When It Was Dark

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. The clerk, a small, rotund man, clerical in aspect, and wearing a round t''elt hat, pulled out a large old-fashioned watch. Time for the bell, William, he said. The parish church was a large building in sham Perpendicular. It stood in a very central position in the Manchester main road, rising amid a bare triangle of flat gravestones, and only separated from the street pavement by high iron railings. It was about half-past four on a dull autumn afternoon. The trams swung ringing down the black, muddy road, and the long procession of great two-wheeled carts, painted vermilion, carried coal from the collieries six miles away to the great mills and factories of Salford.