Children of the Labouring Poor extract
Table of Contents
1 Background to the children’s lives
2 Child labourers in agriculture
3 The straw plait trade
4 The silk industry
5 Papermaking
6 Brickmaking
7 Chimney-sweeping
8 Conclusion
Extract from Children of the Labouring Poor
Taken from Chapter 1: Background to the children’s lives
Most children were destined to do some part-time or full-time work from the age of eight in the first half of the century, although by 1900 many children were in school for much of the time. However, children over eleven were legally allowed to work in 1900 under certain conditions. The voices in the documents examined are not usually those of the children or their families but in some of the interviews conducted by factory inspectors the authentic voices of the children themselves can be heard, whatever the agenda behind the questioning. Reminiscences of nineteenth-century childhood in the county, whether seen through a cloud of fond memories or recalled in bitterness, can also throw some light on the lives of these children...
Although some general conclusions can be drawn about children’s lives in nineteenth-century Hertfordshire, it is clear that, in Nigel Goose’s illuminating phrase, there were ‘varieties of childhood’ throughout what was a small agricultural county, although increasingly urbanised by the end of the century.1 Much depended on location, availability of employment of various kinds, family circumstances and access to education. The main variant was the income from the jobs performed by the parents and the degree of their dependence on their children’s wages. The experiences of a child in a silk-throwing mill were different from those of a climbing boy and the life of a full-time straw-plaiter was different from that of a child in the brickfields. They all, though, had some things in common; perhaps a rudimentary education, sub-standard housing with little drinkable water, no defence against the ever-present threat of disease, a restricted diet and often inadequate clothing. Their families usually had little or nothing to fall back on if disaster struck such as the death of a parent, a sharp rise in food prices or prolonged unemployment. The possibility of having to apply to the parish for help or, more likely after 1834, of going into the workhouse was always present.
Children’s employment
As wages were generally low in Hertfordshire compared with some other counties it was a necessity that most of the children bring in some income to help the family finances from an early age or help at home to release other family members, like the mother, to go out to work. The idea of childhood being a separate stage before adulthood might be taking root among the middle classes but it was a luxury that most working-class families could not afford. The poorer the family the less time there was for any sort of childhood free from responsibilities towards the family. Even in 1890 a Tewin parent could tell the teacher that he was keeping his boy away to help with haymaking because ‘the child can earn a little money. We are very poor and sadly need it.’2 The work done by children obviously varied according to what was available. Hertfordshire was a county of small market towns. Of all the Hertfordshire towns only Watford, from the 1850s onwards, could be classed as an industrial one. There was industrialisation in the south-west with papermaking and silk-throwing, but for the rest of the county there were the trades associated with agriculture like malting and brewing and leatherworking and those that serviced the community. There were plenty of young errand boys and sometimes girls employed by the shopkeepers. In 1851 there were in the county 4 boys of ten and under acting as messengers or errand boys as well as 329 boys and 40 girls between ten and fifteen classed as messengers or porters. In 1861 there were 2 errand boys under ten and the number of those of ten and above had gone down to 164 with no girls in this category. In 1871 there were 5 boys under ten and the number above ten had gone up again to 228. Again no girls were recorded. There is little to show how much they were paid; it must have been a very small amount but it was thought worth having to help their families. Other children appear on the census as baker’s boy, butcher’s boy or draper’s boy. They probably combined running errands with helping with the businesses.3
Many children were employed by various tradesmen and craftsmen throughout the county. In 1861 there were 68 boys of ten or under employed by shoemakers and 203 boys and 8 girls aged ten to fifteen. In 1851 40 girls were employed by milliners and 63 were engaged in dressmaking while both sexes were engaged in tailoring.
Children were employed full-time or part-time by plumbers, bricklayers, carpenters, carriers and as grooms and ostlers in inns as well as being inn servants or potboys. Charlotte Langford of Sun Street, Hitchin, a widow and cabinet maker, employed thirteen men and five boys in 1851. Other children worked in plant or watercress nurseries. Lane’s Nursery at Potten End employed boys to pull groundsel, pot rhododendrons and tidy up after pruning. For this they received 6d a day.4 Some children were employed for general duties on railway stations or as telegram boys by the Post Office. Other children who lived near the river Lea or the Grand Junction Canal would help the bargemen and for this they must have needed a certain amount of strength...
One substantial source of employment for boys and girls was domestic service. Many of the middle class bemoaned the fact that straw-plaiting practised in certain parts of the county made girls unfit to be servants because they did nothing but plaiting from an early age and did not learn the skills of a housewife, such as cooking, cleaning and sewing. Once the straw plait trade collapsed, however, more children looked for openings in domestic service. Another consideration was that in the case of large families, children would leave their overcrowded cottages for living-in service, allowing a little more room for those left behind. Those in service would usually be fed by their employers, some better than others, and often received cast-off clothing. Some children were employed in the big houses of the county but many more were employed by the middle-class professionals and wealthier tradesmen and shopkeepers. In the 1851 census 346 servants up to the age of fifteen were recorded. In 1861 the number had risen to 553. This included 82 nursemaids under fifteen. In 1871 the number had risen again to 647. Some employers treated their servants well but as there were many families with one servant recorded in the censuses there was always the danger that the servant might be put upon and end up being overworked in an effort to ensure the household ran smoothly. In Berkhamsted in 1851 William Nash, a master bricklayer, employed sixteen-year-old Sarah Richardson as a general servant. In the house were his wife, a dressmaker, her assistant and two apprentices aged fifteen and sixteen plus five children. One hopes that Sarah received some help from other members of the household to cope with ten people’s needs. John Ralph, a draper of Berkhamsted, employed a nursemaid of fourteen to look after his eleven-month-old son. This practice of employing quite young girls to look after children was widespread. There were a few instances of ill-treatment and abuse of young servants that came before the courts. A particularly horrific case was reported in the Hertfordshire Express on 10 June 1893. Hettie Alderton who came from Broxbourne was sent into service with Mrs Blackmore in Chelmsford. For five weeks all was well, then Mrs Blackmore began to beat the girl and to starve her. Hettie had to sleep on the landing with a rope tied to her wrist but she managed to escape. Mrs Blackmore was put on trial with the neighbours testifying against her and she received a two-year sentence. This is an extreme case but young servants on their own were often at the mercy of their employers.
1. N. Goose, ‘Child employment prospects in nineteenth-century Hertfordshire in perspective: varieties of childhood?’, unpublished article.
2. Quoted in S. James (ed.), Two hundred years of Tewin School (Tewin, 1992), p. 19.
3. BPP, statistical tables issued after each census which include figures for occupations broken down by age, 1841–91, Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies (hereafter HALS).
4. V.J.M. Bryant, A history of Potten End (Cheshunt, 1986), p. 50.