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NEW AUTHORS SHOWCASE
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05-12-08 12M p3 |
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The Higson Chronicles by John Maynard |
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THE HIGSON CHRONICLES A VICTORIAN WAY OF LIFE Synopsis Part One The Higson Chronicles is the story of an average working class family, set in Oldham, Lancashire during the periods before, when and after it was the cotton spinning capital of the world. My story begins in December 1860, with Alf Higson, A forty years old minder in a cotton mill, along with his wife, Mary who is two years younger, and their six children aged between nine and seventeen years old. Although the family is fictitious, their lives all revolve around actual events in history. Cotton mills play a big part in the story as do coal mines, as we join the Higsons and their relations on the gas-lit cobbled streets and roads with their horse-drawn buses and trams, during the middle and late Victorian age. As the book progresses, various Higsons go their own way. William, the eldest, emigrates to Australia in 1868, returning only twice, once in 1888 and again in 1900. Jack, the second son has stalls on the Tommyfield open market with his wife Betty, while Bob, the third son becomes a solicitor. Alice and Florence both get married, the former to a policeman, Peter Jackson, and the latter to a plumber, Frank Mallinson. The youngest son Albert, joins the army in 1868 and is destined to die at Isandlwana in 1879. On getting older, Jack’s five sons help on the market, then in 1898 Thomas, the fourth eldest, goes missing on an expedition to South America. Bob’s son Aaron, had joined his father’s firm of solicitors a little earlier in 1896 and would go far. While two other grandsons of Alf and Mary, Joe Jackson and Harry Mallinson, go to fight in the South African Boer War, in late 1899. Part One ends in December 1900, with Alf and Mary now very old people, although Alf will live until late 1902 and Mary until July 1909. THE HIGSON CHRONICLES POWERS OF A NATION Synopsis Part Two Part Two begins on Tuesday 1 January 1901, the dawn of the 20th century, and exactly three weeks later Queen Victoria died, bringing an era to its end. In the first decade of the new century under the reign of King Edward VII, we see Joe Jackson return from the Boer War in 1902, and also the death of his grandfather, Alf Higson in November of that year. Harry Mallinson, Alf’s other grandson, had been killed at Ladysmith in January 1900. Also at this time in 1902, Jack Higson owned five market stalls. During 1908, the remains of Jack’s son, Thomas, are found in the Amazon jungle and brought home. He is buried in Chadderton cemetery with Alf Higson, with Alf’s widow Mary joining them in 1909. One year later sees the death of King Edward VII, to be succeeded by King George V, who will now reign until January 1936. The Great War of 1914-18, sees young Higsons’ and some of their relations enlisting. James Higson joined the ‘Oldham Pals’ Battalion, 24th Manchester Regiment, and survived the war. Brothers Percy and Brian Higson joined the Lancashire Fusiliers. Percy survived, but Brian was killed at Passchendaele (Third Ypres) in 1917. Jim Higson volunteered for the Royal Flying Corps, being shot down and blinded in 1918. He would commit suicide in 1934. Martin Higson was with the 7th Division in France, when he was killed in 1917, his body was never found. Joe Jackson, now forty years old, was killed near to Corbie, France in October 1918, and is buried in the war cemetery at Bertangles. At the time of his death he was attached to the British 5th Brigade. While Ben Mallinson, who had joined the Royal Navy in 1898, had volunteered for submarines in 1915. He too survived the war. William Higson died in Adelaide, Australia in August 1920, he had never married. Aaron Higson bought Barker Haines and Higson in 1923, while 1926 saw the death of his uncle, Jack Higson. Aaron’s two older sisters, who had emigrated to America in 1904 with their husbands, were ruined by the Wall Street crash in October 1929, and returned home to England. While 1930 saw the death of old Bob Higson, and the start of the Great Depression. Betty Higson followed her husband Jack in 1935, as did Florence Mallinson, whose husband Frank had passed away in 1926. King George V died in January 1936, and his successor King Edward VIII abdicated after only ten months, he was never crowned. He was succeeded by King George VI, who would reign until 1952. And as dark clouds of war loomed in sight once more, Peter Jackson died in 1938. Great Britain was at war again in 1939, and like in 1914, young Higsons’ played their part. Len Higson, an air gunner on Lancasters was shot down in March 1944 on the Nuremberg raid. He survived the war as a P.O.W. Harold Higson was with the B.E.F. in 1940, being captured at Dunkirk. A P.O.W. for five years, Harold like Len came home in 1945. Len’s second cousin, Barry Higson was also in the RAF, he was shot down over the English Channel in his Hurricane fighter during August 1940. His body was never found. 1940 also saw the deaths of Bob Higson’s widow, Maude, and Peter Jackson’s widow, Alice. Andrew Higson was in the army in Singapore, being taken prisoner by the Japanese in 1942. He died in captivity in October 1943. Eric Higson served with the Royal Tank Regiment in Africa, Italy and Germany, where he ended his war. While Ruth Higson joined the WAAF in 1941, meeting her future husband, David Mellor, a fighter pilot, while stationed down south. Alf Higson’s love-child, with the mill girl, Charlotte Wilson, Luke Wilson now 80years old, returned home to Oldham in 1946 from South Africa, a very rich man. Hewould live until 1967. Part Two ends in December 1950, the year that saw the start of the Korean War.
THE HIGSON CHRONICLES THE LATER GENERATIONS Synopsis Part Three Part Three begins on Monday 1 January 1951, with Great Britain being run by a Labour government, although this year would see a change with the general election. And even if the Second World War had ended over five years previously, petrol and some foods are still on ration. Early February 1952, sees the death of King George VI, he is succeeded by his eldest daughter, Princess Elizabeth, whose Coronation would be in the following year. Although the Higsons had not fared too badly during the war, or in the early post war years, by 1952 the post-war cotton boom was failing, and would collapse in the next decade. By 1955, the last of Jack and Betty Higson’s sons was dead, when Arthur, the youngest died in October of that year. From Jack’s brother, Bob and their two sisters, Alice and Florence, there still remained a few children alive, even if now quite old people. Still, there gave enough Higson descendants, capable to carry on the market stalls and Barker Haines and Higson, with the latter eventually becoming county wide. The swinging sixties, sees those born in the post-war baby boom, now mostly teenagers, enjoy a far better and different way of life, than their parents ever did in the thirties. One of these, Ray Mellor would become an electrician, and in the early seventies go to work in the Lake District, where he would, in 1974, marry a local girl from Ambleside, Rita Ashworth. His childhood pal, Barry Atkinson, a fitter, and an old school mate, Dave Smith, a sheet metal worker, would both go to West Germany in January 1972 to work. Barry would go to Siegen, where he would meet and later marry a German girl, Ursula Funk. Dave Smith was sent to Gross Auheim near Hanau, and he too would marry a German girl called Ingrid Dächer. However, unlike Barry, Smithy’s marriage would end in divorce during the eighties. He would also fall foul of the law, both in Germany and also in Britain, serving various prison sentences in each country. While a great, great grandson of Jack Higson, Tony Bates, had criminal tendencies from being young, and he too would serve time in jail, including a 7 year sentence for manslaughter. Many changes occurred around Oldharn in the decades after the war, then in October 1974, a mysterious fire destroyed the ‘Heart of the Town’, when its covered Market Hall, built in 1904-06, burned down. Aaron Higson, who had built up Barker Haines and Higson, died in 1975, his two sisters having passed away some years earlier. His grandson, Christopher was running the firm at this time, while the latter’s father, Philip had retired in 1972. Christopher would retire in 1999 and his daughter, Fiona take over the firm, the first woman to run it, since it was founded in 1857. Rita Bailey nee Armstrong, born in 1960, a great, great granddaughter of Jack Higson, had often wondered about her branch of the family tree, after hearing stories from her grandmother, Hilda Armstrong, who had been a Higson before she married. It had been Hilda’s father, Arthur Higson, who had bought a mahogany chest at Easter 1908 to save the family relics in, which he’d started collecting in 1902, just after the death of Alf Higson. Rita’s fascination with the Higsons of yesteryear, especially those who had lived in the 19th century, turned into a near obsession in August 2005. She had first seen the chest’s contents on New Years Eve 1980, and inherited it in December 1994 when Hilda Armstrong died. After a quick look inside with her husband Trevor, the chest had been put in the loft and forgotten until Rita had read an article in the Chronicle. And from then on, she was determined to unfold the life story of the Higsons, from a long ago December day in 1860....
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