Rose agreed with him. As the cart trundled along and the rich scent of dog roses and flowers without number perfumed the still air, she thought she could see herself living in Consett. It wasn’t as big as Newcastle or Sunderland but it was far enough away from the latter and Nathaniel. She had toyed briefly with the idea of heading way down South, perhaps even as far as London, but had found the pull of her roots in the North East was stronger than she’d imagined. She could see herself feeling like a fish out of water in the South, and it was going to be hard enough to make a new life for herself and Betsy as it was.

When she caught her first glimpse of Consett she saw that the iron- and steelworks dominated the skyline with the town sloping away beneath it. The works looked to be huge and, perhaps naively she admitted, she hadn’t expected such a massive area to be taken up with an array of industrial buildings.

Eustace stopped the horse for a few moments. ‘There she is,’ he said as proudly as though he’d built it all himself, brick by brick. ‘Still wet behind the ears, I was, when I got a job at the company. Derwent Iron it was called then, and we earned every farthing of our wage, I can tell you that. I was there from the first day it opened and the lads today have it easy compared to what we did. Mind, we were glad of the work. There wasn’t much doing round these parts afore that, but it was like stepping into hell itself when they set me on in the blast furnaces. The heat an’ smoke an’ dust an’ noise couldn’t have bin worse if old Nick himself was in charge. Two hundred an’ thirty tons a week we produced, better than any hereabouts. Me an’ my pal, Abe, had to bring the coke an’ ironstone an’ limestone to the blast furnace in barrows, an’ you had to be fit ’cause them barrows held a ton of stuff. I hated ’em. It weren’t too bad if you got a barrow with good wheel rims, but if they were worn away it made ’em right beggars to move. Twelve-, eighteen- or even twenty-four-hour shifts we did then if need be, but usually it was six in the morn till six in the evening, and vice versa. The furnaces always had to be kept going, you see, that was the important thing.’

Rose looked at the wizened old man. He appeared so frail and shrunken, it didn’t seem possible he’d once done such hard physical work. ‘You must have had breaks, though?’ she said, as he clicked his tongue to get the horse moving again.