[19th and 20th Century Mining] [History of Wigan] [Index] |
Conditions in the Mines 1841 |
No. 92 - Rosa Lucas, nearly 18 years old, at Mr. Morris's,
Lamberhead Green, (Wigan) May 19th, 1841. You are a drawer, I believe,
when at work? - Yes, I am. Do you work at night in Morris's pits? - Yes, when I was able to work. I worked one week in the day time and the next at night, the same as the drawers did. Are there any children in the pit where you work? - Oh, yes, both little and big, some not older or bigger than him [pointing to a little boy of six or seven years old]; they put them to tenting air-doors. What hours do you work? - I go down between three and four in the morning and sometimes I have done by five o'clock in the afternoon, and sometimes sooner. Have you any fixed hour for dinner? - Yes, we have an hour for dinner in the day-time, but we don't stop at night. When you are working the night turn, what hours do you work? - I go at two o'clock in the afternoon, and sometimes three. I come up it will be about three o'clock in the morning, and sometimes before. You have no regular times for meals at night? - No we never stop at night. Do you find the work very hard? - Yes, it is very hard work for a woman. I have been so tired many a time that I could scarcely wash myself. I was obliged to leave Mr. Blundell's pit, it was so hot, and my work was a deal harder; I could scarcely ever wash myself at night, I was so tired; and I felt very dull and stiff when I set off in the morning. What distance did you draw? - 23 score yards in length. That is 460 yards each way, or 920 yards? - Yes How many times had you to draw this distance? - 16 and sometimes 18 times [Taking 16 times, she would have to draw 14,720 yards daily.] Have you ever had many accidents besides the one you are now suffering from?
- Yes, I had once a great big hole in my other leg. I thought it was the water that
did it, for I was working in a wet place then. How did the accident happen you are now suffering from? - I was sitting on the edge of a tub at the bottom, and a great stone fell from the roof on my foot and ankle, and crushed it to pieces, and I was obliged to be taken off. Have you ever seen the drawers beaten? - Yes, some gets beaten. Mary Tuity gets beaten nearly every day. What do they beat her with? - A pick-arm. What do they beat her for? - I suppose it is for 'sauce'; she has a
very saucy tongue. What is your father? - He was a collier, but he was killed in a coal-pit. I go past the place where he was killed many a time when I am working, and sometimes I think I see something.
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Extract from "Children In The Mines, The Children's Employment
Commission of 1842." Published in 1995 by Ian Winstanley, PICK PUBLISHING. www.cmhrc.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk |
Article by Adrian Morris |