The Walk To England

By Irene Drew

John Devlin was a young Scottish man who lived in Lanarkshire. He spent his days working in a coal mine, and his evenings in the pub playing his concertina.

One evening he noticed a lovely red haired girl come in. She started singing in a lovely low voice. People were listening to her and putting money in her cup. John introduced himself and she told him her name was Martha. They began singing and playing together and it was such a success that more and more people came to hear them.

John had a little house and Martha was alone, so she moved in with him. They were happy, Martha cleaning the house and making his dinner when he came home from the pit. One day he came home early and found her crying. The Catholic priest had been, and in those days it was considered very wrong for an unmarried couple to be living together. That was enough for John. They sold up everything they had and set off to walk to England.

It was summer when they started and they enjoyed walking together in the countryside, getting odd jobs to get money for food. Martha’s thin boots wore out so John got work helping a Blacksmith and soon had enough money to buy Martha some boots from a traveling salesman.

They were walking down a country lane when a man came along with a pony and trap. He stopped and asked them where they were going. When they told him England, he said that’s where he was going and gave them a lift. He took them over the border to Otterburn. They thanked him and off he went. A big Mill had just opened at Otterburn and they were selling lovely blankets very cheaply as a special offer. They just had enough money to buy one, so they had that to keep them warm now that the nights were cold. They walked on with John looking for work in a coal mine; it had to be a job with a Pit house. At last he found what he wanted and they settled down at Chopwell.