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Children's Employment Commission
Evidence Collected By Jelinger C. Symons, Esq.
Cumberland Coalfield.
No. 315. — James Sampson, 34 years old. Examined at the same place:
I am a collier. I began at 6 years old. Some come at 7, at 8, and at 9, just as they are put to it in a family. We begin to go down at half-past 5, and come out at about half-past 5. We work 12 hours, sometimes shorter and sometimes longer. I have known the pit worked 16, but that was accidental. The trailers get 2s., that's the general wage per day; but there are others where they get only 1s. 6d. The boys are like the others; we all get enough of it; they are not overworked though. They don't get much schooling; some go on Sundays and some do not. The colliers could make enough in nine hours; but this is an easy colliery to work. We can't make more than 5s. a-day one day with another; that's what we look at. I can make 9s. some odd days; that is ourselves, with paving the trailer out of it. If we work very hard the boy gets more. I have four children too young for the pit, and send them all to school.
No. 316. — Thomas Kendal, 16 years old. Examined at same place and time:
I have been working six years; I have trailed all the time, it is middling hard work. The longest day's work I ever did was 16 hours; it is generally 12 I work now. It doesn't tire me much working the 12 hours. We stop two or three times a-day. Sometimes bread and water, and a bit of butter or cheese. I have bacon and potatoes when I get home for supper. I used to go to school before I came to pits. I don't go to Sunday. I can read Testament. I don't know what death Christ died. I can't write very much. 5 x 6 is 30. I don't know how much 7 x 8 is. 42 pence is 3s. 4d. I have a brother who was 12 last July; he trails with me. I don't help to fill often.
No. 317. — Mr. Alvan Penrice, Colliery Agent for Henry Curwen, Esq., Workington Hall. Examined August 2, 1841:
The children begin as trappers at about. 9. We employ the trappers and drivers. The haggers employ the trailers, who begin about 12 years of age. They often trail two together when young. The corves, when full, hold coal to weigh about 4 cwt. net. We have no working to dip. The trailers will have about 12 journeys to make in the day. The distance is not above 80 yards on the average, that. is from the foreheads to the steth, whence the coal is brought 300 yards by horses to the shaft. The boys assist to fill sometimes. The boys are never allowed to remain after the haggers to fill or trail. We keep an excellent air in the pit; and our working shaft is the downcast. We have had no accident with ropes breaking. The Harrington pits we work on the same system, but there we employ the trailers ourselves. There are two shafts; one is 95 fathoms deep, and the other 60. It was in the Harrington John Pit that the explosion occurred in 1838, when 24 men and 16 boys were killed, and not one was left to tell the tale how it happened ; some were descending the pit at the time, and were blown out of the shaft; I should think that a fall in the air-course was the cause of it. It made sad havoc in the shaft. I was not agent at the time. Since I have had the management of that pit (since January, 1840) there has been no accident whatever — not a shilling has been paid away for accidents at all of any sort. There are 40 boys and 50 men now working in the John Pit ; and in the Hodgson Pit, which adjoins it, about 30 boys and 45 men. The children very rarely work 12 hours; sometimes they do. The trappers do not work more than 10 or 11 hours on the average. We have Saint Monday, and the colliers do not work much on that day, nor on alternate Thursdays, which is the beginning of a new pay. They will work 11 or 12 hours just before pay-day.
The sea broke into three of Mr. Curwen's pits, which were under the sea, on the 28th of July, 1837, three years before I had the management; Ralph Coxton was the manager. They were working the pit out to sea and towards the rise. They were nearly two miles under the sea from the shaft. They were continually getting nearer to the water as the workings were getting further to the rise. It was a report among the men that there was some danger prior to the accident. There is no doubt that the pit was making salt water long before. Had I had the management of the colliery I should certainly not have worked the colliery to anything like the same extent. Some got out. It happened in the night. None were left to tell how it happened, because where it broke in none escaped. The whole of the water had to pass through two drifts about six feet square. The bodies were never recovered. The funeral service was read over the pit-top. The place where the water broke in was discernible in the sea by the blackness of the place. It appeared that the hole was about 80 yards by 30. The colliery had been worked for 50 years, and there must have been a large space excavated; and it was all filled with water in two hours and a half.
I am quite sure that the children are not ill used. In the Buddle Pit, where we do not employ the trailers, they are quite as well treated by the men as those which we employ in the Harrington pits. I should say the miners in Cumberland were as well off and have as comfortable homes as anywhere in England.
No. 318. — John Henry, aged 14½. Examined at the Countess Pit (Lord Lonsdale's)
I'm a driver. I came two years ago. I would rather be a driver than a trapper. I was a trapper before. I get more brass as a driver. I come at 6 and go away at 5 or half-past 5. We stop half an hour for dinner. I never help to fill or to riddle. I can read in the Testament, and can write a little. There is no Sunday-school. I go to a Roman Catholic Sunday-school.
No. 319. — Alexander Taylor, 14 years old. Examined, August 3, 1841, at the George Pit, belonging to Mr. J. W. Fletcher of Grey Southern:
I am a trailer. I went in two years ago last Christmas. I always trailed. I have another to help me of 12 years old. It's not hard work. I go down at 6 o'clock in the mornings, and I come up at between 4 and 5. Sometimes I come up at 3, and sometimes I come at 6 — it is not regular. 1 have to trail and nothing else to do. I never fill. I have 30 and 33 journeys a-day; it's not far. The roads are good and not wet. I trail without shoes or stockings. I stop an hour in the middle of the day — I have my corn then. I have been to day-school before I went to pits, but not since, except a fortnight at nights; but I don't go now. I don't know why I don't know. I don't go to Sunday-school at Gray Southern — I don't go, because I don't like. [He can read and write, and answers fairly. He measures 4 feet 9 inches. Strong, and not ill-formed.]
No. 320. — Benjamin Atkinson, aged 12 years 3 months. Examined at same time and place:
I have been at work four years; I have always trailed from the first. There are no trappers here, we have to open the doors as we go through ourselves. I work for John Stevenson; he pays me 1s. I trail 33 baskets a-day. I don't know how far I go each time. It tires me a good deal in my back sometimes. I go down at 6 in the morning and come up between 4 and 5. I stop an hour in the middle of time day. We always work longer just before pay-day; we stop till very near 6 then, and it is then we are tired most. Last Saturday was pay-day. I like being in the pit. I have nobody to trail with me; I have to trail up bill a little way with loaded baskets. I don't go to school — I once did. There is a Sunday-school at Grey Southern, I don't go now to church or chapel, I know boys who do. [I can get no answer why he does not go; he is ignorant of his letters and of everything else, a perfectly heathen child.] He measures 4 feet 4½ inches. The spinal column is sunk inwards; the muscle much developed, and the breast likewise.
No. 321. — John Holmes, aged 11 years 3 months. Examined at same time and place:
I trail by myself. I have been two years at pit. I like it very well. I'd rather be there than at school. My work does not tire me; I never feel tired. I always get plenty to eat. I stop after the hagger to play sometimes, but not to work. The pit is dry. I have been to school; but not since I've been at pit. I don't go to Sunday-school, because I don't like, and I'd rather play. I used to read the Testament. I don't know who Jesus Christ was. I never heard tell of God neither. I can't read in the Testament. I am taught to say my prayers, and I say them. I don't know who I pray to. They use me well in the pit. I have 1s. a-day. [He measures 4 feet 4½ inches. Immense development of muscle on each side the spine the whole way from the top to the bottom of the back.]
No. 322. — John Hill. Examined at the same time and place:
I am under-ground steward at this pit and at the other. There are but three boys at this George Pit now. They each trail the baskets themselves, The coal weighs 4 cwt. about. They have about 33 baskets to trail every day, and about 140 yards each way. They have not to fill or to riddle. The men employ them; but we are obliged to control them, for they get to fight and quarrel — they are a sad set. The roads are far drier here than the Broughton Colliery. Ben Atkinson does not trail above five yards up hill. It is very easy trailing. We are all robbing* here. We have had no accidents here for three years. I never knew a rope break here; nor have we any gas. I once knew two iron swivels break on a chain going down without any weight to them, which is the most singular. The children are greatly neglected by their parents; they give them no education, except some few that send them. The boys do go a little to night-schools after their work. They go down about 6, they come out at half-past 4 or 5 o'clock in a regular way. The boys are easier wrought in our colliery now than ever they were. At Westray's colliery it used many a time to be 9 or 10 o'clock at night when they came home. They work a deal longer hours in many parts. The men work very regularly here in this pit — they are a very steady set of men; but it is not so elsewhere. The pits are not worked by three hours so long as they were. An average collier would earn a guinea a-week who worked 10 hours a day. There used to be plenty of women about here in pits, but none now. It's a thing that isn't right at all having women in pits; and it's being left off even at Whitehaven. The men are not stinted to time; they work themselves and the trailers as long as they like — they are not stinted at all. The boys begin to go to pits by 8 or 9 years old. The boys trap our doors who trail; but we have not much gas, or we could not do it in that way. The accident at the Workington Pit was a terrible thing. I have heard men myself say they could hear the sough of the sea a month before the accident, and there were many left the pit in consequence, and still they went on working it. Mr. Curwen was told several times beforehand of the danger. Bowness, the former steward, had marked a post to go no further with the pit, and yet when Coxton got it be went 100 yards further, and that with a sort of clay roof only. It was famous coal.
* A phrase for the operation of getting the pillars out after the rest of the coal has been wrought.
No. 323. — John Wynn, aged 7 years 3 months. Examined at the John Pit, Harrington, August 3rd:
I have been three months at the pit. I trap; and get up at 4 o'clock, and get down at 5 in the morning. I do nought but open the door. I have no light. I like it very well. I have been to school; I don't go to Sunday-school. It's a good bit since I went to school; I have forgot my letters. I come out about 4, and it's sometimes rather later. [Measures 3 feet 7 inches.] I'd rather go to school than be in the pit.
No. 324. — John Daly, aged 8 years and 9 months:
I trail with my brother; he's 11. I've been more than two years. I like trailing. I trail 24 corves a-day. It does not tire me at all. My brother behaves well to me. I'd rather stop in the pit than go to school. I go down at 6 in the morning. I don't know what time we come up; it's never one time — never later than 6, nor before 2. I don't go to Sunday-school. I go to chapel, but not regular. I don't know who Jesus Christ was; I never heard about his dying. I never was taught my letters. [He measures 3 feet 9; a very sharp, intelligent child.] We never fill. I stop about an hour at fore-end of the day, and we have our bread and coffee. I shall have bacon and new potatoes to-day.
No. 325. — Joseph Dunn, 10 years old:
I trail I have always trailed. I have been in about one year and nine months. I trail by myself; it is very hard for me. There is a place where I have to hurry a short way up hill, and it's hard there. We have to open the doors ourselves. I trail 16 corves a-day. I work from 6 to 6 sometimes, and sometimes about 4. We don't quarrel much in the pit. It tires me a good deal at night. I have been to Sunday-school, and go now, and to church and all. I can read well enough, but not in Testament. I don't know who Christ was. [He measures 4 feet 1 inch, and has no apparent malformation.]
No. 326. — James Gambles, aged 12 years 3 months. Examined together with the three foregoing witnesses at the John Pit
I trail; and have been four years in the pit. I trapped first. I like being in the pit very well. 1 trail alone. It tires me a good deal in some places where its up hill, but it's not far. I don't help to fill. I come down between 5 and 6 o'clock, and come up at about 4, and sometimes later a little. I don't go to Sunday-schools — I like to go; I like to lake better. I am not taught to say my prayers. I never heard of Jesus Christ, but I have of God; I don't know whether he made the world or not. [He measures 4 feet 5 inches.]
No. 327. — James Rotherey, 14 years old. Examined at Whitehaven, August 4:
I work in Lord Lonsdale's William Pit. I am a coupler. I have been four years at it. I go down at 6, and come away at 7, or sometimes till 8; when we are done before we come up sooner, sometimes at 5 and 6. When the horses have done their work then the shift is over. Next week we shall work the night-shift, and go down at 6 and come up at 6. I like the dayshift best, because I can't sleep so sound by day, and then I am sleepy at night-work. I hang baskets on at one of the workings on the rolley-road side, and mind two pair of checks. I mostly go about all the time. I put the lockings on the trams, and go with the baskets into the workings. It does not tire me very much. I have to shove the trams, but not far — five or six yards; they have the baskets on them, sometimes one and sometimes two. I was at a charity-school before I came to the pits. I used to go to Sunday-school till the last week or two, and I am going again; I stopped because the teacher I liked was away. I can read the Testament; they explain it to us. I can write also. Jesus Christ came to forgive sins. He was killed by the Jews on a cross — on Calvary cross. Apostles were godly people appointed to preach the Gospel. We must believe in Christ; he rose for our justification. The Israelites were forty and three days in the wilderness; Jesus led them out of it. Trespasses mean sins.
No. 328. — James Atkinson, 17 years old. Examined at same time:
I work in the William Pit. I have been nearly 10 years. I have been trapper first. I work 12 hours one day with another. I like the day-shift best; it is not so dullish; we are not so sleepy. When we are in the night-shift we get home generally at 6, and then we have breakfast and get to bed about 8; then we get up at half-past 4, and go to the pit at a quarter past 5, after we have had our dinner. We have bacon every day for dinner, and mutton at week ends. I like the work of driver very much. I have to drive. We have to keep back the full baskets most coming to the shaft. We do it by putting the right foot on the tram; there is an iron knob on it; and putting our left shoulder to the horse and push the top of the basket with our right hand. It is not so hard; it was hard till I was accustomed to it; I was lamed at first by slipping my foot off, and was off work a week and three days. Some of the horses try to kick us; some are worse than others. We have trappers to nearly all the doors. We help to fill at our own pleasure: and I hag at times also. I have 9s. a-week. I was at a private school before I came to the pit, and I have been at a Sunday-school till lately. I can read the Bible, and write. Jesus wrought miracles. The Jews put Jesus to death: he died for to save sin.
