and worn cuffs. Jane and Alice both chose pretty faded torn blue frocks with ragged hems and holes in their sleeves. The girls unlaced their new shiny black leather shoes and slipped on pairs of worn out and broken wooden clogs that were far too large for their feet. The workhouse children The second that they had dressed as orphans the children raced down to the garden to play hide and seek so as to get their hands and faces dirty. When they came back into the sitting room the girls' hair hung down to their shoulders in long and matted strands, the boys’ faces and hands were filthy. Mr Miller and Lord Ashley looked at the children in horror and disbelief. To the workhouse Mr Miller’s coach passed through street after street of new houses on the edge of London before taking the turnpike road to Andover. Jane sat quietly, inwardly afraid, as she had read The Times article and knew that the workhouses were run like concentration camps. Her writing case, Cocky Pheasant, Leader the dog and Cleo the cat were shrunk safe inside her thimble sized cauldron, tucked into a pocket in her blue dress. She might need them to rescue them all from danger. Again she was struck with horror about how workhouse children might have died: was it from living in filth, squalor, disease, starvation, cruelty or cold blooded murder? Alice and Tom Alice was chatting to Jane, talking about the dolls and other toys that Mrs Miller had bought her. When Jane mentioned the workhouse a look of horror crossed Alice’s face. She said, Andover workhouse On the edge of Andover the coach swung off the road through a pair of tall iron gates with a slogan above it, ‘Work Makes You Free’. The workhouse entrance The coach stopped outside the entrance, Mr Miller rang the bell. A servant, a crippled old woman wearing a long dirty black dress showed Mr Miller and the children in to the entrance hall. The children sat down on brown wooden benches. Mr Miller explained: Mr McDougal, the workhouse master Mr McDougal was the workhouse master; Jane feared that he would be like the brutal, sadistic drunken workhouse master that she had read about in a history novel. How would she and Sam solve the mystery of the missing children? How and why had they died? Five minutes later a very fat, red faced middle aged man entered the workhouse waiting room. Jane noticed that he was wearing black boots, baggy trousers that hung down from his bulging belly, a red waistcoat, high collared white shirt and a long black coat. He had combed strands of thin black hair back over his balding head. Cauliflower ears stuck out like jug handles from the side of his head. Two small piggy black eyes rested above a bulbous nose with a large wart on one side. A pair of thick blubbery lips and a weak chin covered with thin black stubble completed the revolting picture. Jane couldn’t help thinking that he looked a bit like a robin that Cleo her cat had once chewed up. The orphans’ farewell Mr McDougal cleared his throat and in a squeaky voice addressed Mr Miller Mr Miller leaves Mr McDougal left the room, saying that Mrs McDougal would arrive soon. Mr Miller told the children: Mrs McDougal ‘Mr McDougal, I will take the girls to the cleansing room, you make sure that you get the boys clean and dressed in their workhouse clothes. We will then show them around the workhouse and set them to work. We will all meet again at supper time.’ Workhouse girls ‘Girls, take off your clothes and shoes at once, put them on the floor, they will be burnt. We must make sure that you have no lice or fleas.’ Workhouse uniform A second order rang out: CHAPTER 3: THE WORKHOUSE: THE CONCENTRATION CAMP The workhouse tour With horror Jane realised that she and Alice would live separate lives from the boys, any families who went in to the workhouse were split up. The Workhouse was in two halves, one for girls and women, and the other for boys and men. Each sex had its own staircases, cut off from each other. Mrs McDougal told the girls to follow her, she would take them to the room where they slept, the girls dormitory. The two girls trudged up bare stone stairs to the top of the building. Under the eaves the girls’ bedroom ran the length of the building. Along the wall stood two rows of iron beds on the bare wooden floors. Mrs McDougal gave Jane and Alice two empty beds at the end of the room. On each bed was a lumpy cotton mattress and a wool blanket full of holes. Jane could see lice and bed begs crawling out of the mattresses. The stench was awful, there were no proper toilets. The laundry and women’s yard ‘Follow me’, barked Mrs McDougal, turning down a flight of stairs at the end of the room. A minute later the girls found themselves standing in the laundry. A dozen women were hard at work scrubbing, boiling, ironing, airing and folding clothes and blankets. Hunger All of the women were pale, skinny and skeletal, with pinched cheeks, staring eyes and stick like arms and legs. Jane gasped; at once she knew that they were starving. Mrs McDougal noticed the puzzled look on Alice’s face and said, ‘These idle women are picking oakum, old rope. They use their oakum picks to unpick the threads in old lengths of rope. The strands are in turn used to make rough cloth. Everyone has to work in the workhouse. We have no room for idle hands. Only the crippled and the sick are excused work. They live in the sick wards. You will be doing the same work, picking oakum, in the girls’ yard when you are not in the school.’ Jane noticed two piles of rough, crudely made wooden coffins stacked in one corner of the yard. Half of the coffins were tiny, made for children, the others were adult size. A feeling of disgust and horror gripped Jane. At once she realised why so many coffins were needed. The gardens ‘Come with me’, ordered Mrs McDougal, The schoolroom After walking round the garden Mrs McDougal remarked: Oakum picking ‘Come with me girls’, said Mrs McDougal, ‘We are going to the women’s yard where you will learn how to pick oakum. Oakum is old bits of rope, you have to turn each piece into strands that can be used again. Each of you will work with one of the women. I have already told them that they will have to teach you how to use the oakum picker.’ CHAPTER 4: THE WORKHOUSE: CRUSHING BONES Sam and Tom Mrs McDougal, Alice and Jane had just left the entrance hall. Mr McDougal stood up and swayed unsteadily on his feet as he told Sam and Tom to follow him to the wash room. Tom could smell brandy on his breath. Half an hour later Mr McDougal had made sure that the boys had been scrubbed clean with soap and cold water, shorn like a pair of sheep and kitted out in their workhouse uniform. Both lads wore tight fitting peak less caps on their head, coarse long sleeved cotton shirts and short baggy linen trousers that came down to their ankles. On their feet they had heavy wooden clogs with steel toe caps. The workhouse tour Sam and Tom trudged around the workhouse at Mr McDougal’s heels, finally ending up in the men’s and boys’ work yards. Tall walls ran around each yard, locked and bolted doors stopped any escape. In one courtyard about fifty men and boys sat in rows. Each had a hammer which they used to break rocks into small stones that they put into wicker baskets. Mr McDougal said that the stones were used for mending the local roads. In the second yard the men and boys were working in groups of three or four. Mr McDougal commented: The bone crushing yard There were ten groups, about forty men and boys in all. Each group stood around a stone trough in which were broken bones. Two of them were lifting a heavy bone crusher and pounding the bones into dust. The others cleared the bone dust into bags and broke up large bones with a heavy iron bar until the pieces were small enough to be crushed. The stench of rotten bone marrow filled the air; Sam turned and was violently sick. ‘Pull yourself together boy’, snarled Mr McDougal, The bone crushers Mr McDougal ordered one man to leave his group and come with him to an empty trough. The man was tall and skinny, his ribs stuck out and looked like a bird cage. He walked with a limp. Bones arrive Slowly Mr McDougal rose to his feet and took a swig from a brandy bottle in his pocket. Swaying on his feet, he told the man: The riot Within a second the men had dropped their iron bars, sacks and bone crushers and rushed in a howling body towards the bones. Fighting each other, they grabbed any bone that they could get their hands on and gnawed away at the rotten flesh. Mr McDougal stood quietly watching the riot, waiting for it to end. Tom turned away; it was his turn to be violently sick. Mr McDougal waited for the riot to stop, after ten minutes the men and boys went back to their bone crushing troughs. Once Mr McDougal was sure that Sam and Tom were hard at work, he lurched out of the court yard. The Workhouse day For the rest of the day Tom and Sam lifted the bone crusher. By evening their hands were red raw and covered with blisters. Tom noticed that as men broke the new bones they sucked the marrow out of them. At seven o’clock the workhouse bell clanged, it was time for supper. The men and boys filed into the workhouse dining room. They came in through a door that led into their part of the workhouse, the women and girls trooped in through their own entrance. The two sexes sat apart on their own tables. Sam was able to make eye contact with Jane. Both could lip read, they told each other what had happened that day. Jane learned that Tom was going to become an apprentice chimney sweep. Sam and Tom were starving; they were horrified to find that supper was a small plate of boiled pig potatoes and a glass of water. After supper they trooped upstairs to their iron beds in the boys’ dormitory. The boys plot The boys all gathered around Sam and Tom’s beds. For an hour they told them about the nightmare lives they led. Almost every week one of the boys died from disease or starvation. Mrs McDougal was a violent bully; Mr McDougal was often drunk and beat them without mercy. They showed Tom the bruises and unhealed cuts that covered their bodies. Their leader, Oliver, said: The plan Oliver turned to Tom and said, CHAPTER 5: THE WORKHOUSE SUPPER: SAM ASKS FOR MORE Breakfast Next day’s breakfast was a bowl of weak gruel [oatmeal boiled in water] and a thin slice of bread. Tom’s and Sam’s stomachs were clamped to their backbones, it was clear that Mr and Mrs McDougal were starving the children to death. They were giving them and the adults only enough food to keep them alive, no wonder the children who had been in the workhouse for over a month looked like stick insects. Breakfast was ending when Mrs McDougal approached Tom and Sam’s table. She stood over them and, looking at Sam, said: Tom the chimney sweep
‘Tom Miller, tomorrow you will become a parish chimney sweep apprentice. You will work for one of our local sweeps. He has asked us to provide another boy. He always has two boy chimney sweeps from the workhouse, last week one of them went to live in a far better place. You will replace him. He will come for you first thing in the morning.’ The working day After breakfast Sam, Tom, Jane and Alice went to work in the children’s yard. Alice and Jane joined the oakum pickers. Sam and Tom were given their own spaces in the stone breaking yard. Mr McDougal handed each of them a pile of rocks, a short hammer and a basket. He turned to all of the boys in the stone breaking yard and said: The morning For the rest of the morning all that Sam and Tom could hear was the tap, tap, tap of hammers as the boys and men broke up their rocks. There was a short lunch break for a lump of cheese, water and dry bread. The children then spent an hour in the school room, followed by stone breaking. Sam wondered where he had seen men working as stone breakers. Of course, the famous picture of Nelson Mandela and the other prisoners in the prison courtyard on Robben Island, South Africa. At 7 o’clock the workhouse bell clanged, it was time for supper. The workhouse supper Sam, Tom and the rest of the boys trooped wearily into the large hall with its cold stone flagstone floor and tight shut doors and windows. The stale, musty air in the hall stank of over boiled soup and unwashed bodies. The boys slumped down on their benches, too tired to talk. At the end of the hall the girls were already seated; Sam gave Jane a quick look, she smiled back. At one end of the room stood a large copper cauldron and basket full of tiny pieces of bread. Mr McDougal was standing by the cauldron wearing a filthy striped apron and holding a ladle. Mrs McDougal was helping him with a team of six workhouse women. On one side of the cauldron were piles of bronze bowls and wooden trays. Mr McDougal was ready to serve supper: a bowl of gruel and a hunk of bread. Into each bowl he ladled the gruel; the women took trays of soup bowls and bread to the tables. The evening meal When each pauper was ready to eat their bowl of gruel and slice of dry bread Mr McDougal said a prayer: Sam asks for more Sam turned and slowly walked up the room holding his bowl and spoon to where Mr and Mrs McDougal stood: The end of the meal Mrs McDougal turned to Sam and screamed: Jane’s Letter Jane knew that Sam was in deadly danger. Mr Miller had said he would return at the end of the week, he was staying close by in Lord Newkey’s country house. By then it might be too late. When the girls were asleep Jane slipped out of bed. Her transformit spell turned Cocky Pheasant into a carrier pigeon. Cleo’s eyes shone like torches in the dark so Jane could write a letter to Mr Miller. She told Mr Miller to come to their rescue at once and tell Lord Ashley of their danger. Jane tied the letter firmly to Cocky’s leg and told him to go the country house nearby where Mr Miller was staying. Cocky soared into the night sky, as he disappeared into the inky darkness Jane’s heart beat quickly. She was filled with fear, what would happen if Cocky failed to deliver the letter? CHAPTER 6: THE WORKHOUSE: THE BOARD OF GUARDIANS The Board of Guardians When the boys and girls had gone to their dormitories, Mrs McDougal had written to the Board of Guardians to hold a special meeting the next afternoon. The Board of Guardians was in charge of the workhouse and employed Mr and Mrs McDougal. Next morning the chimney sweep arrived to take Tom away before breakfast. As Mr McDougal was ill in bed, after breakfast Mrs McDougal set Sam and the other boys to work in the bone crushing yard. By 1 o’clock all of the Guardians had arrived. Sam arrives At once Mrs McDougal fetched Sam to meet them in their Board Room. The Guardians sat in high backed chairs on one side of a large, oval polished mahogany table, Sam stood opposite. Mrs McDougal said, The Guardians respond The chairman of the guardian looked at Sam and said, The new Guardian As he looked towards Sam, Sam’s heart began to thump. Where had he seen him before? The new Guardian began to speak in a quiet voice. The Guardians’ response The Guardians all looked stunned, their faces turned bright red. Turning to Mrs McDougal Mr Cooper gave her an order: The Guardians act Mr Cooper went on: Tom in danger A knock on the door meant that Mrs McDougal had returned with Jane and Alice. As she trooped into the room with the children, Mr Cooper said: Jane’s seeing mirror
began to throb, the sign of deadly danger. She took out the mirror and looked at it. The mirror showed that Tom had been put to work cleaning a narrow, crooked chimney in an old house. He was in danger of falling to his death or getting jammed in the flue. The picture on her mirror changed, it showed a map of how to get to the house where Tom was cleaning the chimney. Jane stood up and said, To the rescue Immediately Mr Cooper also rose to his feet: CHAPTER 7: THE WORKHOUSE: THE APPRENTICE CHIMNEY SWEEP The apprentice chimney sweep In the coach Mr Cooper and Mr Miller sat in silence. Jane had not yet had time to talk to Sam when Sam piped up: Child chimney sweeps At this Alice, Sam and Jane talked about what they knew of Victorian boy chimney sweeps. Jane said that she was reading a novel that was a: Danger As the coach raced along, Mr Cooper and Mr Miller became more and more worried. They realised that the coach was returning along the road that they had used that morning. Where was it going? As it swung through the gates of the drive to Lord Nowkey’s mansion their worst fears were confirmed. The house stood in a large park, as they approached the house they could see thick black smoke billowing from over a dozen chimneys. The chimney The coach stopped in the stable courtyard: on one side stood a battered carriage with CHIMNEY SWEEP painted on one side. Mr Cooper and the children rushed into the sitting room. The sweep said that he had sent his new boy up the chimney an hour ago with a candle, brush and soot sack. Jane took out her seeing mirror; it showed that Tom had reached as far up the winding chimney as he could go, some fifteen metres. The chimney was pitch black; Tom Tom could not see a thing. His candle had gone out. If he slipped, he would be certain to fall and get jammed in the chimney. Tom was stuck, quivering with fear. If Jane did not act, he would be certain to die. Cleo stalked along just behind her. Jane quickly told Cleo what to do, using a mind message. As Mr Cooper talked to the master chimney sweep, unseen Cleo climbed quickly towards where Tom was stuck on a small ledge. Tom looked down; he could see two lights coming towards him. The cat’s eyes lit up the chimney. They pointed out where Tom could safely stand on his way down. Tom returns Step by step Cleo guided Tom down the chimney. At the bottom Mr Cooper and the children waited. They could hear scuffling sounds in the chimney that grew closer and closer. With a whoosh a large pile of soot and a bird’s nest fell into the grate. When the soot cloud had settled they could see a pair of bright blue eyes staring out of what looked like a black scarecrow. The scarecrow moved and croaked, Lord Ashley’s house On receiving Jane’s letter Mr Miller had sent a message to Lord Ashley that they would be returning to London at once. Mr Dickens ‘Mr Dickens, you have already met my nephew and niece who are staying with me, Jane and Sam. I would also like to introduce you to Alice and Tom Miller. They are orphans whom Mr Miller, the government inspector, has adopted. On their last adventure they all found for you about the schools from hell in Yorkshire. Now they will tell you about another scandal that you asked them to investigate: life in the new workhouses and the mystery of the missing workhouse children.’ Mr Dickens and the children Mr Dickens had opened his notebook and dipped his quill pen into its inkwell. For an hour he asked the children question after question about workhouse life and why workhouse children might have died. His pen raced over the paper as he wrote down what they told him. At last he stopped, both he and the children were exhausted. Lord Ashley rang a bell, Beryl the tea maid came at once, and Lord Ashley told her what he wanted. Five minutes later Beryl carried into the room a large tray loaded with jugs of orange squash, lemonade, a pot of tea and milk, glasses and cups and saucers. A second servant, Anne, brought in a tray groaning with fresh ham, egg & cress and cucumber sandwiches, crumpets and muffins, butter and raspberry and strawberry jam. The children tucked in, stuffing themselves until they burst. Beryl and Anne cleared the trays away. Oliver Twist Lord Ashley told the children:
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