Malvern Wells Class 4 Blog

Mill Accident Highlights Plight of Child Workers

By P. Merrifield

 

On Monday 8^th August 1859 a serious accident occurred at a textile factory in Wigan. Martha Appleton was a 13 year old textile worker employed as a ‘scavenger’ picking up loose cotton from beneath machinery.

This is Martha’s account of what happened: “About 6.45 a.m. on Monday last I was at the back of the wheel house putting some bobbins in, when giddiness came over me, and my hand slipped between the driving and the man douser wheels of the self acting Mules.”

Martha lost all her fingers on one hand in the accident and as a result of this she lost her job.

This type of accident is very common amongst children working in factories; however other jobs have their own hazards for children. Despite changes in the law in 1788 making it illegal to employ them in this role many children are still employed as chimney sweeps because of their size and agility. Life up a chimney is cruel; hot; dark and cramped, children often scrape their elbows and knees as they climb inside the chimney. One sweep says “No-one knows the cruelty they undergo in learning. The flesh must be hardened. This is done by rubbing it, chiefly on the elbows and knees, with the strongest brine close by a hot fire. You must stand over them with a cane.”If a worker is found asleep on the job or becomes stuck in the chimney his master may well light a fire beneath him.

Children employed in mills making ribbons are also at risk of accident or death a recent report stated: “Three hundred boys were employed in turning hand looms. The endless whirl has such a bad effect on the head and the stomach that the little turners often suffered in the brain and the spinal chord and some died of it. In one mill near Cork six deaths and 60 mutilations have occurred in four years.”

These cases prove that it is time for a change in the law; children should be in school not at work.