| This huge volume of 1842, reproduced as a facsimile copy on CD, is a government publication containing evidence on the employment of children. Evidence is stated by means of interviews with the employers, adult workers and children, relating to the work and life style conditions of the children. Almost 900 pages of testimonies and interviews, covering various types of factories and work in a wide variety of places in Britain. An amazing and fascinating insight into conditions of work and peoples' lifestyle in 1842 in their own words. Did your ancestor work in a factory? Put meat on the bare bones of your family history by understanding how they lived and worked. An invaluable source of information and truly a snapshot in time. =============== Extract from Messrs. Williams & Jones Tobacco Manufactory, Chester.
Robert Johnson, aged 11. How long have you been at work?
Two years and a half. What is your work?
I turn the wheel, and pick and spread the tobacco-leaves. Do you think it hard work?
Not at all hard. Is it healthy?
Yes, I have always found it so. I had some swellings lately about the neck, but I am much better. Do you think the work you are engaged in brought them on?
No, I don't think so. How many hours a-clay do you work?
We go to work at seven a.m. and work till six p.m. Do you work overtime?
No, never. Do you go home to dinner?
Yes. What wages have you?
2s. a-week. What use do you make of the money?
I give all to my mother for my food, clothing, &c. Have you sufficient food and good clothes?
We have bread and butter at breakfast, and potatoes and bacon for dinner, and in the evening we have tea or coffee and bread and butter or we have bread and milk. I have very poor clothes, scarcely more than what I have on, except a shirt or two. Is your father alive?
Yes, he is a skinner. What wages has he?
I think from 16s. to 18s. a-week. Were you ever at school?
Yes, at the free-school. What were you taught there?
I learnt very little there though I was a year at school, and have been a year at Sunday-school. Can you read?
No, not yet. What is taught in the Sunday-school?
Spelling, the Reading Made Easy, and questions on religion. Is your cottage comfortable?
Yes, I think so. Have you knives and forks and a table-cloth at dinner?
No, we use a spoon and our fingers. Is there a clock in the house?
No. How many beds are there?
Two beds, they are in one room. Does your father daily say prayers aloud for the family?
Yes, every night before we go to bed. How do you employ yourself after work?
My father reads when he does not work over-time, and we walk out, if not kept at home by my father, who gives us a lesson very often. How do you spend Sunday evening?
We stay at home; my father won't let us play; both he and my mother often read aloud to us. Can you read?
No. Can you spell your name?
No, I can't. Are you inclined to learn?
Yes, if I had time. =============== Perran Foundy, Cornwall
William Henry Opie. 13 years old, examined August 21, 1841 Is employed moulding. He has been here about 12 months; always at the same work. Was before that employed at a small foundy in Truro for five or six years. His work was the same as now, 'making cores'. He suffered from headache at that time, which often kept him from work. Since he has lived in the country he has been free from this. He was at the free-school (national) at Truro for a short time before he went to work. He has fogotten what he learned. Cannot read. [This employment, 'making cores' consists in mixing equably, and forming, by the aid wooden moulds, into definite shapes, a wetted mixture of a particular sand and cinder. These shapes, being subsequently hardened by heat, are placed so as to act as "cores" or centres, around which the melted metail becomes fixed in the required concave form. The bench on which the moulding of the "core" is performed is placed under sufficient shelter, but little, if at all, exposed to the influence of the furnaces or liquid metal.] =============== Contents:
Reports and evidence on the trades and manufactories in the South of Ireland
Reports and evidence on the trades and manufactories in the West of Scotland
Reports and evidence on the trades and manufactories in the East of Scotland
Report on the Glass Houses, Potteries, Paper Mills and miscellaneous manufactories in Northumberland and in Durham North of the River Wear
Reports and evidence on the trades and manufactories in the West and North of Lancashire
Reports and evidence on the trades and manufactories in the North of Ireland
Reports and evidence on the trades and manufactories in South Gloucestershire
Report and evidence on Potteries in Derbyshire
Reports and evidence on the Iron Trades and other manufactures of South Staffordshire and the neighbouring parts of Worcestershire and Shropshire
Reports and evidence on detached manufactures in Hampshire, Surrey and Kent
Reports and evidence on Iron Foundries in the West of England
Evidence on the manufactures in the North Wales District |
Twitter
Facebook