By Matti Colley
Below is a story that emerged during a workshop on Storytelling with Oldham playwright Cathy Crabb, part of the “I AM OLDHAM” Day of the Dare To Create Festival, August 2026.
If you want to read about my thoughts and reflections about the workshops, you can here:
Edwin were a right one. Always curious about life. Always asking questions. “Who climbed Mount Everest first?” “Why did Mr Richards make that face at me?” “How did the name Oldham come to be?” Ask ask ask. But hardly ever answer.
Edwin always pushed the boundaries. Nobody really knew what part of Oldham they came from (North Chad was suggested but Edwin was always chopping and changing their vowels/it was hard to know). Nobody knew which films Edwin liked. Or what Edwin wanted to do for work now they’d have finished dead last in their CSEs. Though my friend Miranda had this feeling that they wanted to be a funeral home director because they liked hanging round the Parish Church so much at night and she swore she saw them drawing pictures of coffins. Flipping eerie that, right.
To be fair, we didn’t even know whether English was Edwin’s first language. We assumed but never bothered to ask, you see.
But what we did know, what we absolutely knew for sure, like 100%, was that Edwin liked a gobstopper. Yes, you heard me right, they loved a gobstopper. In fact, Edwin liked several gobstoppers in their mouth all at once. Blue ones. Yellow ones. Neon lime ones. If they could have had a vodka themed one they’d have been well delighted, so we thought. Yeah, you kind of get that we’re judging Edwin a bit harshly here but
So Edwin had a favourite shop in Oldham in which they bought their gobstoppers. It were a bit grim like but Mrs Henderson ran her establishment with military precision. And she was always kind to Edwin.
One day Edwin was in the shop when he noticed that Mrs Henderson was counting out and weighing a humungous amount of gobstoppers. Edwin wondered what the heck was going on – they were not used to seeing this happen and was worried there wouldn’t be enough gobstoppers for themselves, for that month let alone that afternoon.
It turned out that the gobstopper glut was for a party of solicitors who were stopping over in Oldham on their way to Manchester for a glitzy social event. “None of them had ever been to Oldham in their lives, surely?” thought Edwin.
Mrs Henderson was really having a time of it weighing all these sweets. She smiled to Edwin and asked them how they were doing that afternoon and Edwin replied “Alright. So how do you know those people want all those gobstoppers? They can’t be wanting the neon lime green ones because solicitors are dead posh, right?”
Mrs Henderson clapped back: “Mr Williams is very particular about his gobstoppers you know. If he doesn’t get 20 of them a day he gets a right mood on him. And I can’t afford to lose the custom. This shop is costing me an arm and a leg to run these days”.
Edwin looked quizzingly at Mrs Henderson and replied, softly “I didn’t know that gobstoppers could help keep a whole shop open. I thought you only got a couple pence each for them.”
Mrs Henderson who was feeling quite dizzy from all the counting and weighing and who could have really have done without Edwin’s observations, finally snapped. She turned round to him, made a wry smile and said: “You know what Edwin love, you’re quite right. These here gobstoppers I’m packing for Williams and Co barely pay for my tea and sugar for my morning break. But you see, I’m proud of being able to stock those aforementioned gobstoppers and anything else people round here need. Because I love being part of the community. As a person of commerce, people rely on me…”
Edwin interrupted without thinking: “what does commerce mean?”
Mrs Henderson huffed a bit and replied: “What, you don’t know what commerce means, Edwin? What have they been teaching you down that here comp? Commerce is the large-scale buying and selling of goods. Commerce includes myself and Mr Richards. Mr Williams even (Edwin put on a scowl). Yes Mr Williams is a man of commerce. An important one round these parts. How do you think the gobstoppers even get to the shop?
So yes, people rely on me. And I wanted to do this job so many years before I actually got the shop. My friend Ralph…he did too. Before Dunkirk. Before all those bloody awful bombs reigned down on us. Before all the worry and the fear and the prejudice and smoke. God I remember going down the shelters when the Doodlebug came. Abbey Hills Road had it bad that night. Christmas Eve 1944. I…I can’t.”
Edwin leaned in and asked “What happened? It sounds awful. Dad told me a bit about the war but he never spoke about it in depth…too scared to maybe”.
Mrs Henderson got up from the table and pulled her chair carefully next to Edwin.
“The Doodlebug was an awful machine. Made a right racket. I heard it come over you see. Mam and Dad were scared. Didn’t know whether our street would get hit or not. We found out the next day that 27 people had been killed and 49 injured.
Mam wanted to go to see if her friend Elsie was alright but Dad forbade us to go. It turned out she’d gone out to see relations in York.
But, Ralph, my friend from school, he’d gone to visit one of his best friends in Abbey Hills Road. When I found out he’d been killed I couldn’t believe it at first. He was always such an adventurer. Always asking questions. You remind me a bit of him actually Edwin.”
“It must have been a terrible time”, Edwin said. “I’m sorry to hear about Ralph.”
Mrs Henderson, wiping the tears that had been falling down her cheeks, got up and went back to the table to carry on weighing the gobstoppers. She carried on “Edwin, pursue your dreams. Whatever you want to do in life, go for it. Ralph never got the chance to be a man of commerce like his Dad was, but you, Edwin, maybe you want to be selling gobstoppers in your own shop one day. Or even make them. You’re a clever one, and don’t let anyone be telling you any different, you hear me. Now here’s your gobstoppers for the day and they’re on the house….”
Did Edwin make it in the world of commerce…..?
