Honora

Honora is the story of Nora Walker (née Haworth), Accrington-born daughter of an Irish immigrant mother and Lancastrian father, whose life has spanned nearly a century. 

Against the odds, she has lived a life that has known great affluence and fortune. But it was not always so. Even though the family did their best through hard work and frugal living, Nora’s upbringing was marked by hardship in a northern town where most people knew what it was to go without.

From being cared for by seven aunties who aided her recovery from a life-threatening illness to surviving the hardships of World War II, her childhood was often grim. She passed her scholarship to go to a convent school, but Nora had little confidence in her own academic ability and her parents didn’t push her. In fact, her mother forbade her from reading in bed. 

After school she found work in a Blackburn electronics firm. Despite being less than impressed at her first sight of a young toolmaker, she found herself being pursued by him around the dance floors of Lancashire. The young lad was Fred Walker, an ambitious young engineer who would marry Nora and transform her prospects and social standing. In partnership with his brother Jack, Fred—ably supported by Nora—was determined to make it big in the steel business. They succeeded by building Britain’s largest steel service centre in Blackburn: Walkersteel.

Nora may have left behind the terraced streets and embraced a relative life of ease, but did she lose her modest tastes, conservative values and simple needs?