Crickhowell 1881

Saturday, 1 October 1881. About 7 p.m. A young woman stands in the shadows towards the bottom of New Road, in her arms a sleeping child, wrapped in a shawl, its head covered with a red cap. She is exhausted. She has no money and no food, and has spent the last hours trying to comfort her hungry baby. Her name is Alice Dewsbury, she is 19 years old, and in a moment she will make a desperate and irrevocable decision.Alice’s story is just one of many in this richly detailed and engaging portrait of life in Crickhowell in the late nineteenth century. Beginning with a great snow storm, Crickhowell 1881 takes you through one year in the life of the town; along the way, you meet sweeps and laundresses, hawkers and tramps, poachers and farmers.