Working Children in 19th Century Lancashire by M. Winstanley

Mining children

I've just written a review of this book on Good Reads and thought I would copy it here since I'd mentioned the book in a previous post.

This was a very interesting book. The plight (and it was a plight) of working children in Nineteenth-Century Lancashire was a dark one. To read of children who worked from 6.30am until 10pm;

Mill work was dangerous, legislation did try to improve the lot of children, but many mill owners for many years ignored legislation. Children often worked barefoot as it allowed a better grip of the oily floors

to read of children of eight and younger left at home to care for their siblings (of which there were many) and the siblings of family members and neighbours whilst mother went to work;

to read of children who worked for hours sat in the dark of a mine waiting alone for a cart to come along so that they could open the door (see 'trapper' picture below from the 1840s);


to read of children who worked 60 hours a week on top of their school hours...is rather disturbing to read. Yet for many, this was the only way to survive, the only way for a family to have enough to eat and a roof over their heads.

The poorhouse or workhouse loomed heavily over the heads of the working classes.

As the author points out, often we idealise the past, "There was, it seems, an uncomplicated golden age not so long ago when children were children, families were united and happy, and moral standards were universally adhered to...[O]ur modern concept of 'childhood' is, to all intents and purposes, a recent construction and not one which would have been recognised by previous generations."