Read Made in Myrtle Street (Prequel) for Free Online

handcart piled high with their personal possessions and their two young sons. His father, James, had had a trade as a wood turner but their life in Manchester had been tough as for most working class families. Utilitarian back-to-back housing with flooding drains from privies shared between a number of homes and the crushing poverty of unemployment meant disease was rife but treatment was poor. There they had had few rights and little property but the growing industry of Salford had offered many of them a beacon of hope. Arriving in their new house they had been given a hand to move in their meagre furnishings by the neighbours who also supplied cups of tea, sandwiches for lunch, food for tea, a minding service for the children and an introduction into the social framework of the street.
    The Craigies’ dream of a secure environment for their young family had, however, been cruelly shattered when, only two years after Edward’s birth, his father James had died. In a desperate plight, his widowed mother, Martha, and her five young children had moved a hundred yards up Ellor Street into her mother’s house in Turner Street. There she had been only a ten minute walk from some of the large houses around Langworthy Road where, to make ends meet, she had taken a job as a charwoman.
    Edward gripped the rail and spread his feet to brace himself against the gentle swaying. He stared down into the inky blackness of the sea edged by the white frond as it lapped against the side of the ship. He hadn’t felt deprived by the hardship or even aware of it. Only the families of the shopkeepers had some extra luxuries and that was their right. Fortunately, however, where the state failed the community cared. Neighbours would look out for the children, they would frequent the streets, spare the time to talk and, without being intrusive, they understood and cared about each other's needs. Shop proprietors stood behind their counters and they knew the customers and their families. They exchanged news and gossip, and formed an essential element of a mutually supportive social structure. They were aware of problems that families might have and were prepared to help when and where they could.
    Edward had grown up in this tough but caring environment of late Victorian Salford without a father to provide a guiding hand and dependent on his big brothers for both sustenance and support. At home he had had his sister, Sarah, to share both his dreams and his troubles with, but it was the streets of Salford that had given him a deep insight into social and economic interactions. Streets where the neighbours were a watchful and guiding extension of his family. He felt sure that the people in Myrtle Street would provide the same support if it was needed in his absence but for how long before the sustaining bond was stretched too thin?
    He knew from the dark night stillness on board the ships that there were 15,000 Salford men sharing the same pain and the same thoughts. There was only the distant rumble of the engines accompanied by the faint swish of the waves against the bows of the ships. The silence of the soldiers lay oppressively over the vessels.
    Out of the darkness, Edward heard the lone but familiar voice of Liam as he started to sing ‘ Shine on Harvest Moon’ – one of the popular music hall numbers of the day. Shortly, the robust tones of Big Charlie joined in followed by others who were grouped around him.  Edward looked up to see his two friends standing at the rail of the deck above. Very soon, the popular song was being taken up by troops on the neighbouring ships and within moments the whole convoy was singing.
    The tension was broken and the bond of comrades-in-arms was sealed. During the next day they resumed training and, after being joined by other troop ships, including the battleship ‘Ocean’ and the cruiser ‘Minerva’,  the first fleet to leave British shores since the Napoleonic wars headed out into open