The little trapper of eight years of age lies quiet in
bed. The labours of the preceding day had procured sleep.
"It is now between two and three in the morning and his mother shakes him,
and desires him to rise, and tells him that his father has an hour ago
gone off to the pit. Instantly he starts into conscious existence. He
turns on his side, rubs his eyes, and gets up and comes to the blazing
fire, and puts on his clothes. His coffee, such as it is, stands by the
side of the fire. and bread is laid down for him. The fortnight is now
well advanced, the money all spent, and butter, bacon, and other luxurious
accompaniments of bread, are not to be had at breakfast till next pay-day
supply the means. He then fills the tin bottle with coffee, and takes a
lump of bread, and sets out for the pit. into which he goes down with the
cage, and walking along the horse-way for upwards of a mile, he reaches
the barrow-way over which the young men and boys push the trams with the
tubs on rails to the flats, where the barrow-way and the horse-way meet,
and where the tubs are transferred to rolleys or carriages drawn by
horses.
TRAPPER'S DUTIES
"He knows his place of work. It is inside one of the doors called
trap-doors, which is in the barrow-way, for the purpose of forcing the
stream of air which passes in its long many-miled course from the
down-shaft to the up-shaft of the pit: but which door must be opened
whenever men or boys, with or without carriages, may wish to pass through.
He seats himself in a little hole, about the size of a common fireplace,
and with the string in his hand and all his work is to pull that string
when he has to open the door, and when man or boy has passed through, then
to allow the door to shut of itself. Here it is his duty to sit, and be
attentive, and pull his string promptly as anyone approaches. He may not
stir above a dozen steps with safely from his charge, lest he should be
found neglecting his duty, and suffer for the same.
"He sits solitary by himself and has no one to talk to him: for in the pit
the whole of the people, men and boys, are as busy as if they were in a
sea: fight. He however sees every now and again the pullers urging forward
their trams through his gate, and derives some consolation from the
glimmer of the little candle of about 40 to the lb which is fixed on their
trams. For he himself has no light. His hours, except at such times, are
passed in total darkness, For the first week of his service in the pit his
father had allowed him candles to light one after another, but the expense
of three-halfpence a day was so extravagant expenditure out of ten pence,
the boy's daily wages, that his father of course withdrew the allowance
the second week, all except one or two candles in the morning, and the
week after the allowance was altogether taken away; and now except a
neighbour kinder than his father now and then drop him a candle as he
passes, the boy has no light of his own.
PUNISHMENT
"Thus hour after hour passes away, but what are hours to him, seated in
darkness, in the, bowels of the earth? He knows nothing of the ascending
or descending sun. Hunger, however, though silent and unseen, acts upon
him and he betakes to his bottle of coffee and slice of bread and if
desirous, he may have the luxury of softening it in a portion of the water
in the pit, which is brought down for man and beast.
In this state of sepulchral existence an insidious enemy gains upon him.
His eyes are shut, and his ears fail to announce the approach of a tram. A
deputy overman comes along and a smart cut of his yard-wand at once
punishes the culprit, and recalls him to his duty and happy was it for him
that he fell into the hands of the deputy overman, rather than one of the
putters; for his fist would have inflicted a severer pain. The deputy
overman moreover consoles him, by telling him that it was for his good
that he punished him and reminds him of boys well known to both, who when
asleep had fallen down, and some had been severely wounded and others
killed. The little trapper believes that he is to blame, and makes no
complaint; for he dreads being discharged and he knows that his discharge
would be attended with the loss of wages, and bring upon him the
indignation of his father, more terrible to endure than the momentary
vengeance of the deputy and the putters all taken together.
NO TIME TO PLAY
"Such is the day-work of the little trapper in the barrow-way. At last the
joyful sound' of "loose, loose” reaches his ears. The news of its being
four o'clock, and of the order "loose, loose" having been shouted down the
shaft, is by systematic arrangement sent for in any miles in all
directions round the farthest extremities of the pit. The trapper waits
until the last putter passes with his tram, and then he follows and
pursues his journey to the foot of the shaft and takes an opportunity of
getting into the cage and going up when he can. By five o'clock he may
probably get home. Here he finds a warm dinner, boiled potatoes, and
broiled bacon lying above them. He eats heartily at the warm fire, and:
sits a little after, he dare not go, out to play with the other boys, for
the more he plays the more he is sure to sleep the next day in the pit. He
therefore remains quiet at home, until, feeling drowsy he then repeats the
prayer taught by our blessed lord takes off his clothes, and is thoroughly
washed in hot water by his mother and is laid in his bed.
"The Saturday after Pay Friday is a holiday in the pit and on that day the
trapper lies in bed till between eight and nine, He rises and gets his
breakfast, and then goes out to the highway to gather the manure of the
horses to put on his father's potato-garden. In the afternoon he indulges
heartily in .play, as he is not afraid of falling asleep next day and of
receiving the yard-wand of the deputy overman, or the fist of the putter.
125 YEARS AGO
"On Sunday he goes to the Sunday School an hour before divine service. The
fatigues of the week have left him but little spirit to attend to any
learning, but his presence in the school secures his presence in .the
place of worship. He returns and dines between twelve and one. He goes
again to the Sunday School, and attends divine worship. He gets tea on his
return. Then he walks out, and may be tempted to join other boys in some
diversion. He returns home, say his prayers, undresses, washes, and goes
into bed."
This passage is not quoted from some fanciful description
of working-class life in the middle ages, or of the treatment of children
in some distant slave nation of long ago: it is an example of the daily
routine of a little Durham pit lad 125 years ago, as submitted in evidence
to Queen Victoria by one of the examiners appointed by her to investigate
conditions in the mines.
'Up to 1840, although various Committers of the House of Commons had
inquired into the condition of those employed in mills and factories,
little was generally known of the circumstances of workers in the mining
industry, beyond the fact that their occupation was "amongst the most
laborious in which it is the lot of human beings to toil" and that large
numbers of children were employed at an incredibly early age. No attempt
of any kind had been made to ascertain the ages at which children began
work in the mines, the number of hours worked the exact nature of their
employment or its effect on their morals and health. Vague rumours having
reached the ears of those in high places concerning the ill-usage of
children in colliery districts and the sacrifice of young lives in an
appalling spate of mining accidents, the Children's Employment Commission
was instructed to inquire into the "Employment of Children of the Poorer
Classes in Mines and Collieries."
TASK TOO MUCH
All mining districts in the United Kingdom and all forms of mining—coal,
ironstone, tin, copper, lead and zinc came within the scope of the survey,
and to conduct inquiries on the spot twelve sub-commissioners were
appointed by the Home Secretary from among persons whose previous
knowledge and pursuits seemed to qualify them| for investigating industry
in the districts assigned to them.
If these gentlemen had any doubts as to the arduous nature of work in the
mines they were soon dispelled, the mere task of inspecting the mines
proving too much for them, as the following extract from the Commission's
report indicates.
"Such was the severity of the season in which these gentlemen had to
commence their labours, that nearly all of them incurred serious
indisposition, which in a short time compelled Mr Wood to give up the task
he had undertaken, and from which Mr Roper never recovered during the
whole term of his labours. Mr Austin, also, towards the close of his
labours, suffered from severe indisposition induced by-unusual fatigue:
nor will this amount of illness occasion surprise to any one Who knows the
toilsome nature of the duty of inspecting mines, or who is acquainted with
the character of the other places of work which were visited in rapid
succession by persons accustomed only to ordinary exposure, and to
ordinary changes of temperature."'
NORTH-EAST COALFIELD
However, by making further appointments as necessary, the Commission was
able to proceed with its work and the various sub - commissioners
undertook responsibility for particular districts. The Northumberland and
Durham Coalfield was of great importance at that time, supplying as it did
not only the coal requirements of its own area but also the markets of.
North Yorkshire, the Scottish border counties, and the whole of the
eastern and southern coasts as far west as Cornwall, in addition to the
great South - Eastern region, largely due to the fact that cheap sea
transport was available for the supply of coal from Northumberland and
Durham to those areas, and to a flourishing overseas market. The
coal-field was divided for the purposes of investigation into two
districts, South Durham being that portion of County Durham lying to the
south of the River Wear, and North Durham and Northumberland the remainder
of the coalmining district.
With a few exceptions the employers of child labour afforded all
facilities to the sub-commissioners in the pursuit of their
investigations, but not so many co-operated by completing the required
forms and tables. The result was that no reliable estimate could be formed
of the total number of child workers, but from those returns which were
submitted the Commission, was able to evaluate the respective proportions
of young persons and adults in the mining industry.
MINIMUM AGE
Some difficulty was experienced in obtaining a true picture of the minimum
age at which children were allowed to begin work in the mines, since the
tendency was for a higher age to be quoted by colliery owners, their
agents and officials than was given by the children themselves, by the
adult workmen, doctors, schoolmasters, clergy, and magistrates who were
questioned. It was commonplace for children of five, six and seven years
to be employed below ground, but the evidence of the owners and their
representatives seems to point to the fact that they were ignorant of
this. Dealing with the owners' evidence, the report has this to say:
"With regard to the coal owner it must be borne in mind that they seldom
or never descend into the pits, that few of them have any knowledge, or
take any superintendence whatever of the workpeople; that, therefore, they
may be wholly ignorant of the early ages at which children are employed in
their own mines, so that, when they make such declarations as have been
cited they may state only what they really believe to be the truth, though
the, incorrectness of their evidence is indubitably established by other
classes of witnesses."
Another possible explanation of the reluctance of the owners and masters
to admit to the facts might be a sense of guilt in the matter, but it must
in fairness be stated that parents
often pleaded with colliery officials to take their children into
employment at a tender age and were inclined to represent the children as
being older than they were. One reason for their eagerness may have been
the fact that in certain areas there were rules among the colliers for
limiting or "stinting" each other's earnings to some 3s 6d or 4s 0d per
day..
ONLY FOUR YEARS OLD
In other words, whatever quantity of coal was delivered at the pit bottom
the employer paid no more than this sum, it having been fixed as the man's
darg, or day's work, even though the employer might be willing to pay
more. But if a man had children, they could assist him in his work, so
that he could get through his darg in a shorter time and with less
personal effort.
Be that as it may, the fact remains that the ages admitted to by the
owners and management in respect of children employed by them were
generally higher than those quoted by all other parties interrogated. The
following exchange is reported by one of the Sub-commissioners in his
investigation when he questioned a colliery official known as the ground
bailiff. Also present were two charter-masters (men who contracted for a
stipulated sum to work the mines) and a collier. "I say, Jonas said the
ground bailiff to one of the charter-masters, 'that there
Tender Trappers Of County Durham
are very few children working in this mine: I think you have none under
ten or eleven. The collier immediately said Sir, my boy is only a little
more than four. This was a very unseasonable interruption; and all that
the ground bailiff said was Well I suppose that you take good care of him;
you take him down and up when you go yourself."
It seems incredible that a child of four should be employed below ground,
but his was by no means a unique instance, in the North Durham and
Northumberland district a sub-commissioner, Mr Leifchild, reported one
case of four and a half year old, and several cases of five-year-old
underground workers were noted. Mr George Elliott was head viewer (manager
of a group of collieries) for Monkwearmouth, Washington and Belmont and he
quoted several instances of five-year-old children being employed, saying
he was "very much pressed and entreated by parents to take children at a
very early age, from six years and upwards."
TO SCHOOL AT THREE
Mr Leifchild saw a little boy, of six, Thomas Roker, keeping a door down
Flatworth pit at about 7 o'clock on a Sunday evening in early summer. (The
practice of entrusting the opening and closing of air lock doors to
children was condemned by the Commission as being a frequent cause of
fatal accidents). Mr Leifchild visited the boy's home and questioned his
mother, who stated that Thomas had started school at the age of three, his
father wishing him to acquire some degree of education before going down
the pit. Since starting work the boy's timetable was to rise at 3 a.m.
descend the pit at 4, return home at 4:30 or 4:45 p.m., wash and have his
dinner and go to bed between 6 and 7 so as to rise again at 3a.m. She
explained that although Thomas thus had only about two hours of spare time
in the day when he became more hardened to the work it was the intention
of his parents to stop an hour off his sleep and send him to night school.
"It is a dusty pit", said Mrs Roker, but he never complains, though he
tells many a queer story of the pit. The pit does not hurt him, but makes
him a little white, and perhaps thinner. He was a very fat boy when he was
three years old."
Sub-Commissioner Dr. Mitchell, in his investigations at South Durham
collieries, found that the majority of trapper boys employed were under
ten years of age! The conclusion which he drew from his inquiries was that
though the extremely young, children represented a small proportion, there
were nevertheless "'such a number as is painful to contemplate, which the
great coal-owners will perhaps now learn for the first time; and I feel a
firm belief that they will do so perhaps with sorrow and regret." Having
acheived only limited success in their quest for a true picture of the
actual number of children employed below ground and of the proportions in
the various age groups, the Commissioners proceeded to study the evidence
concerning the working hours, wages and conditions of the children, the
way in which they were treated and the effects of their employment on
their morals and bodily health. Their inquiries took them not only into
the mines, but into the homes of the colliers, and their descriptions of
home life, of the fortnightly budget, of the diet imposed on the families
by a combination of little money and the need for maximum nourishment to
undertake the arduous work involved, all are woven together to form a
revealing backcloth against which the drama of everyday life was played.
These aspects, allied to the observations of the Commissioners on the
education, recreation, and social life of the youngsters as they grew up,
constitute the materials for a fascinating composite picture of life in
the mining villages of Durham in the 19th Century and will be examined in
greater detail in the course of future articles.