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Child Labour in Factories

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Believe it or not, children worked in Victorian factories. The proof is over there, to the right, in the pink box, check out Ben Gomersal's story!

 

Factory owners in Victorian Britain really wanted to make a profit. Profit is a word that describes the money that a business owner, after paying all of his running costs, such as paying his workers, repairing broken machinery or ensuring his building is fit for purpose, has left over. Profit goes straight into his pocket and makes him a rich man. Victorian factory owners cared only about making profit, not the welfare of their workers. Where do children fit in? Well one way of making a big profit was to pay the workers less and cheapest workers were children. Therefore children were very employable in the Victorian Era.

 

The Jobs children did in Victorian factories depended on what type of factory they were in. A textile factory for example (Textile means cloth) would employ children to fill roles such as 'Cantenting', 'piecing', 'Lap Joiners' or 'Scavengers'. Cantenters were responsible for getting wool from the bottom of big barrels using a Billing Hook. Piecers had the unenviable task of putting these stray bits of wool together by rubbing it in their hands; this often meant their hands were rubbed raw. Lap joiners had to ensure that the machines were constantly being fed with wool. They would have to work quickly and rub the pieces of wool together, much like the piecers. Scavengers worked around moveable machinery and had to be quick and alert as they were liable to lose their life, limb, or a finger, if they got their timing wrong. These injuries did happen from time to time and those children would become unemployable, resulting in the loss of their job. Scavengers had to get under the machines to retrieve any broken pieces of wool so they could be pieced back together and fed into the machines.

 

Children in Match Factories were given the job of dipping the wooden match stick into a chemical called Phospherous. This is the little Red/Orange bit you may see on the end of a match stick. However, over a period of time the chemical made the dippers teeth rot, making life very hard for them.

 

The conditions these children worked in were tough. They were expected to work 12-14 shifts with few breaks. The atmosphere inside the factories was often hot, stuffy and ill-ventilated, resulting in loss of breath, fatigue and long term health issues. There was no education which meant that there was really only a very small chance that they might move on to a more well paid job when they were older. The reality of life for a child factory worker was desperate. There were some people who recognised this and tried to do something to help.

 

In 1833  the Factory Act was passed and this meant that no child under the age of 9 could be employed in a factory. However, there was little provision to actually police this and so the Act was ignored by many of the factory owners. In 1878 another Factory Act was passed which stated that no child under 10 could be employed and children between 10 and 14 could only work half days. Again this did some good but it was hard to police. One mill owner called Titus Salt even went as far as to create his own village called Saltaire outside Bradford. He was a religious man and felt that to improve the lives of his workers would bring both them, and him, closer to god. These were all small acts, over the Victorian period the lives of children did improve and instances of child labour in factories became less and less.

Ben Gomersal worked in factories as a child, here is what he had to say....

  'Other boys were deformed in the same way.  I am sure this pain, and grievous deformity, came from my long hours of labour. My father and my friends believe so to. It is the opinion of all the medical men who have seen me.'

'The overlooker beat me up to my work! I have been beaten till I was black and blue and I have had my ears torn! Once I was very ill with it. He beat me then, because I mixed a few empty bobbins, not having any place to put them in separate. We were beaten most at the latter end of the day, when we grew tired and fatigued.'

 

Quotes taken from: www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/IRgomersal.htm

 

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Below: Children at work in the factories
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