Children Underground
Children Many children were
employed both below and above ground at mines.
In the early days of the coal
industry children as young as six years old were employed
underground. Some of them worked as door-keepers which
meant opening and closing the underground doors which
shut Off sections of the workings and controlled ventilation.
This is what 10 year old Elizabeth
Williams told Government Commissioners in 1842:-
| ...We are door-keepers in
the four foot level We leave the house before
six each morning' and are in the level until
seven o'clock and sometimes later. We get
2p a day and our light costs us 2/2p a week.
Rachel ... was run over by a tram a while
ago and was home ill a long time ... |
|
Edward Edwards who was nine described
his job as a 'trammer' to the 1842 Commissioners:-
| ...I have been working here
for three months and I drag carts loaded
with coal from the coalface to the main
road, a distance of sixty yards. There are
no wheels to the carts ... sometimes the
cart is pushed on to us and we get crushed
often... |
|
As a result of this report an Act
of Parliament was passed in 1842 forbidding the employment
of children under 10 (later raised to 12) years old
underground. However despite the appointment of Inspectors
to enforce the Act, there is plenty of evidence to show
that children of below this age were still going underground
in the 1860s.
|
