ApPlY YoUr LeArNiNg LOOKING AT THE EVIDENCE 1. The following texts tell us about children who worked in the mines during the Industrial Revolution.


Fanny Drake, aged 15. Examined at Overton, near Wakefield, May 9th I have been 6 years last September in a pit. I work at Charlesworth’s Wood Pit. I hurry by myself; I find it middling hard . . . I go down at 6 and sometimes 7, and I come out at 5 and sometimes 6; at least the banksman has told me it was 6, but there’s no believing him. We stop at 12 but we often have to work at the dinner hour. There is no-one else but me and the getter. I don’t like it so well. It’s cold and there is no fire in the pit. I’d rather be out of the pits altogether. I’d rather help my grandmother. I push with my head sometimes and it makes my head so sore that I cannot bear it touched; it is soft too. I often have headaches and colds and coughs and sore throats. I cannot read, I can say my letters. I wear a vest and shift and petticoat in the pit. I have had a pair of trousers. The getter I work with wears a flannel vest when he is poorly, but when he is well he wears nothing at all . . . (This girl is 4 feet 5 inches in height and she looked very healthy).


William Pickard, General Steward at Denby Mine We used trappers till lately, and they used to go and begin as early as 6 years old. They come at 8 or 9 years old to hurry. The thinnest coal bed we are working is only 10 inches. We cut the gates 26 inches high. The youngest children go there. The corf [container] and coal together weigh 28 stone (174 kilograms). They will have 250 yards to hurry, on average. They hurry 16 a day. The biggest part of the gates are dry. There is some places where the water is over their shoes; but very few. It is mostly very dry considering. I don’t like to see the poor little children dabble in water. I do not think now that children’s work is hard work. They have generally play enough after their work is done. It would be possible to cut the gates higher; but it would be a great expense. I don’t know how we are to do without the girls; we cannot do without them . . . they are far better hurriers and more attentive to their job.


Source: 1842 Children’s Employment Commission, found at the National Coal Mining Museum


(a) For how long has Fanny Drake been working in the pits? (b) For how long does Fanny Drake work a day? (c) Why is she not sure what time she finishes? (d) What are the things that she does not like about working in the pits? (e) What physical ailments does she have from working in the pits? (f) How heavy are the things that have to be hurried? (g) Why do the pit owners not cut higher gates? C


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