The Wives’ Revenge

by Lindsey Hutchinson

  Over tea with her mother Violet explained about Dr Shaw’s worries.

  ‘I guessed there was something,’ Kath said. ‘Joyce mentioned a few women going off sick from the nail works.’ Violet tried to make the connection and Kath helped by adding, ‘If they weren’t off sick, we’d be seeing a lot more babies born!’ Still Violet didn’t seem to understand. ‘The women aren’t sick as in the flu, gel.’

  ‘Oh my God! You mean…’ Violet’s hand flew to her mouth as the penny dropped.

  ‘Yes,’ Kath confirmed, ‘and I’ll bet Dr Shaw will be seeing a lot more women before long. Whoever is doing this is making the women very poorly.’

  ‘Mother, we have to stop this!’ Violet railed.

  ‘What?’ Kath said with resignation in her voice. ‘The women taking dangerous steps to get rid of their unwanted babies, or them getting pregnant in the first place?’

  Oh Lord! There in that last sentence lay the root of the problem. How to prevent unwanted pregnancies!

  Seeing her daughter’s dismay Kath went on, ‘There are ways, Violet, I told you as you were growing up, but these women are ignorant. I’m being blunt, wench, because that’s how it is… they can’t or won’t say no to their men!’

  ‘Then they need to be educated!’ Violet retorted.

  ‘And who may I ask is going to teach them… you?’

  ‘Yes,’ she said firmly.

  *

  ‘Whatever are you thinking, girl!’ Martha shouted at Violet over the table, her harsh voice causing heads to lower. ‘What on earth makes you think the women of Wednesbury would tell you about who is responsible?’ Slapping both hands on the table, a loud sigh left her lips.

  Eyes but not heads lifted, awaiting Violet’s reply.

  Pacing the floor, she said, ‘Well we have to find out who is performing these dreadful abortions! So, to me, it makes sense to ask. Then we have to stop them or drive them out! Then we have to start educating women in how to say no. Then…’

  ‘All right!’ Martha cut in. ‘I can see you have a bee in your bonnet over this, and rightly so. First things first, we need to get the grapevine working, let’s find this witch, for I’m sure it will be a woman!’

  Throwing her arms around Martha, Violet hugged her, saying, ‘I knew you’d help.’

  And so it was that the grapevine threw up the name and address of the woman doing abortions, on the quiet, for an exorbitant fee.

  Setting out, the women trudged over to the woman’s little cottage at the end of Portway Lane. The cottage was the only one left standing in that area by the Monway Branch canal. It was surrounded on three sides by waste ground and disused mine shafts, the other side faced the canal which was busy in the daytime with barges moving up and down the waterway. At night it was eerily silent as the boats moored up in the Basin; navigation rules saying barge traffic should only travel in daylight.

  Banging on the door with her fist, Violet waited. A small red-haired woman answered with, ‘Ah now, who would be banging on my door with such force?’ The smile on her fat face disappeared on seeing a quintet of women on her doorstep. Primrose was busy with her baking and Joyce elected to stay home. She had an idea forming in her mind that wouldn’t go away. ‘What would you fine ladies be wanting with me now?’ The Irish lilt came through as she tried to force the smile back to her face.

  Violet spoke. ‘Are you the one they call Colleen?’

  ‘To be sure,’ she said, eyeing Violet’s swollen belly.

  ‘Well, we’d like a word, either inside or out here on the step I ain’t fussed which,’ Martha added.

  Stepping aside, Colleen gave them entry and they piled in as she shut the door.

  ‘Well now, what can I be doing for yourselves?’ she asked.

  ‘You can stop performing abortions!’ Martha spat.

  ‘And making people ill,’ Violet added.

  ‘And killing babies!’ Annie’s venom flared, and her rouged cheeks flushed a deeper shade.

  ‘Otherwise…’ Mary wagged a finger in the woman’s face.

  Kath said quietly, 'We just want you to stop what you're doing Colleen.'

  Rolling her eyes, Martha said, ‘Missis, you’re a menace and if you don’t stop being a menace you’ll have us to deal with.’

  ‘And just who would you be?’ Colleen said derisively.

  Boldly, Violet said, ‘We are the Wednesbury Wives.’

  ‘Bejaysus!’ Colleen dropped into a chair, which groaned under her weight, the colour draining from her face. Regaining her composure, she said, ‘I heard about you so I did, but you must understand, I was only trying to earn a few bob!’

  ‘So find a new profession,’ Violet said with both hands covering her belly in a protective gesture.

  ‘It’s all right for you to be saying that,’ Colleen snapped, ‘but work’s not easy to be found. What do you suppose I could do?’

  ‘We don’t really care what you do, Colleen, as long as it’s not what you’re doing now!’ Martha rasped.

  ‘And what about the women who depend on me?’

  ‘Depend on you to do these dreadful things!’ Annie’s fury took everyone by surprise and they glanced at each other as she ranted on. ‘I’d give my right arm to have a baby, and here you are… you are…’ Annie couldn’t continue she was so incensed. Reaching out she slapped Colleen soundly across the face. ‘You are taking advantage of women in desperate situations; women who in other circumstances would not want to abort their babies. Women who, if they had the money to feed them, would keep them and watch them grow up!’

  The woman pulled back, her hand going to her cheek as Violet dragged Annie away.

  ‘There’s no call for that!’ Colleen whimpered.

  ‘Oh yes there is!’ Annie growled from where she had been pushed to stand behind Violet. ‘There’s every call for it, so heed this warning, Colleen!’

  ‘You can be sure I will an’ all,’ Colleen muttered almost to herself as the women turned as one and left her house.

  ‘Well,’ said Mary, ‘that was easy enough.’

  As they walked away, Martha said, ‘Annie, I’ve never seen you so angry – not even when we were kids.’

  Annie looked at the hand that had slapped Colleen, inspecting her fingernails. ‘My God, I could have done for her right then!’

  ‘We saw that,’ Violet said.

  ‘Sorry ladies. Aww look here, I’ve broken a nail!’

  Titters sounded as Annie tutted loudly.

  In Violet’s mind Mary’s words sounded again. Yes, she thought, it did seem too easy, and she felt in her heart this would not be the last they would hear of the Irish woman named Colleen.

  Thirty-Four

  Being the eldest of the eight Slater children, Nancy was helping her mother get the others off to work and school. Her parents had worked hard over the years to make sure they all had an education; they wanted their children to do well in the world.

  A shout from the kitchen door heralded Violet’s arrival and in the quiet after the others had left, the three had tea and began to chat.

  Violet had an idea and wanted some opinions on it. Laying her notion out in front of them, Martha said, ‘Well now, that needs a deal o’ thinkin’ on.’ Violet and Nancy both laughed at the phrase they’d come to know so well.

  ‘So,’ Nancy began, ‘your idea would be for me and a few others to look after the children of the women of Wednesbury, until they are of an age to go to school, while their mothers work or try to find work. It might also stop them having to resort to having abortions too. The women would then pay a nominal sum a week which would give us a small wage, is that right so far?’

  Violet nodded and Nancy continued, ‘The question now is, where? We would need somewhere that we could watch over the children; we’d need to give them a bit of dinner an’ all. It would be a long day so some might need a nap as well…’

  ‘Our Nancy is right, wench,’ Martha added.

  Violet smiled, saying, ‘If I could find
a place, Nancy, could you find some helpers?’

  ‘Yes, that would be easy enough. There’s a lot of girls my age who don’t have work to go to.’

  Saying she would visit again soon, Violet set off for home in high spirits.

  ‘Well, wench, what do you make of that?’ Martha asked her daughter.

  ‘I think our Violet has another bone to chew on and before long I’m going to find myself in work at last!’

  Walking down Hobbins Street and along Holyhead Road to the market later that day, Nancy allowed her mind to wander. How many children would there be to take care of? How many helpers would be needed? Would the women be able to afford it? At least if their little ones were being looked after, the women could search for work. As her mind mulled it over, she began to think this idea of Violet’s might actually work.

  *

  Friday came round and saw Violet, Kath, Mary and Annie in Martha’s kitchen for a change, having tea. Joyce was at her work in the nail making factory.

  Violet said, ‘There’s a building I want you to come and see, Nancy – all of you – and tell me if it would be suitable for the caring of children. I want to start a nursery so the women of the town can hopefully find work.’

  Looking at Martha, Nancy’s eyes said, I knew it! She knew Violet wouldn’t let this idea of hers fade away to nothing.

  They all trudged up Crankhall Lane, passing the South Staffordshire Tube Works and the Allotment Gardens. Before coming to Brunswick Park they turned right and headed over a patch of waste ground leading to a huge derelict building. Had this been another part of the country Nancy would have said it had once been a mill, but the shudder that racked her body told her different.

  ‘Tell me you are bloody joking!’ Mary said as they all stared at the imposing structure.

  Martha stopped her mid-sentence, ‘Violet, it’s the old epidemic hospital!’

  The large building spread across the open heath and was situated right next to the South Staffordshire railway line. The three-storey structure with a high water tower at the centre was once used to house patients with diseases such as polio, diphtheria, tuberculosis, scarlet fever and many more besides. The entrance led to an administration block, a kitchen, stores, and a disinfecting station. The middle and upper floors were isolation wards, each of which would hold around twenty beds. In the grounds at the back of the hospital stood the nurses home, a laundry, a sanitary wash house and the mortuary.

  Only the people with money could afford to be admitted, the poor of the town relied on their own remedies. This hospital had been feared by the needy almost as much as the workhouse. However, with Florence Nightingale’s ‘miasma’ theory proving that ‘bad air’ could cause disease; as well as the discovery of such things as cholera being a water-borne disease, cleanliness became paramount. Nevertheless, the building had been abandoned, being deemed too small, and the patients were moved to bigger and better hospitals in larger towns.

  ‘I know what it was,’ Violet enthused, ‘but it’s not been in use for many years!’

  ‘I don’t give a bugger!’ said Mary. ‘I ain’t going in there!’

  Nancy watched the light fade from Violet’s eyes as her disappointment took hold.

  Mary went on, ‘It should have been fetched down years ago!’

  Nancy saw again the instant spark in Violet’s eyes and silently wished Mary would learn to hold her tongue.

  *

  In the market some days later a woman approached Martha and Nancy saying she wished a word with them.

  Martha invited her home where their conversation could take place in privacy. As Nancy made tea, her mother settled the woman at the kitchen table.

  ‘Now then, Jess Dower, what’s on your mind?’

  The woman looked at Nancy and then back to Martha before speaking. ‘Well… I ain’t sure I should say in front of the wench.’ She jerked her thumb in Nancy’s direction.

  ‘Whatever you need to say,’ Martha picked up, ‘can be said in front of our Nancy.’

  The woman cast another glance at the girl before she spoke again. ‘Ar well… we ain’t happy, Martha Slater.’

  ‘And who, may I ask, is “we”?’

  ‘Us women. It’s on the grapevine that you and your friends have sent Colleen packing. And the women in the town ain’t happy about it… what’s going to happen now she’s out of business?’

  ‘Now who’s out of business?’ Violet said as she walked in through the kitchen door.

  Nancy said simply, ‘Colleen.’

  Martha explained to Violet what Jess Dower had said.

  Full of fury, Violet interjected with, ‘Maybe it’s time for the women of Wednesbury to make a stand! To stop getting in the family way time after time with no money to feed the extra mouths! To start saying no to having one child after another!’

  The others stared with open mouths, then Nancy said, ‘I couldn’t agree more!’

  Rounding on Nancy, Jess countered with, ‘It’s alright for you wench – you don’t have a husband to have to say no to!’

  ‘If I had a husband and half a dozen children round my ankles, then I most certainly would say no! Sorry mum, I wasn’t referring to you.’ Anger bubbled up inside Nancy as she glanced at Martha. ‘There are ways to prevent this, Jess, we all know that! I’m not saying women shouldn’t have children, I’m just saying why have such big families if the money isn’t there to feed them?’

  ‘Well said, wench,’ said Martha.

  Jess looked down as she said, ‘Look here, I’m with you on this; I’ve got four little buggers myself and I ain’t having any more, but there’s other women who are not as strong as me. You know as well as I do, they’re gonna keep having babies if there’s no Colleen to stop it.’

  Violet spat, ‘Well, Colleen’s gone, and anyone else thinking to be setting up doing what she was doing will get the same treatment!’

  Jess stood to leave saying, ‘Right then, I’ll pass that back down the grapevine.’

  After the woman had left Martha said, ‘Our Violet, you’ve started something now and no mistake!’

  Violet answered with, ‘I know, but I’m about to start something else! I’m going to have a word with Dr Shaw. Maybe he can instruct the women who act as midwives to advise others against having so many children! It’s all down to education, Martha.’

  Thirty-Five

  As Kath rolled out pastry on the kitchen table her thoughts were shattered as Annie flew in the door.

  ‘Kath… come quick!’

  Grabbing her shawl from the nail on the back door, her heart skipped a beat. As they ran down the road and on into Trouse Lane heading for Gittins Manor, Annie puffed, ‘Violet’s started!’

  ‘Where’s Dr Shaw?’ Kath puffed back, suddenly feeling too old to be running.

  ‘He is with her, I fetched him first, Kath.’

  ‘Thank you, Annie,’ she said, snatching breath into her lungs. ‘How’s Violet doing?’

  Violet’s time was very near and Kath worried for her. Many times women died in childbirth and although Dr Shaw was on hand, fear gripped her like a vice. She had watched her daughter’s excitement as she had prepared for the birth of her child knowing all the time Violet had no idea what was to come. There was no way Kath could make it any easier for her and she silently prayed it would not be a difficult birth.

  ‘She’s all right just now.’ Annie shot a glance at her friend as they hurried on. Although she’d had none of her own, Annie had helped bring many children into the world safely, and she had witnessed the pain of the women during their labour.

  Arriving at Gittins Manor, they dashed up the stairs and into Violet’s bedroom, puffing and panting with the exertion.

  Seeing the anguish in her daughter’s eyes and the sweat on her brow, Kath rushed to the girl lying on the bed.

  ‘I’m here bab, I’m here now.’

  ‘Ooooh Mum!’ Violet gasped as another spasm of pain racked her small body.

  Looking at her, hold
ing her hand, Violet didn’t look more than a child herself. ‘I know, wench,’ Kath said as Violet gripped her hand, squeezing it tightly, ‘you’ll be all right, just try to relax between the pains, let Mother Nature do her work.’

  Annie went off to get hot water and fetch clean towels and linen, and in a moment she was back. Kath watched Violet as another bout of pain rolled over her, her heart aching at her own child’s suffering.

  ‘Ooh Mum!’ Violet called, the sweat beading on her forehead.

  ‘You’re doing well, Violet, I’m sure it won’t be much longer,’ Kath said, stealing a look at the doctor. She winced as she saw him shake his head.

  Mopping away the sweat with a damp cloth, Kath talked quietly to her daughter giving her encouragement.

  As another pain gripped her, Violet yelled out, ‘Mum… why is it… taking so long?’

  ‘Babies come when they’re ready,’ Kath said gently.

  Violet closed her eyes in the brief respite from the agonising pains. Then she lifted her head and let out another howl.

  Kath shot a look at the doctor who was at the end of the bed. ‘Violet,’ he said, ‘just grit your teeth now for a couple of minutes.’

  Alarm showed clearly on Kath’s face as she saw him disappear below the sheet draped across Violet’s knees before popping back up again. Something was terribly wrong; it was written clearly over the doctor’s face. What was happening? Would the baby be stillborn? Would Violet die?

  Agonising pains gripped the young woman again as she lay on the bed, her knees bent. She cried and gasped. She panted and cried some more. ‘Mum, I’m scared,’ she whimpered.

  ‘I know, sweetheart, I know.’ Kath felt sick with worry. She glanced again at the doctor and saw him dip down beneath the sheet once more. To her daughter she said, ‘Come on, love, be brave.’

  Violet screamed again as another bout of pain ripped through her.