[Thomas Jordan spent his childhood in Usworth, County Durham, a colliery village. He left school aged fourteen and followed his father into mining until the age of twenty when he joined the army]

I commenced school when I was three years old—I was in a dress, the same as the girls—a petticoat. Every morning my oldest sister, Annie, had to walk a mile and a half to school in Washington village […] [T]he walk was safe and very beautiful […]

[…]

[We ate our lunch outside] The green grass, the very green trees and especially the large sycamore tree in the grounds of the ancient church enhanced the supreme reverence of the scene. It was serene; so quiet that the birds could be heard at all times; no pollution, no noise except the daily clang of the village blacksmith’s hammer. Strange as it may seem this clanging of his anvil was a very pleasant sound in the otherwise silent village green. We welcomed this sound from the peace and quiet of the day. They were very happy years and all my boyhood friends and relatives exuded this happiness. We could sing, play games, swim in the unpolluted river Wear and watch the rowing boats rowing slowly up to Lambton Castle with the music of the new found phoniac or the sweet strings of the melodian or concertina wafting their song to us sitting on the river bank.