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Charles Shaw's book of his childhood was completed toward the end of his life, and was only published in book form in 1903, just before he died.Ìý
It is a vivid memoir of his life as a child in the brutal conditions of the pottery factories as they were in the 1840s, and was a instant best-seller in his home town, after which it fell largely into obscurity and is now little-remembered.

It was reprinted in facsimile form (that is, looking like it looked in its first print) in the 1970s - and this is the book version you'll probably find in your library.

To hear the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Staffordshire History Book Club's discussion of the work, click on the audio link on the right.

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Jenny Norton read the book - and this is her review.....

I came to this book having never heard of Charles Shaw. I understood itÌý to be hisÌý memoirs of working class life in the potteries in the nineteenth century – which it was – but beyond this I was ignorant.

Bur what aÌý great read!

Shaw traces his life from early memories of basic schooling in reading and knitting (no, really… knitting!, not writing) through starting work (beginning at the age of seven) to his self-education, and then culminating in his entry into preaching.Ìý

He gives a graphic account of his life at this time, talking of the poverty, terrible work conditions, childen used as virtual slaves and the drunkenness that were all everyday occurrences.

The most telling account is of "Saint Monday".Ìý After being drunk most of the weekend, many masters took Monday off, only to have to work furiously for the remaining days of the week, beating and abusing their young helpers - the "mould-runner" boys.Ìý
No wonder the young child looks longingly at the children who attend more than just the local Dame school, and who can go to Sunday School encouraged by their parents.

What a childhood.Ìý
You sympathise quickly with the young Shaw, and we are stunned at the very hard life he was born into, where the "masters" - brutalised by a brutal system - in turn brutalised those around them, and you breathe a sigh of relief that young Charles saw that he had potential and was determined to better himself, and not be lost in the sordid world that all around him lived in.

However, despite being peppered with horrifying scenes of extreme poverty and images of the prison-likeÌý conditions of the Potteries Workhouse (at Chell), this book is basically optimistic and an engrossing read.
Shaw, writing sixty years after, records the social progress already made.Ìý He feels little bitterness and writes with the purpose of learning from the past.

Despite telling us so much about the life of the Potteries, Shaw in fact leaves much of the questions about his own life unanswered.Ìý The story ends as he comes to maturity, and is accepted as a preacher…
But what, I wanted to know, became of him?Ìý Did her later marry, have children, and what became of his brothers and sisters?Ìý Perhaps his silence is significant, but it could be that his childhood experiences were so shocking that they marked his whole life.

Interestingly, when the book was published in 1903, no author's name was given. Why did Shaw want to be anonymous, I wonder?

The book is an eye-opener into the foundations on which the factories of today are built and if you want a glimpse into how previous generationsÌý lived - so, read this book!

It is worth the effort if you can find it in your local library.
JN

'When I Was A Child' is published by Caliban Books - ISBN 0904573 42 7