“Agnes, Betty, and Margaret, these are the new girls — Joyce, Marjorie, and Audrey. I expect you to make sure they settle in and help them out if they need it.” The three young kitchen helpers stopped cleaning up potato peelings to stare at the newcomers.
“Yes, ma’am,” they assured her.
“Ello, Awdery.” Agnes smiled.
Audrey looked at Agnes and said, “You all talk funny.” Joyce thought Audrey was going to get into trouble again, but Cook had a lot of fun with that.
“Well, well, me dearie.” She laughed, “I reckon you sound funny to us as well. It won’t take long for you to understand us and for us to be able to understand you Geordies.”[2] She explained that children come to the home from all over England so they were used to the new children’s response to their Birmingham accents. She told the girls that they have had quite a few Geordies from the Tyneside area lately, so have had a bit of practice with their lot now.
Nurse whisked them from the kitchen and showed the girls the toilets and the bathroom. There were rows of towels, bathtubs, and sinks.
“Joyce, there’s no privacy anywhere,” Marjorie whispered.
This image of the bathroom facilities, known as “Splash House,” was published in the Middlemore Homes Annual Report, 1934.
Birmingham Archives & Heritage, the Sir John Middlemore Charitable Trust, Middlemore Fonds, MS 517/25.
This image of the girl’s dormitory at the Middlemore Emigration Home was published in the Middlemore Homes Annual Report of 1934. Marjorie recalled the long rows of beds with their grey blankets.
Birmingham Archives & Heritage, Sir John Middlemore Charitable Trust, Middlemore Fonds, MS 517/25.
The girl’s dorm came next. The girls were shown to their beds in the large room filled with individual cots. Nurse pointed out Audrey’s cot first. Audrey sat on it, delighted that it was softer than the one in Newcastle. Her face dropped though, when she saw Joyce’s cot so far away from hers and then Marjorie’s cot clear across the room. Audrey began to shake, but there was no time to worry. Nurse left the room and beckoned them to follow her to the room across the hall. Rows of little cupboard doors covered the wall at one end. Nurse said these were lockers where all the girls kept their clothing.
“Now, here is a locker for you, Audrey. Marjorie and Joyce you can have the lockers next to hers.” Marjorie was about to say that they didn’t bring anything to put in the locker, when Nurse unlocked another cupboard and inside the girls saw rows of clothes, all neatly folded — tunics, blouses, skirts, jumpers, socks, shoes, bloomers, coats, and pyjamas — everything a little girl would ever need. The sisters’ eyes grew large, and they stood quietly and stared, not daring to hope that they would be getting some of these fine clothes. While Nurse was busy digging through the piles of clothes, Joyce whispered to her sisters asking them if they thought they might get to keep the clothes.
Nurse heard the girls but she did not answer right away. She was used to this reaction from the new children. They usually came to the home wearing threadbare hand-me-downs and were pleased when given a set of good clothes as well as a set of play clothes, even if they were already well worn and not brand new. Most of the children who went into the home were getting their first pair of shoes with the soles intact. In no time, the three sisters each stood with a pile of clothing bigger than they ever had before.
“These are for us? Just for us?” Audrey sighed.
“Yes, that’s right,” Nurse replied. “Now put your white blouse and tunic on as quickly as you can and come straight to the dining hall. The bell will ring shortly. Don’t be late.” With that, she was gone.
Their ill-fitting Newcastle jumpers and skirts were quickly tossed into a heap in the corner. Marjorie did not mind about losing her mum’s dress anymore. She was so proud of her dress on her last birthday, but now she had something that was so much prettier.
Joyce whispered that the people seemed nicer than those at Newcastle. The sisters nodded in agreement. Marjorie whispered back, “But Audrey’s right, they talk funny! I don’t know what they’re saying!” The three girls grinned as they put on their new socks and shoes.
Audrey smiled as she twirled around, “Don’t I look nice?”
“You look very smart, Audrey,” Joyce replied.
“How do I look?” Joyce turned around.
“Grand,” giggled Marjorie.
Real shoes, Marjorie thought, not hand-me-down boots with the soles already so thin that they had to put cardboard in to keep their feet from sticking through. Now the kids at school could not make fun of them. She imagined walking into her classroom with her new clothes, but then she remembered where they were. Would they ever be going to school in Whitley Bay again? It was too frightening to think that they might never go back.
Joyce heard the bell first and hurried her sisters along. It was impossible not to find the dining hall — all they had to do was follow the throng of children. The three sisters stood at the doorway of the noisy hall and peered in. They could hear the clanging of cups and plates as children set the tables. Children were everywhere. They charged down the hallway, pushed past the newcomers, and scurried for a seat. Kenny was across the room with a group of boys. He was laughing. He looked smart in his new clothes. A nurse, noticing the newcomers, waved them in and found them a place at one of the tables.
That night, Marjorie, exhausted after her long day, crawled into her cot. Why were they separated at night? Joyce had asked the night nurse if they could put their cots closer together, but the answer was not much help.
“No, we have placed your cots apart for a reason. It is important that you all become self-reliant.”
What did that mean? When Joyce said that Audrey just turned seven and she was afraid of the dark, the nurse told Joyce not to coddle her. That was the second time since leaving Whitley Bay she’d heard that word. Marjorie did not know what it meant, but she suspected that maybe she and Joyce should not look after their little sister. That was silly! That was what big sisters did. Marjorie started to say that it was not fair but was silenced by Nurse, who made it clear that it was bedtime and there was to be no more talking. With a firm “good night,” the door closed.
Marjorie’s frustration kept her from settling down. They had already separated them from their mum, and now they separated them from each other as well. And Kenny — where was he sleeping? He was all alone. Was it harder for him? She remembered seeing him at teatime but was not able to talk to him. He looked as though he was already making friends with the other boys. Maybe he was all right.
Marjorie wriggled onto her side. Propping up her head with her hand, she surveyed the room. Two long rows of little cots, all with the same grey blankets. She could hear Audrey crying. Her sobs grew louder as everyone settled down. A girl yelled out that she could not get to sleep with all the racket. Another muffled complaint found its way out from under someone’s covers. A third voice yelled from across the room for them all to be quiet. The commotion brought Nurse. She was quickly told that it was the new girl.
“Audrey, we will have to put you in a room by yourself if you don’t stop this nonsense. You are keeping the other girls awake. You must be quiet!” Nurse scolded.
Joyce sat up, and, attempting to rescue her little sister, said, “Ma’am, I think she’s crying because she has a toothache.” This explanation had worked at Newcastle. She did not want Audrey put in a room by herself, but there was no sympathy. Nurse warned Audrey again that there was to be no more noise.
As the dorm door shut, it took away the light from the hallway. Marjorie’s eyes took a little while to adjust to the darkness. Across the room, she could