The Rope Carrier (13 page)

“Won't tha come, too?” she whispered. “Tha'd like our Annie, and she'd like thee.”

The Dame smiled and shook her head. For the first time, Minnie saw tears in her eyes.

“Tha's a grand little rope lass, and I'll miss thee sore, but me and Jack shall stay here. We're nicker peckers, we are, and we'll keep the work going so that Josh can return, if he's fit and Sheffield's safe for him. And there'll be something good coming from these terrible times, for Jem Kilner says how they're going to set up a society that'll link the different trades together. They can help each other then, and set about getting things right. Our Josh will want to be part of that, so get him well for us.”

Minnie linked her arm through Jack's. He looked pleased and awkward, and blushed deep crimson as she kissed his cheek.

Chapman took Chalky's leading-rope and put it into Minnie's hand. “Set his nose up Salter Lane and he'll never falter, but lead thee to the cave. Tha'll be in Castleton tomorrow afternoon.”

Minnie took hold of the rope and sighed. “Here we go.
Carry a rope and walk for ever
.” She whispered it in Chalky's ear as they moved off slowly, into the darkening dusk.

Three women sat by the fire warming their hands, their faces lit by the flickering light of the flames. Netty was sixty-two. She was fat and round-faced, her cheeks pink and silver hair shining golden in the firelight. She looked up into the darkness of the cave roof hanging above and around them like a giant cloak.

“Aye, it's been a grand day and no mistaking. Whoever would have thought it, her coming to visit us.”

“Now come on, Netty. 'Twere not really us she came visiting, 'twere the cave.” Sally, grey-haired, wiry and sharp as ever, insisted on the literal truth. “Still,” she conceded, “'twere grand to get a chance to see her. Such a little lass she looks. Hard to believe that she's our queen.”

Minnie smiled silently, staring into the fire, unusually quiet. Her hair was grey and thinning but she was still a strong woman, with hands like leather.

“Our Minnie's awestruck with her moment of glory,” said Netty. “Just fancy, Minnie, the famous ropemaker, demonstrating her craft to the young queen.”

Minnie suddenly laughed. “I think she liked us. The way she asked us questions and listened all serious to what we said. They'd have pulled down our cottage and got rid of it, like all the others, if the children hadn't made such a fuss. They'd have made it all look neat if they'd had their way. They'd like to clear us out, too; awkward old women that we are, insisting on dying where we were born, messing up the place. Thank goodness the children stick up for us. Sally's lads wouldn't have us moved.”

Sally laughed. “Sally's lads? Netty's lads really.”

“No,” said Netty. “Sally's lads is what they are. Ever since that day, so long ago, when we came struggling into Castleton in such a desperate plight. Eeh, dear! I thought you'd strangle me, the way you looked at first, and I knew it was hard. There was me turning up with all those little 'uns, and you just lost your child and no more like to come.”

“Aye,” Sally laughed. “I could have strangled thee, it's true, but then . . . but then I saw the state of thee and I looked into the baskets and I saw those little lads.”

“We were worried for a moment,” said Minnie. “The way thee looked at them, Sally, we thought tha'd eat them. But then before we knew, tha'd got them fed and tucked up warm in tha bed and . . . well, Sally's lads they've been, ever since.”

“I've been counting 'em all,” said Netty. “Twenty-eight grandchildren we've got, and now there's the great grandchildren coming. They'd never have survived if we hadn't shared them about. I just wish my Josh could be here to see them.”

“I wish he could, too,” said Minnie. “But I'm glad he went back to Sheffield afore he died. He were that proud to belong to that society that they formed. Sheffield Society for Constitutional Information. What struggles they had.”

“Yes,” said Sally. “He'd be glad to see the three of us still sat here in this cave refusing to budge. He'd be glad o'that. And tha's had enough little 'uns to satisfy us all, Netty.”

“And a good thing too,” Netty insisted. “Marianne was always Minnie's special one, with her funny old rope dolly. And what with Minnie refusing all the best fellows. She's wedded to her craft all right, showing her knots and twists to the queen. Grandma knew what she said when she spoke those words. ‘Carry a rope and walk for ever. She shall be a spinner.'”

All the characters belonging to Minnie's family are fictional. However, the cave they lived in is the Peak Cavern in Castleton, Derbyshire. Ropemakers' families inhabited the cavern during the eighteenth century, and I have made the details of their lives as historically accurate as I can. The surnames Dakin, Whittingham, Marrison and Eyre are all associated with real ropemakers of Castleton.

Queen Victoria visited the cave in 1842. Three old women were said to be the last inhabitants of the cave. They have been named as Sal Waugh, Betty Blowitt and Mary (Nancy) Knight, who was the last to die in 1845.

Similarly, Josh's family of file cutters are all fictional characters, though I have tried to make the description of their lives realistic.

Joseph Mather, John Bennet and Vicar Wilkinson were all real people, and the events relating to them actually took place in Sheffield in 1791.

A story is told of a little girl who was set in the stocks. I cannot find any documentary proof that this happened, but it is often reported in history books referring to that period.

This is the way that R.E. Leader mentions it in his book,
Sheffield in the Eighteenth Century
:

“A little girl in the street was incited by some mischievous fellow to go up to a gentleman as he walked along and to say:

They burnt his books,

And scared his rooks,

And set his stacks on fire

– the well known doggerel relating to the rioters' attack on Broom Hall. The child innocently went in front of the gentleman, and, bobbing a curtsey, lisped out the lines.

‘What my dear?' asked the vicar, for it was none other.

The child repeated it. ‘Yes, my dear,' said he, ‘come along with me!' and, leading her by the hand, he took her to the church gates and had her put into the stocks.”

I would like to thank the following people for their

kind help and advice:

The staff of Sheffield Local Studies Library;

Sheila and Bernard Callan, and the Abbeydale Grange

Local History Workshop;

John Capes of ‘Rare and Racy', Antiquarian Books, Maps and

Engravings, Division Street, Sheffield.

Theresa Tomlinson was born in Sussex. The daughter of a vicar, she spent her early childhood in various places in the north of England. As a child she had no interest in writing, but she loved reading. Her main interest was drawing and painting. She attended Hull College of Art, and later trained as a teacher at Hull College of Education. She taught as an infant teacher for five years.

Theresa and her husband live in Whitby, North Yorkshire, where Theresa spent her childhood. Over the years she has acquired an outstanding reputation for her historical novels, particularly those, like
Wolf Girl
, set on the north-east coast of England.

Shortlisted twice for the Carnegie Medal and for the Sheffield Children's Book Award, Theresa takes a keen interest in the area where she lives.

Recent visits to Turkey have fuelled her enthusiasm for the ancient mythology of that part of the world. Her scrupulous research has resulted in two epic stories,
The Moon Riders
and
Voyage of the Snake Lady
.

BAXTER, JOHN
Joseph Mather
, biographical notes, in the
Holberry Society Bulletin
, September 1978.

FERGUSON, JAMES
A description of the Devil's cave at Castletown
, from the
London Chronicle
, November 19th, 1772.

FIELD, E.
The Nicker Peckers. A brief history of file manufacture
, article in the
English Steel Corporation Review
, Spring 1967.

HALL Dr J.C.
Trades of Sheffield as Influencing Life and Health. File Cutters and Grinders
, 1865.

HAMPSHIRE, GEORGE
The Sheffield Pioneers
, article in
The Sheffield Spectator
, June 1982.

LEADER, ROBERT E.
Sheffield in the Eighteenth Century
, 1905 (Sir W.C. Leng & Co. Ltd).

PAULUS, CAROLUS
The Manor and Parish of Eccleshall
, 1927.

RAWLINSON, R.
Twilight of a Ropewalk
, article in
Derbyshire Countryside
, April – May 1950.

WILSON, JOHN
The Songs of Joseph Mather
, 1862 (Pawson and Brailsford).

WOODALL, BRIAN
Peak Cavern: A Guide to this Famous Show-Cave; its Formation, History & Folklore
, 1976 (published by the author).