1877, Dunstable England
On a snowy day, in England, a poor young woman wanders through a snowy field clutching a small bag of belongings and heavily pregnant with her first child. Her clothes are dressed like shabby. However her face looks graceful like she wasn't poor but from a wealthy family, The pregnant girl wanders for hours before the pains of labor happen. Fortunately the girl has enough strength to wander to a nearby town. A storm approaches and the rain pours down on the girl. Thunder booms and lightning flashes as the young woman clings to the workhouse gate with it's sign clearly reading WORKHOUSE HOME FOR PAUPERS AND ORPHANS. Exhausted and tired the girl collapses on the ground but not before pulling a bell cord which rings some bells.
An elderly sickly looking man appears and with the help of some other paupers and townspeople carry the labored woman inside, A woman 40 named Widow Corney appears and gives a scornful look at the half conscious girl. She then dispatches a sickly feeble pauper into the cold drench night to summon a doctor. The men carry the pregnant woman to a windowless room only lit by a candle. The pauper returns drenched and cold with a drench doctor. The doctor doesn't complain instead he goes to work. Another pauper appears and carries a large tub full of water into the room.
For hours the doctor worked on delivering the baby, Finally after a few gasps the baby gives out it's first cries to the world. The young mother reaches her arms out for the child and the doctor puts the baby in the young woman's arms. The mother smiles and holds her baby for the first and last time, kisses the child and falls back. The doctor tries in vain to revive her but it is too late, the mother is dead, With the sad sigh the doctor says "It's a boy, the mother is dead unfortunately" Without another word the doctor leaves Widow Corney to wrap the orphan infant in rags, and with the help of the pauper woman places it in a box cradle with other orphan infants.
Widow Corney then turns her attention to the dead woman's belongings and searches through her sack to see if anything is of value, Seeing nothing she searches the dead mother until she spots a gold locket hanging around the woman's neck. Corney snatches the locket and deposits it in her apron without looking at the body she hurries away
Meanwhile in Bloomsberry England, small town not far from London an older gentleman is searching for his niece Emily. Emily ran away from home after being jilted by the young man she loved, The old man's name is Brownlow and he searched everywhere for Emily. Mr Brownlow loved his niece very much and raised her after her own parents died. He gave Emily a gold locket on her eighteen birthday! Emily was pregnant with her lover's child, and Brownlow was determine to find Emily and her baby, But as the years passed Brownlow gave her up for lost. Little did he know was that Emily had gave birth to a baby boy and died in childbirth, That baby boy was in a workhouse and would be named Oliver Twist
In Dunstable, Mr Bumble arrives and is told what happened that day, He calls the child Oliver Twist, Oliver will now spend the first 9 years of his life at the workhouse, If Oliver Twist had known that he would have cried loud, baby Oliver cries lustily he is going to live.