0:00:05 > 0:00:09I lived partly with my father and grandmother and partly in the workhouse.
0:00:09 > 0:00:16When I was nine, I was then bound apprentice to a man who turned me over to the colliers.
0:00:17 > 0:00:23My father said to him, "I had rather you'd tied a stone around his neck
0:00:23 > 0:00:24"and drowned him."
0:00:46 > 0:00:51# But you won't fool the children of the revolution
0:00:51 > 0:00:53# No, no, wow! #
0:01:13 > 0:01:16Three great golden men,
0:01:16 > 0:01:19surveying their plans for the future.
0:01:19 > 0:01:25Mathew Bolton, William Murdoch, and James Watt.
0:01:26 > 0:01:30All key figures in Britain's Industrial Revolution.
0:01:31 > 0:01:35This statue cast them as minor deities lording it over their domain
0:01:35 > 0:01:38and stands here in the centre of Birmingham,
0:01:38 > 0:01:42a city that benefited greatly from their combined genius.
0:01:44 > 0:01:46There are monuments like this all over the country
0:01:46 > 0:01:49because when it comes to the Industrial Revolution,
0:01:49 > 0:01:51we all know who should get the credit.
0:01:51 > 0:01:54It's the money men, the manufacturers, the inventors,
0:01:54 > 0:01:56the engineers, the great and the good.
0:01:56 > 0:01:58Men like these.
0:01:58 > 0:02:03But these 18th and 19th century entrepreneurs and inventors
0:02:03 > 0:02:06were only able to capitalise on their brilliance
0:02:06 > 0:02:09thanks to an all-important resource,
0:02:09 > 0:02:12raw material found in plentiful supply.
0:02:12 > 0:02:13It was children.
0:02:16 > 0:02:19Of course there's no memorial to their contribution
0:02:19 > 0:02:24but the children of the revolution fortunately have left us something
0:02:24 > 0:02:27much more important than stone and gold paint.
0:02:27 > 0:02:30They've left us their own stories in their own voices
0:02:30 > 0:02:33and they can still speak up for themselves
0:02:33 > 0:02:35down across the centuries.
0:02:44 > 0:02:48Standing by my father with a knot of whip cord in my button hole,
0:02:48 > 0:02:50which showed that I had a desire to work with horses.
0:02:50 > 0:02:53I stood there, waiting for the highest bidder for my services.
0:02:56 > 0:02:59Before I'd left home, I'd read Uncle Tom's Cabin
0:02:59 > 0:03:03and when I saw us all lined up, I remember thinking
0:03:03 > 0:03:06it was much the same in England as it was in America.
0:03:06 > 0:03:08Bar the whip.
0:03:15 > 0:03:19They called them the white slaves of England.
0:03:19 > 0:03:24What we just heard were the words of Charles Bacon, hired off in the 1870s.
0:03:30 > 0:03:34I'm professor of economic history at Oxford University
0:03:34 > 0:03:36and a fellow of All Souls College,
0:03:36 > 0:03:39and for the last five years I've been searching for and studying
0:03:39 > 0:03:43lost testimonies by the child workers of the Industrial Revolution.
0:03:48 > 0:03:52The children of the Industrial Revolution were the first generation
0:03:52 > 0:03:54of ordinary working-class British kids
0:03:54 > 0:03:57to have their thoughts and experiences thoroughly documented.
0:03:57 > 0:04:00Their stories are preserved in diaries, letters
0:04:00 > 0:04:04and in published and unpublished autobiographies.
0:04:04 > 0:04:10We also have government reports, parish records and early newspaper interviews.
0:04:10 > 0:04:14But outside of academia, few people know these documents exist,
0:04:14 > 0:04:20or appreciate how vast this treasure trove of hidden voices really is.
0:04:24 > 0:04:29I began to read and research these eye-witness accounts of life in the age of manufactures
0:04:29 > 0:04:33as a way of looking at child labour today in the developing world.
0:04:35 > 0:04:40It's a sobering thought that the nearest equivalent to the Mumbai slumdogs
0:04:40 > 0:04:45are the mud-larks and gutter-snipes of 18th and 19th century London.
0:04:45 > 0:04:48But the more I read these childrens' stories,
0:04:48 > 0:04:51the more it taught me about the lives of those people
0:04:51 > 0:04:54who are our great, great, great, great grandparents.
0:04:54 > 0:04:58We always see them as victims, drudgers and drones,
0:04:58 > 0:05:01but it's not the whole story.
0:05:01 > 0:05:04The children's relationship to the world of work was complex.
0:05:04 > 0:05:09Their employment helped build up Britain's industrial power
0:05:09 > 0:05:13but it also contributed to our modern notions of childhood.
0:05:13 > 0:05:17Mind you, there were many amongst that first generation who signed up
0:05:17 > 0:05:22for work without really knowing what they were letting themselves in for.
0:05:35 > 0:05:38A rumour circulated that there was going to be an agreement between
0:05:38 > 0:05:42the overseers of the workhouse and the owner of a great cotton mil.
0:05:45 > 0:05:48The children were told that when they arrived at the cotton mill,
0:05:48 > 0:05:51they would be transformed into ladies and gentlemen.
0:05:52 > 0:05:56That they would be fed on roast beef and plum pudding,
0:05:56 > 0:05:59and have plenty of cash in their pockets.
0:05:59 > 0:06:04In August 1799, 80 boys and girls who were seven years old
0:06:04 > 0:06:09became parish apprentices till they had acquired the age of 21.
0:06:09 > 0:06:14The young strangers were conducted into a spacious room
0:06:14 > 0:06:17with long, narrow tables and wooden benches.
0:06:17 > 0:06:24The supper set before them consisted of milk-porridge of a very blue complexion.
0:06:24 > 0:06:26Where was our roast beef and plum pudding?
0:06:29 > 0:06:32That was the con played on eight-year-old Robert Blincoe,
0:06:32 > 0:06:35as told to a journalist several years later.
0:06:35 > 0:06:38He was bound apprentice to a spinning mill like this one.
0:06:38 > 0:06:42This is Quarry Bank Mill in Cheshire, founded in 1780.
0:06:55 > 0:06:58It was built out in the sticks because it needed the river
0:06:58 > 0:07:02that runs through the valley to power the machines inside.
0:07:04 > 0:07:10The downside of that decision was that remote places like this were low on available man power.
0:07:10 > 0:07:12So who would staff these mills?
0:07:12 > 0:07:14Who would do the work?
0:07:14 > 0:07:18The solution was to recruit the most vulnerable elements in society.
0:07:18 > 0:07:20Orphans.
0:07:20 > 0:07:25The first wave of factory labour in this country was made up of orphans.
0:07:32 > 0:07:37They were the real life Oliver Twists, left to the mercy of the parishers.
0:07:37 > 0:07:43And their employment was nothing less than state-sponsored slavery.
0:07:45 > 0:07:47They were called parish apprentices
0:07:47 > 0:07:49and, aged as young as seven or eight,
0:07:49 > 0:07:53were taken by cart from their homes in the parishes of London
0:07:53 > 0:07:55and other towns and cities,
0:07:55 > 0:08:00and transported hundreds of miles away to places like this.
0:08:14 > 0:08:18On arrival, they would be piled into dormitories like this one,
0:08:18 > 0:08:20billeted near their workplaces
0:08:20 > 0:08:24and indentured to the mills and factories as apprentices.
0:08:24 > 0:08:30Once signed over, they had to stay here until they were 21, sometimes 24 years old.
0:08:30 > 0:08:32This is the girls' dormitory.
0:08:32 > 0:08:36It's bigger than the boys' dormitory next door.
0:08:36 > 0:08:39It looks a little bit primitive, doesn't it?
0:08:42 > 0:08:47However, inside the factories, things were far from basic.
0:08:47 > 0:08:51State of the art machinery shook and pounded the walls of these mills
0:08:51 > 0:08:53from dawn till dusk,
0:08:53 > 0:08:58and all the while, children kept time with the relentless beat.
0:08:58 > 0:09:01So how many people would be working this machine?
0:09:01 > 0:09:04Typically, two men and a young child to a pair.
0:09:04 > 0:09:08The machine that we have here represents only half of that pair.
0:09:08 > 0:09:10- Was it dangerous?- Oh, yeah.
0:09:10 > 0:09:13Injuries generally occurred in the last two hours of the day.
0:09:13 > 0:09:16- So, injuries happened when people lost concentration?- Yeah.
0:09:16 > 0:09:21I see over here in this picture, the boy's not wearing any shoes.
0:09:21 > 0:09:24You weren't allowed to wear your clogs,
0:09:24 > 0:09:26the footwear of that period,
0:09:26 > 0:09:30simply because, with these machines running all the time,
0:09:30 > 0:09:31you get a level of cotton dust
0:09:31 > 0:09:34building up on the floor, like snow,
0:09:34 > 0:09:37and if your clog iron was to catch the railing on the floor,
0:09:37 > 0:09:42the possibility of a spark and you would set fire to the floor
0:09:42 > 0:09:46and burn the mill down, so mill room work was always barefooted.
0:09:46 > 0:09:47I heard that there was a fatality
0:09:47 > 0:09:49associated with this machine in the past.
0:09:49 > 0:09:52Yes, a 13-year-old boy.
0:09:52 > 0:09:56One of the most important tasks that he was involved in was wiping down.
0:09:56 > 0:09:59The men in charge of these machines would draw the carriages out
0:09:59 > 0:10:04onto the end of the railings and then apply a brake to prevent the carriage retracting.
0:10:04 > 0:10:07The children then had to go round the back of the mule and crawl underneath.
0:10:07 > 0:10:11On this occasion, the guy in charge of this mule took his brake off
0:10:11 > 0:10:16and commanded the child to get out, and the child either didn't hear him or he didn't get out in time
0:10:16 > 0:10:21- and consequently, he was crushed in a roller beam and killed instantly.- Terrible.
0:10:28 > 0:10:32Parish apprentices were often called pauper apprentices
0:10:32 > 0:10:38because the new factories provided the powers that be with a cheap way of dealing with poor children.
0:10:40 > 0:10:44Work became a substitute for social welfare.
0:10:48 > 0:10:54Katrina Honeyman is a history professor at Leeds University and an expert on parish apprentices.
0:10:55 > 0:11:00Our image of child labour is almost entirely negative.
0:11:00 > 0:11:06Does that really cover the experience of the pauper apprentices in this time period?
0:11:06 > 0:11:09Many children went off to their apprenticeship -
0:11:09 > 0:11:13whether it was factory or elsewhere - quite excited at the possibility
0:11:13 > 0:11:16of becoming an independent worker, learning a skill.
0:11:16 > 0:11:20They had regular meals, even if they weren't great.
0:11:20 > 0:11:23- Yes.- They got education.
0:11:23 > 0:11:25They had a roof over their heads.
0:11:25 > 0:11:30But right from the start, they would be working 14 or 15 hours a day,
0:11:30 > 0:11:34sometimes more, with the possibility of overtime,
0:11:34 > 0:11:36for which they might get a little money.
0:11:36 > 0:11:38Otherwise they weren't paid.
0:11:39 > 0:11:44This free labour was integral to the rise of the new industries.
0:11:44 > 0:11:49Managers didn't want adults who were used to less regimented ways of working.
0:11:49 > 0:11:52Children could be made to adapt.
0:11:52 > 0:11:55Not only that, but many machines were designed
0:11:55 > 0:11:59to be operated by small children, with their nimble fingers.
0:11:59 > 0:12:07Can we see these children as pivotal to the emergence of this new form of enterprise?
0:12:07 > 0:12:10It's difficult to see how the industry could have expanded
0:12:10 > 0:12:15in the way that it did without the quantity and the nature
0:12:15 > 0:12:18of the child labour that was available.
0:12:26 > 0:12:29The master carder's name was Thomas Birks.
0:12:29 > 0:12:31Tom the Devil, we called him.
0:12:31 > 0:12:33He was a very bad man.
0:12:33 > 0:12:36Everybody was frightened of him.
0:12:36 > 0:12:40He once fell poorly and very glad we were.
0:12:40 > 0:12:42We wished he might die.
0:12:42 > 0:12:45We were always locked up out of mill hours,
0:12:45 > 0:12:47for fear any of us should run away.
0:12:51 > 0:12:54One day, the door was left open.
0:12:54 > 0:12:59Charlotte Smith said she would be ringleader if the rest of us would follow.
0:12:59 > 0:13:03She went out but no-one followed her.
0:13:03 > 0:13:04The master found out.
0:13:04 > 0:13:10There was a carving knife which he took and, grasping her hair, he cut if off close to the head.
0:13:14 > 0:13:17This head-shaving was a dreadful punishment.
0:13:17 > 0:13:19We were more afraid of it than any other,
0:13:19 > 0:13:22for girls are proud of their hair.
0:13:27 > 0:13:31Rural and picturesque, this place seems a world away
0:13:31 > 0:13:35from scary urban factories, but Quarry Bank had its runaways too.
0:13:35 > 0:13:41In 1856, a girl called Esther Price was caught escaping.
0:13:41 > 0:13:45She was sent up here to the punishment room in the attic of the house.
0:13:45 > 0:13:47Here it is. This is the punishment room.
0:13:49 > 0:13:52The windows would be blacked out.
0:13:52 > 0:13:57Her bed is a blanket on the floorboards.
0:13:57 > 0:13:59She got supper and breakfast
0:13:59 > 0:14:04but was locked away here for a whole week on her own.
0:14:04 > 0:14:05Poor little mite.
0:14:09 > 0:14:13As an added and coincidental cruelty, as she was taken up here,
0:14:13 > 0:14:18she had to pass by the corpse of an adult who had died earlier that day
0:14:18 > 0:14:22and was laid out in the attic for collection.
0:14:23 > 0:14:29Alone in the dark, stomach empty, a corpse for company.
0:14:29 > 0:14:32No wonder she wanted to run away.
0:14:35 > 0:14:39This siphoning off of poor and orphaned children from state care
0:14:39 > 0:14:44was not going to sustain the huge industrial expansion that Britain was experiencing.
0:14:44 > 0:14:48The country needed lots and lots of cheap labour,
0:14:48 > 0:14:51so the order came from the very top - use the children.
0:14:52 > 0:14:55During the war with revolutionary France,
0:14:55 > 0:15:01Prime Minister William Pitt was warned that British manufacturers were unable to pay their taxes.
0:15:01 > 0:15:03They blamed high wages.
0:15:03 > 0:15:05With one in ten men away fighting,
0:15:05 > 0:15:10able adult workers came at a premium and cut into profits.
0:15:10 > 0:15:13Pitt's advice was short and simple.
0:15:13 > 0:15:16He is supposed to have told them, "Yoke up the children."
0:15:38 > 0:15:40Luckily for Pitt and for Great Britain PLC,
0:15:40 > 0:15:44for the first time in its history, the country was awash with children.
0:15:44 > 0:15:49In the mid 1700s, the population of Britain was small and stationary,
0:15:49 > 0:15:50around 5.7 million.
0:15:50 > 0:15:54But by the end of the century it had shot up by more than 50%,
0:15:54 > 0:15:56to 8.7 million.
0:15:56 > 0:15:58So, what changed?
0:15:58 > 0:16:00The answer's in here.
0:16:05 > 0:16:09This is St Michael's in Madeley, Shropshire,
0:16:09 > 0:16:13built by that great man of the industrial age,
0:16:13 > 0:16:15Thomas Telford, in 1796.
0:16:17 > 0:16:20There's been a church on this site since Norman times.
0:16:20 > 0:16:24The marriage registers are long and very well maintained.
0:16:27 > 0:16:29Ah, these are beautiful records.
0:16:29 > 0:16:32You can see here somebody's not been able to sign their name
0:16:32 > 0:16:34so they've put their mark,
0:16:34 > 0:16:38and elsewhere, they've struggled to write their signatures.
0:16:38 > 0:16:41A study of these and other records have shown
0:16:41 > 0:16:45that as the 18th century progressed, more people were marrying younger.
0:16:45 > 0:16:48Now, why was that?
0:16:48 > 0:16:51Previously, men and women were employed to work the land
0:16:51 > 0:16:53and "lived in" with their employer,
0:16:53 > 0:16:56usually a farmer or big local landowner.
0:16:56 > 0:16:59These men liked to keep their young employees single
0:16:59 > 0:17:03because married employees had children and were more of a burden.
0:17:03 > 0:17:05But advances in farming practice
0:17:05 > 0:17:07meant less people were needed to grow food.
0:17:07 > 0:17:09So fewer people "lived in"
0:17:09 > 0:17:11and more were kicked out.
0:17:11 > 0:17:16That meant that there was no master to ask for permission to wed.
0:17:16 > 0:17:21These liberated workers began travelling, earning their wages in new industries.
0:17:21 > 0:17:26The pay wasn't great but it wasn't based on the sliding scales of farm work.
0:17:26 > 0:17:29They reached their peak potential earnings at younger ages
0:17:29 > 0:17:32and so were tempted to marry and start a family sooner.
0:17:32 > 0:17:37Women with jobs found their earnings could shore up new families,
0:17:37 > 0:17:40adding again to the temptation to marry younger.
0:17:40 > 0:17:43As for those women who couldn't find work,
0:17:43 > 0:17:47well, they were eager to marry young and gain financial protection.
0:17:47 > 0:17:49The result? In the early 1700s,
0:17:49 > 0:17:52the average age of British brides
0:17:52 > 0:17:53had been nearly 27.
0:17:53 > 0:17:57By 1800, it had fallen to 23 ½.
0:17:57 > 0:18:00Those three additional years of married life were crucial.
0:18:00 > 0:18:05Girls were at their most fertile and could produce two additional babies.
0:18:05 > 0:18:07# Get it on
0:18:07 > 0:18:10# Bang a gong, get it on! #
0:18:12 > 0:18:15So at the very moment that Britain was prepared
0:18:15 > 0:18:19to take the giant technological leap into the machine age,
0:18:19 > 0:18:22it had its largest, youngest population.
0:18:22 > 0:18:26And it was a mobile population, able to adapt to change.
0:18:26 > 0:18:31Everything was tailored towards delivering the industrial future.
0:18:35 > 0:18:38But that industrial future needed feeding
0:18:38 > 0:18:42and children played a role in that too.
0:18:42 > 0:18:44We tend to think of children from this time
0:18:44 > 0:18:47as working in mines and factories,
0:18:47 > 0:18:51but, in fact, child labour was ubiquitous.
0:18:51 > 0:18:53Almost every workplace would have had children in it.
0:18:53 > 0:18:59The biggest employer was actually agriculture.
0:18:59 > 0:19:03Agriculture accounted for about a third of children's jobs,
0:19:03 > 0:19:06often on small set ups like this one.
0:19:06 > 0:19:08This farm was attached to the local rectory
0:19:08 > 0:19:11and worked by a small team including boys and girls.
0:19:20 > 0:19:22Of course, agriculture is one area
0:19:22 > 0:19:25where we still see children working today,
0:19:25 > 0:19:27ushered into the life of the farm
0:19:27 > 0:19:32under the watchful eye of their parents.
0:19:32 > 0:19:37The children of the industrial revolution rarely enjoyed such a gentle introduction.
0:19:37 > 0:19:41Unlike the factory apprentices, child farm workers were often the
0:19:41 > 0:19:44only children employed on an establishment.
0:19:44 > 0:19:48They were also housed with their master or another adult worker,
0:19:48 > 0:19:51and there was no one looking over the shoulders of these men
0:19:51 > 0:19:54to see how they were treating their child employees.
0:19:54 > 0:20:00As a result, these children were often more vulnerable than the children who worked in factories.
0:20:06 > 0:20:11For example, men's reminiscences tiptoe around the topic of child sexual abuse.
0:20:11 > 0:20:16But in the testimonies I've read, there are two cases where boys were probably molested.
0:20:16 > 0:20:21And both involved lonely little farm workers consigned to the care
0:20:21 > 0:20:25of other adults, far from the protection of friends and family.
0:20:33 > 0:20:37Just like the heavy industries, agriculture had a job for every age group.
0:20:37 > 0:20:40The entry level into farm work began at six years old,
0:20:40 > 0:20:44when children could be employed as human scarecrows.
0:20:52 > 0:20:56When I was six and two months old, I was sent off to work.
0:20:56 > 0:21:01I do not think I shall ever forget those long, hungry days in the fields scaring crows.
0:21:01 > 0:21:04You can imagine the feeling of loneliness.
0:21:06 > 0:21:09Hours and hours passed without a living creature coming near.
0:21:09 > 0:21:12I cried most of the time.
0:21:12 > 0:21:18In desperation I would shout as loud as I could, "Mother! Mother! Mother!"
0:21:18 > 0:21:20But Mother could not hear.
0:21:20 > 0:21:23She was working in the hay field two miles away.
0:21:26 > 0:21:29By my seventh birthday I was driving the plough.
0:21:29 > 0:21:34Any repairs to plough or harness had to be taken to tradesmen.
0:21:34 > 0:21:40Once, after working all day long, I had to carry a plough horse collar that required whittling,
0:21:40 > 0:21:43and the plough coulter, that needed repairs at the blacksmith.
0:21:43 > 0:21:47These two heavy things made a burden far too much for me,
0:21:47 > 0:21:52but I had to trudge with them as best I could the mile and a half across the fields to Everdon.
0:21:54 > 0:21:59William Arnold was just six years old when he went to work on that farm in Northamptonshire.
0:21:59 > 0:22:02This is a horse collar like the one he carried.
0:22:02 > 0:22:05Let me show you just how heavy this is.
0:22:11 > 0:22:14Now we need the coulter, because he also carried that.
0:22:15 > 0:22:17This is part of the plough.
0:22:20 > 0:22:2540 pounds. That probably weighs more than he did.
0:22:37 > 0:22:41In many ways, the crow scarers and the children fetching and carrying for farm labourers
0:22:41 > 0:22:44were on the lowest rung of the employment ladder.
0:22:44 > 0:22:49But many testimonies tell us that even at that level and at a young age,
0:22:49 > 0:22:53the children saw these punishing labours as an opportunity.
0:22:53 > 0:22:57They were proper workers and they wanted to get on.
0:23:08 > 0:23:11In our village there was a wealthy banker and justice of the peace.
0:23:13 > 0:23:16I began to drive a pair of horses at plough for him.
0:23:16 > 0:23:24After a bit, thinking, I suppose, that I was a smart, likely lad, he made me a sort of stable boy
0:23:24 > 0:23:26and gave me eight shillings a week to start with.
0:23:28 > 0:23:34Here was a rise for a lad who was set on rising as fast and as much as he could.
0:23:34 > 0:23:40There were no slack half hours for me, no taking it easy with the other lads.
0:23:43 > 0:23:49To make more money, to do more, to know more, to be a somebody in my little world was my ambition.
0:23:59 > 0:24:03They might not have had much choice about their employment,
0:24:03 > 0:24:06but many children were determined to seize what opportunities come along
0:24:06 > 0:24:13with a level of determination and enthusiasm that is astonishing, if sometimes hard to imagine.
0:24:13 > 0:24:16Some jobs really did require huge amounts of courage.
0:24:23 > 0:24:26With a view of immediately testing my capabilities,
0:24:26 > 0:24:32my new master persuaded me to climb a chimney on my very first morning. With feet standing on the grate,
0:24:32 > 0:24:35the body would nearly fill up the width of a chimney.
0:24:35 > 0:24:40I climbed with my right arm lifted above the head, the left down by my side.
0:24:40 > 0:24:42The elbows were pressed hard against the brickwork
0:24:42 > 0:24:46to hold the body suspended until the knees were drawn up.
0:24:46 > 0:24:50Then the knees on one side and the bare heels on the other held me secure.
0:24:50 > 0:24:55While the right hand applied the scraper to bring down the soot, the knees and elbows, through the
0:24:55 > 0:25:02constant pressing and the friction with the brickwork, became peeled, thus allowing soot to penetrate.
0:25:02 > 0:25:07It caused ugly, festering sores which took several weeks to heal.
0:25:07 > 0:25:11Breathing was always more or less a difficulty.
0:25:11 > 0:25:16A hood, called a climbing cap, was drawn over the head and tucked in at the neck.
0:25:16 > 0:25:19But even with that protection, I was subject to the taste
0:25:19 > 0:25:23and inhalation of every kind of soot into my throat and lungs.
0:25:23 > 0:25:29Where fires had only just been put out, the sulphurous fumes were sufficient to stifle one.
0:25:29 > 0:25:34Once the fumes were so strong that I fell from top to bottom, nigh insensible.
0:25:44 > 0:25:49Yes, they really did put kids up chimneys.
0:25:49 > 0:25:54This is the kind of normal chimney that George Elson would have been dealing with.
0:25:57 > 0:26:01That one is so wide that you would have had no challenge.
0:26:01 > 0:26:03He'd have been up and down like greased lightning.
0:26:03 > 0:26:09What really tested boys' mettles were chimneys that measured nine inches by nine inches,
0:26:09 > 0:26:11which is this size.
0:26:11 > 0:26:17To get into and wriggle through and clean something like this
0:26:17 > 0:26:19seems practically impossible.
0:26:23 > 0:26:27Martin Glynn is president of the National Association of British Chimney Sweeps.
0:26:27 > 0:26:30So, Martin, here's a very old chimney, right here.
0:26:30 > 0:26:34This is the kind of thing those boys would have to clean.
0:26:34 > 0:26:37So, tell us, how did they go about doing it?
0:26:37 > 0:26:39Well, the little boys were known as climbing boys,
0:26:39 > 0:26:43apprenticed to the trade at seven years old in some cases.
0:26:43 > 0:26:48They used to use their elbows and knees to scamper up inside the chimney.
0:26:48 > 0:26:50In many cases they stripped naked.
0:26:50 > 0:26:56Although they have some sort of early uniform, the soot use to fill the pockets,
0:26:56 > 0:27:00and because the chimney design was so small, they became wedged.
0:27:00 > 0:27:04So they used to strip naked so they could escape back down the chimney after cleaning.
0:27:04 > 0:27:06What equipment did they have?
0:27:06 > 0:27:09The little climbing boys, and in some cases girls,
0:27:09 > 0:27:14they used to use a small scraper such as this, a little metal scraper with a wooden handle,
0:27:14 > 0:27:17and the traditional sweep's handbrush,
0:27:17 > 0:27:21which would literally, they would scrape the soot away and brush with the hand brush.
0:27:25 > 0:27:31The exploitation of climbing boys and girls was rightly seen at the time as a national scandal.
0:27:31 > 0:27:38However, even when new technology was introduced in the form of jointed chimney brushes
0:27:38 > 0:27:43and sweeps no longer needed children, it didn't mean the boys and girls were spared.
0:27:43 > 0:27:48There was still a great reluctance for the master sweeps of the day to do away with boys.
0:27:48 > 0:27:53It was far cheaper to purchase a small boy from a family for a guinea or two,
0:27:53 > 0:27:58a few shillings from the poorer families, and in some cases little girls as well.
0:27:58 > 0:28:01- Boys and girls were cheaper than brushes?- Absolutely, at the time.
0:28:01 > 0:28:06In one horrible incident in Dover in Kent, where a master had sent a boy
0:28:06 > 0:28:12up the chimney with a wet tarpaulin to extinguish a chimney fire,
0:28:12 > 0:28:18and apparently he climbed into the flume, very reluctantly, the master threatened to beat him,
0:28:18 > 0:28:23he attempted to climb further into the chimney, became stuck in the chimney, wedged,
0:28:23 > 0:28:27and apparently they heard his screams for over two miles.
0:28:32 > 0:28:37Not exactly chim-chimmeny-choo-ree, Mary Poppins, is it now?
0:28:37 > 0:28:41It shows how hard life was and how few opportunities there were
0:28:41 > 0:28:46that many climbing boys quit the trade and went off to serve in the armed forces.
0:28:49 > 0:28:53The scandal of boy soldiers is something today that we associate
0:28:53 > 0:28:56with the most callous regimes in the developing world.
0:28:56 > 0:29:02But putting boys into war zones was actually an old British tradition.
0:29:03 > 0:29:09For example, there were 13 of them who fought at the Battle of Trafalgar on this ship, HMS Victory.
0:29:10 > 0:29:15One of them was a 16-year-old midshipman, Lieutenant William Rivers.
0:29:15 > 0:29:21His father was also on board, and William first went to sea with him on Victory aged six and a half,
0:29:21 > 0:29:24and he immediately saw action and was wounded off Toulon.
0:29:33 > 0:29:36I had the honour of serving in three general actions.
0:29:36 > 0:29:40In the first, I received two wounds in my right arm.
0:29:40 > 0:29:45In the latter, while receiving orders from his late Lordship, Admiral Nelson,
0:29:45 > 0:29:47I received a wound on my face,
0:29:47 > 0:29:51which was shortly followed by a gunshot wound which carried away my left leg.
0:29:57 > 0:30:01Both William the father and William the son appear in that famous painting,
0:30:01 > 0:30:03Death of Nelson by Benjamin West,
0:30:03 > 0:30:07with William Jr being dragged off the deck on the bottom corner.
0:30:07 > 0:30:11Altogether, 720 boys fought in that battle,
0:30:11 > 0:30:15and they served at every single level of the ship society.
0:30:15 > 0:30:21Matthew Sheldon is head archivist at Portsmouth's Royal Naval Museum.
0:30:21 > 0:30:23Matthew, you've actually got William Rivers' diary.
0:30:23 > 0:30:29Yeah, it's quite unusual to actually have a kind of personal account from this date for someone who was young.
0:30:29 > 0:30:33He went to sea actually at the age of I think six and a half,
0:30:33 > 0:30:36and he then actually stays on the ship, on Victory,
0:30:36 > 0:30:39for the next 10 years, right up to the Battle of Trafalgar.
0:30:39 > 0:30:43He was exceptional, but probably not unique.
0:30:43 > 0:30:46I'm sure he wasn't unique, no. We've got another case
0:30:46 > 0:30:51on the people who were on board Trafalgar with a father and a son on board, so that did happen.
0:30:51 > 0:30:57So certainly not an exception, but I think six and a half is quite young.
0:30:57 > 0:30:59What are the other materials here?
0:30:59 > 0:31:04This is a prize money register. When ships were in action, if they captured a ship
0:31:04 > 0:31:09the value of the ship was divided among the ship's crew.
0:31:09 > 0:31:14We see it shared out after the Battle of Trafalgar, and I particularly like this one for Samuel Robbins here,
0:31:14 > 0:31:19who is getting his one pound seventeen and sixpence,
0:31:19 > 0:31:22and so there you have a kind of 15 year old Marine Society boy.
0:31:22 > 0:31:25- Did he get educated? - Well, he can certainly sign.
0:31:25 > 0:31:30Absolutely. Did he get educated by the Society or did he get some learning on board?
0:31:32 > 0:31:35Marine Society boys were the naval equivalent of the parish apprentices.
0:31:35 > 0:31:40They were boys who were dependant on the state for their welfare and
0:31:40 > 0:31:45who instead of being sent to cotton mills found themselves in naval barracks and trained for the sea.
0:31:45 > 0:31:50Not all of these raw recruits were orphans, however.
0:31:50 > 0:31:55Many were just kids who found themselves in a spot of bother.
0:31:55 > 0:31:58The Marine Society were concerned about the growing number of teenagers
0:31:58 > 0:32:03they saw hanging around on the streets, seemingly unsupervised,
0:32:03 > 0:32:06a bit like the sort of ASBO kids we have today.
0:32:06 > 0:32:12They're like, something must be done. The solution was, why not send them to the sea? They seem quite lively.
0:32:12 > 0:32:16That would be the kind of boys initially, but also generally just
0:32:16 > 0:32:18people struggling to care for their children.
0:32:18 > 0:32:22So sometimes parents would bring their children to the Society?
0:32:22 > 0:32:25Sometimes parents, friends... Sometimes masters who would be
0:32:25 > 0:32:31dissatisfied with their apprentices would come up and say, "Look, he is incapable of learning the trade.
0:32:31 > 0:32:34"He wants to go to sea. Can you take him?"
0:32:34 > 0:32:38What was it like for these boys when they found themselves on board ship?
0:32:38 > 0:32:41It was obviously a tough change. They lost their home.
0:32:41 > 0:32:44They lost any attachment figure they would have had before
0:32:44 > 0:32:48and were thrown into this community of sailors - not exactly choirboys -
0:32:48 > 0:32:53being 13 or 14-years-old only, so it was surely very intimidating at first.
0:32:53 > 0:32:59But we heard horrible cases in battle of boys being injured and people being killed around them.
0:32:59 > 0:33:02They all remember their first encounter with death.
0:33:02 > 0:33:05It seems something that sticks with them for ever.
0:33:05 > 0:33:08The first time that they see someone's head blown away
0:33:08 > 0:33:10by a cannon shot, that sticks.
0:33:10 > 0:33:13But then what is remarkable from then on,
0:33:13 > 0:33:16they all say that they're numbed to the horrors of war.
0:33:25 > 0:33:31We had not fired two broadsides before an unlucky shot cut a poor man's head right off!
0:33:31 > 0:33:36The horrid sight, I must confess, did not help raise my spirits.
0:33:36 > 0:33:43The ship that struck us was so much disabled that she could not live upon the water.
0:33:43 > 0:33:45It gave a dreadful reel.
0:33:45 > 0:33:50We were afraid to send any boats to help because they would have been sunk
0:33:50 > 0:33:53by too many souls getting in her at once.
0:33:53 > 0:33:57You could plainly perceive the poor wretches climbing over to winward and crying most dreadfully.
0:33:57 > 0:34:02Even our own men were in tears, groaning, "God bless them."
0:34:08 > 0:34:10But were they really numb to it?
0:34:10 > 0:34:14We've got testimonies that sailors are apparently having seven times more likelihood
0:34:14 > 0:34:21of ending up in a lunatic asylum, so really, the signs are that they very much struggled
0:34:21 > 0:34:25afterwards, that while they were on board it was all fine and covered up,
0:34:25 > 0:34:32but when back on land and alone, then the truth maybe came out and it really showed like if that ever
0:34:32 > 0:34:38digested or if that locked it up in like a sea chest deep down in their soul and hope never to open it again.
0:34:42 > 0:34:47Obviously these hellish experiences left their mark.
0:34:50 > 0:34:56But the testimonies demonstrate that the harshness shown to the children of the revolution
0:34:56 > 0:35:00did not stop them from acting selflessly towards others.
0:35:00 > 0:35:05Take the older brother of the young Alexander Somerville, the wonderful William.
0:35:23 > 0:35:26William was a stripling when I was born, and worked for such wages
0:35:26 > 0:35:29as a youth could obtain in that part of the country.
0:35:39 > 0:35:42When he came home at night he would strip off his coat, take off his hat,
0:35:42 > 0:35:47put on his nightcap and get down the box and sort through the old hemp and scraps of leather.
0:35:47 > 0:35:53He'd examine all the children's feet to see which of them had shoes most in need of mending.
0:35:59 > 0:36:05And then he would sit down and cobble the shoes by the light of the fire until near midnight.
0:36:09 > 0:36:12COCKEREL CROWS
0:36:21 > 0:36:26He would rise at four o'clock in the mornings and do the heaviest part of James' work
0:36:26 > 0:36:28amongst the farmers' cows and other cattle
0:36:28 > 0:36:31before going to do his own day's work two or three miles distant.
0:36:37 > 0:36:41James was too young for the heavy task of cleaning, so William got up
0:36:41 > 0:36:45every morning to do that part of his work and so keep James in employment.
0:36:53 > 0:36:56The one overriding motivation for these children
0:36:56 > 0:37:00was helping the warm heart that was at the centre of their lives.
0:37:00 > 0:37:01Their mothers.
0:37:01 > 0:37:05My brother and I had the deep satisfaction of knowing
0:37:05 > 0:37:07it was not through any fault of our mothers
0:37:07 > 0:37:10that we were forced to go through so much privation.
0:37:10 > 0:37:15She was a good angel in the home, and the one on whom we all had to lean.
0:37:15 > 0:37:20"Mother, Mother, I have earned half a sovereign and all of it myself!
0:37:20 > 0:37:21"And it is yours, all yours!
0:37:21 > 0:37:23"Every bit is yours!"
0:37:27 > 0:37:29In time my wages went up to nine shillings a week
0:37:29 > 0:37:33and I was able to be a real help to our little household
0:37:33 > 0:37:35and lighten somewhat the burden of care
0:37:35 > 0:37:37resting on my mother's shoulders.
0:37:40 > 0:37:42Boys and their mothers, eh?
0:37:42 > 0:37:48But Mums became the centres of their world because more often than not Dads were away or missing.
0:37:51 > 0:37:55Their absence was prompted by poverty, death, travelling for work,
0:37:55 > 0:37:58and in the case of 10% of the male population,
0:37:58 > 0:38:03because of being called away to fight abroad in the Napoleonic wars.
0:38:06 > 0:38:13Feckless fathers were often blamed for exploiting their children by the politicians and the upper classes,
0:38:13 > 0:38:17but in many ways men were the first victims of industrialisation.
0:38:17 > 0:38:20Machines took away their skills and livelihoods
0:38:20 > 0:38:23and called upon their children, who were cheaper and more docile.
0:38:23 > 0:38:26Those fathers were left behind.
0:38:32 > 0:38:37It was when I was about eight years old that our family misfortune fell to our lowest ebb.
0:38:37 > 0:38:41The saddling trade in London had been going worse and men were short of work.
0:38:41 > 0:38:46The large army contracts for cavalry saddles had now gone to the factories.
0:38:46 > 0:38:52It was the beginning of 1876 when my father was turned off from his work and became unemployed.
0:38:52 > 0:38:57The effect of these undeserved fortunes on my father was however noticeable to me then and later.
0:38:59 > 0:39:04After 1876, he became more and more silent, and even morose.
0:39:04 > 0:39:08There is no greater trial to a self-suspecting and good work man
0:39:08 > 0:39:11than that of finding his services are not needed,
0:39:11 > 0:39:14leaving him to spend his days trying to secured a job,
0:39:14 > 0:39:17only to be met by the sign, "No hands wanted."
0:39:17 > 0:39:20Add to this the misery and poverty when he returns home,
0:39:20 > 0:39:24and it is not surprising that even a strong-minded man should break down.
0:39:31 > 0:39:35Given the frequency of broken families, the grinding poverty, and the need to work,
0:39:35 > 0:39:39these children could never have enjoyed a childhood as we might know it.
0:39:39 > 0:39:43But there again, this was an era where the concept of childhood remained fluid.
0:39:43 > 0:39:48People were at odds about what childhood meant, when it started and when it finished.
0:39:48 > 0:39:50Even the children were sometimes confused.
0:39:50 > 0:39:54In 1850, the journalist Henry Mayhew interviewed a nameless
0:39:54 > 0:39:57eight-year-old watercress seller in London's East End.
0:40:05 > 0:40:09On and off, I've been very near 12 month in the street.
0:40:09 > 0:40:12Before that, I had to take care of a baby for my aunt.
0:40:12 > 0:40:15No, it wasn't heavy, only two months old.
0:40:15 > 0:40:19But I minded it for ever such a time until it could walk.
0:40:22 > 0:40:26Before I had the baby, I used to help my mother who was in the fur trade,
0:40:26 > 0:40:30and if there were slits in the fur, I'd sew them up.
0:40:30 > 0:40:37All my money I earned, I puts in a club, and draws it out to buy clothes with.
0:40:37 > 0:40:42It's better than spending it on sweet stuff, for them that's got a living to earn.
0:40:43 > 0:40:47I ain't a child, and I shan't be a woman until I'm 20.
0:40:47 > 0:40:49But I'm past eight, I am.
0:40:56 > 0:41:01A lot of children, when they started work full-time, and the watercress girl had been in full-time work
0:41:01 > 0:41:05since about the age of five, ceased to think of themselves as children.
0:41:05 > 0:41:08Sometimes, they felt much better about themselves
0:41:08 > 0:41:10when they did start working.
0:41:13 > 0:41:14So, what motivated them?
0:41:14 > 0:41:16I think that just comes automatically.
0:41:16 > 0:41:21You're not earning for yourself, you're learning to tip up the earnings to your mother
0:41:21 > 0:41:25who might give you a little bit back but it's basically for the family.
0:41:25 > 0:41:32If you can think, my money went towards the joint on Sunday,
0:41:32 > 0:41:37the only meat we get in the week, then you're going to feel a sense of self-esteem and pride.
0:41:37 > 0:41:39MUSIC: "Everything in Its Right Place" by Radiohead
0:41:39 > 0:41:43By the middle of the 19th century, there seems to have been a groundswell of concern
0:41:43 > 0:41:48that as a society, we were not allowing kids to be just children.
0:41:48 > 0:41:53As early as the 1830s, people are talking about these children being children without childhood.
0:41:53 > 0:41:59I think the origin of this, the most immediate origin is the romantic poets,
0:41:59 > 0:42:03and it's difficult to exaggerate the impact which Wordsworth had.
0:42:03 > 0:42:08Wordsworth got away entirely from the idea of original sin.
0:42:08 > 0:42:13He thought children came from heaven, trailing clouds of glory, famously.
0:42:13 > 0:42:17So, they can actually rescue adults who have gone astray.
0:42:17 > 0:42:21If you begin to internalise this kind of view of childhood,
0:42:21 > 0:42:25then the lives of these children at work are anathema.
0:42:25 > 0:42:29People are beginning to say, when a child starts work, he or she ceases to be a child.
0:42:29 > 0:42:33Certainly that innocence would be lost.
0:42:33 > 0:42:35Certainly, the innocence would be lost,
0:42:35 > 0:42:37because they'd be mixing with adults,
0:42:37 > 0:42:41but they'd be having their childhoods taken away from them.
0:42:48 > 0:42:52The only way they would have their childhoods handed back to them
0:42:52 > 0:42:54would be if Parliament intervened.
0:42:54 > 0:42:58And that was something that initially seemed highly unlikely.
0:43:00 > 0:43:05It is not surprising that the first official reports into child labour
0:43:05 > 0:43:09were supportive, and written in a stomach-churning, rose-tinted way.
0:43:15 > 0:43:19I have visited many factories and I never saw a single
0:43:19 > 0:43:24instance of corporal chastisement inflicted on a child,
0:43:24 > 0:43:27nor indeed did I ever see children in ill humour.
0:43:27 > 0:43:30They seemed to be always cheerful and alert,
0:43:30 > 0:43:35and the work of these lively little elves seemed to resemble a sport.
0:43:35 > 0:43:43As to exhaustion of their day's work they evinced no trace of it emerging from the mill in the evening,
0:43:43 > 0:43:46to commence their little amusements with the same alacrity
0:43:46 > 0:43:49as boys issuing from school.
0:43:49 > 0:43:51So why did things change?
0:43:51 > 0:43:58Why did this place, the Houses of Parliament start to legislate against child labour?
0:43:58 > 0:44:02When did Britain begin to think that working kids to death was a bad idea?
0:44:02 > 0:44:09Parliament had been largely happy to keep its nose out of the issue of child employment.
0:44:09 > 0:44:11Crucially, though, the times were a-changing -
0:44:11 > 0:44:14the children who had survived the mines and factories
0:44:14 > 0:44:19were growing up, and getting organised into early trade unions.
0:44:19 > 0:44:24Popular culture also began to report on the worst abuses.
0:44:24 > 0:44:26Dickens started his serialisations
0:44:26 > 0:44:29of Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby.
0:44:29 > 0:44:31And he knew a bit about child labour -
0:44:31 > 0:44:36at 12, he'd worked 12-hour shifts in a blacking factory
0:44:36 > 0:44:37with boy called Fagin.
0:44:37 > 0:44:42Slowly reform began to manoeuvre itself onto the political agenda.
0:44:42 > 0:44:49In 1831, radical MP John Hobhouse tried to introduce a bill restricting child labour.
0:44:49 > 0:44:52He proposed that no child under nine should work in a factory
0:44:52 > 0:44:59and that 9-to-18-year-olds' hours of work should be limited to 12 a day or 66 a week.
0:44:59 > 0:45:00Radical(!)
0:45:00 > 0:45:04In response to his efforts, workers around the country
0:45:04 > 0:45:06formed short time committees to promote the cause
0:45:06 > 0:45:08and argue for more legislation.
0:45:08 > 0:45:12Is it not a shame and disgrace that, in a land called
0:45:12 > 0:45:15"the land of the Bibles", children of a tender age
0:45:15 > 0:45:20should be torn from their beds by six in the morning, and confined,
0:45:20 > 0:45:23in pestiferous factories, until eight in the evening?
0:45:23 > 0:45:28Ten hours a day, with eight on Saturdays, is our motto...
0:45:28 > 0:45:29may it be yours.
0:45:31 > 0:45:35In 1832, MP Michael Sadler became the main spokesman
0:45:35 > 0:45:38for the Short Time Committees.
0:45:38 > 0:45:43Mass meetings in the factory districts drew crowds of 100,000 and more in support.
0:45:43 > 0:45:49And while Parliament continued to resist reform, it did give Sadler the authority to launch an enquiry.
0:45:49 > 0:45:56That commission interviewed 48 child workers and when his findings were published in 1833,
0:45:56 > 0:46:00they shocked genteel British society.
0:46:00 > 0:46:05While I am earnestly pleading the cause of these oppressed children,
0:46:05 > 0:46:08what numbers of them are still tethered to their toil,
0:46:08 > 0:46:13confined in heated rooms, stunned with the roar of revolving wheels,
0:46:13 > 0:46:16poisoned by the noxious effluvia of grease and gas,
0:46:16 > 0:46:21till weary and exhausted, they turn shivering to beds from which
0:46:21 > 0:46:24a relay of their young work fellows have just risen.
0:46:26 > 0:46:31The same year, 1833, the first Factory Act was passed,
0:46:31 > 0:46:35unfortunately, it only applied to the textile industry.
0:46:35 > 0:46:40However, it did ban children under nine from working, and limited the
0:46:40 > 0:46:44hours of work of children aged nine to 13 to nine a day.
0:46:46 > 0:46:51But its real significance was that it laid down a marker for future reform.
0:46:51 > 0:46:56Reports from the front line of child labour began to filter back to the middle classes.
0:46:56 > 0:47:00Most shocking of all were accounts of underground work in Britain's coal mines.
0:47:00 > 0:47:05But what caused the uproar was not the hazardous work of children
0:47:05 > 0:47:08in these pits, it was topless ladies.
0:47:10 > 0:47:14In some pits, it was practice for women and young boys to be chained
0:47:14 > 0:47:17to the carts that the miners filled with coal.
0:47:21 > 0:47:25They then dragged them to the surface through black, hot, filthy tunnels
0:47:25 > 0:47:26where the heat was so fierce
0:47:26 > 0:47:29they usually stripped to the waist to cope.
0:47:29 > 0:47:34When these artists' recreations of their working conditions
0:47:34 > 0:47:38were published, they caused a furore.
0:47:38 > 0:47:40This is the Big Pit in Blaenavon,
0:47:40 > 0:47:45one of the places industrial Britain was born, in iron, coal and steel.
0:47:48 > 0:47:52The pit was started in 1840 and it's a museum now,
0:47:52 > 0:47:56but you can still get underground, and see some of the old seams.
0:47:56 > 0:48:01When you get down there, you get a real sense of what was asked of the child miners.
0:48:01 > 0:48:06There we go. OK, this way everyone, please. Thank you.
0:48:06 > 0:48:08Come on in.
0:48:08 > 0:48:11This is gloomy, down here.
0:48:11 > 0:48:14This is how it was.
0:48:14 > 0:48:15So, a little boy or girl would be...
0:48:15 > 0:48:18- A little boy or girl would stand... - Sitting right there?
0:48:18 > 0:48:23Sitting by the side of the door and they would listen for horses.
0:48:23 > 0:48:26When the horses come along, they would open the door,
0:48:26 > 0:48:30they would let the horses go through and they would close the door. 10 hours a day.
0:48:30 > 0:48:34Back in those days, they had company in the timberwork.
0:48:34 > 0:48:38- They would have insects, cockroaches.- Ugh.
0:48:38 > 0:48:40Running around their feet, rats.
0:48:40 > 0:48:43I thought you are going to get to the rats.
0:48:43 > 0:48:48- Mostly the children, they worked in the dark, they had no lights. - Didn't they have a candle?
0:48:48 > 0:48:51If the families could afford candles. But as you can imagine,
0:48:51 > 0:48:54candles were a naked flame, candles were dangerous with gas.
0:48:54 > 0:48:56So we'll turn our lights out
0:48:56 > 0:49:01and I'll ask you to take one of your hands, put it against your nose
0:49:01 > 0:49:04and tell me if you can see your fingers.
0:49:04 > 0:49:08Shall we try that now? Take one of your hands against your nose.
0:49:08 > 0:49:10- Can you see your fingers? - I cannot see anything.
0:49:10 > 0:49:13So, imagine these children in this, for 10 hours a day.
0:49:21 > 0:49:24I'm a trapper in the Gawber Pit.
0:49:24 > 0:49:29It does not tire me, but I have to trap without a light and I'm scared.
0:49:29 > 0:49:36I go in at four and sometimes half-past three in the morning and come out at half-past five.
0:49:36 > 0:49:39I never go to sleep.
0:49:39 > 0:49:43Sometimes I sing when I've light, but not in the dark.
0:49:43 > 0:49:45I don't like being in the pit.
0:49:50 > 0:49:53After the scandal of the climbing boys,
0:49:53 > 0:49:58the sacrifice of the child soldiers, and the shame of the pit and factory girls,
0:49:58 > 0:50:02parliament finally began to face up to the situation.
0:50:02 > 0:50:05Even then, though, it was a struggle.
0:50:05 > 0:50:08The story of that struggle is locked away in here,
0:50:08 > 0:50:12the Victoria Tower in the Houses of Parliament.
0:50:16 > 0:50:19It's not so hard to understand why there were so many twists
0:50:19 > 0:50:22and turns in Parliament's relationship with child labour.
0:50:24 > 0:50:29It was a Parliament that was not just sympathetic to the interests of manufacturers and mine owners,
0:50:29 > 0:50:32it was largely made up of manufacturers and mine owners.
0:50:32 > 0:50:36But is still staggering that reform took so long.
0:50:43 > 0:50:47Inside this sealed vault is every piece of legislation
0:50:47 > 0:50:50passed by Parliament since 1460.
0:50:50 > 0:50:53Each of these rolled-up scrolls is a bill,
0:50:53 > 0:50:56and even the organisation of these scrolls
0:50:56 > 0:51:01shows what an infuriating time the reformers had in effecting change.
0:51:01 > 0:51:07Now we can see how frustrating and prolonged this struggle really was.
0:51:07 > 0:51:10This document, down here, is the first protective
0:51:10 > 0:51:14labour legislation for children, the Parish Apprentices Act of 1802.
0:51:14 > 0:51:19Limited to parish apprentices and largely toothless.
0:51:19 > 0:51:22These documents are arranged chronologically.
0:51:22 > 0:51:25It's like walking through legislative history.
0:51:25 > 0:51:28We have to go all the way down there and all the way back here,
0:51:28 > 0:51:31still in the 1800s but there's a long way to go
0:51:31 > 0:51:34before we get to any more protective labour legislation.
0:51:43 > 0:51:49OK. 1810. 1815...
0:51:49 > 0:51:521819, The Cotton Factories Act.
0:51:52 > 0:51:55I'm not going to get it down for obvious reasons,
0:51:55 > 0:52:00but that Act tried to limit the age of starting work to nine years old.
0:52:00 > 0:52:031820s, more 1820s.
0:52:03 > 0:52:06Into the 1830s.
0:52:06 > 0:52:11To here. 1833. The first piece of protective labour legislation
0:52:11 > 0:52:15that's really effective, limiting the length of the working day.
0:52:15 > 0:52:20But we actually have to go next door for the material that really bites.
0:52:25 > 0:52:28As you see, they've changed the system by this time.
0:52:29 > 0:52:35But here we have it, this is the Factory Act of 1884.
0:52:35 > 0:52:40It limited the length of the working day for children under 13 to six and a half hours.
0:52:40 > 0:52:4641 years of argument, debate, struggle and investigation
0:52:46 > 0:52:49for three and half hours of children's working time.
0:53:02 > 0:53:05Meanwhile, out in the real world,
0:53:05 > 0:53:08there's huge sectors of employment that were totally unregulated
0:53:08 > 0:53:11and crying out for reform.
0:53:11 > 0:53:14For example, construction.
0:53:27 > 0:53:32I worked at a brick and tile works that was three miles from our home.
0:53:32 > 0:53:37Each day, a six-mile walk was added to the day's work of 12 hours.
0:53:39 > 0:53:43The work was heavy for a lad of my age.
0:53:43 > 0:53:45Each brick weighed about nine pounds,
0:53:45 > 0:53:51and in the course of a day I carried several tons of clay bricks.
0:53:51 > 0:53:53We usually started work at six in the morning,
0:53:53 > 0:53:56when I would pick up the bricks from the floor of the shed.
0:54:00 > 0:54:04For this I received seven shillings a week.
0:54:04 > 0:54:08My mother said that the work was too hard and the distance too long
0:54:08 > 0:54:11for me to walk every morning and night.
0:54:14 > 0:54:20She told me the money would be missed, someone would have to go short.
0:54:20 > 0:54:24But it was no use being slowly killed by such work as I was doing,
0:54:24 > 0:54:27and it was making me hump-backed.
0:54:27 > 0:54:31It was not until I had been away from the work for several weeks
0:54:31 > 0:54:34that I was able to straighten myself out again.
0:54:37 > 0:54:42In those reminiscences, Will Thorne recalled being a nine-year-old worker in the 1860s.
0:54:42 > 0:54:47This brick-making kiln is similar to the one that would have employed Will.
0:54:47 > 0:54:52This barrow is like the one that he'd have to move, loaded with bricks.
0:54:52 > 0:54:56There's 25 bricks here, which would have been a child's load.
0:54:56 > 0:54:59Adults moved 50.
0:54:59 > 0:55:02I think I'm supposed to try and move this.
0:55:03 > 0:55:07Whoa. This isn't easy.
0:55:12 > 0:55:14It's not easy at all!
0:55:17 > 0:55:20The bricks I've just smashed were made here,
0:55:20 > 0:55:27at Bliss Hill Victoria Museum, by Tony Mugridge, the last independent travelling brickmaker in Britain.
0:55:30 > 0:55:35I'm standing back out of the spatter path because this is kind of messy.
0:55:35 > 0:55:41But, Tony, we are interested in how they managed to get round
0:55:41 > 0:55:45the child labour legislation in the brick fields and maintain children's employment.
0:55:45 > 0:55:46There's a very clever thing.
0:55:46 > 0:55:51What would happen is that the people would be employed, the workers,
0:55:51 > 0:55:53men and women, in the brick fields.
0:55:53 > 0:55:56There were employed by the brickmaker.
0:55:56 > 0:55:59If the brickmaker employed children, he'd be breaking the law.
0:55:59 > 0:56:03So what he did, he'd employ the people to employ their own children.
0:56:03 > 0:56:05By doing it that way, they got round it all.
0:56:05 > 0:56:08What kind of jobs did the kids do?
0:56:08 > 0:56:13The children would be preparing the clay down in the soap pit over there.
0:56:13 > 0:56:16They would pick the clay up and carry it to the work benches.
0:56:16 > 0:56:18The clay is very heavy.
0:56:18 > 0:56:20A lump like this...
0:56:20 > 0:56:22I believe you. I believe you.
0:56:22 > 0:56:27We are probably talking around 12 to 14 lb weight of clay.
0:56:27 > 0:56:32By the time they are eight, nine and 10, they are able to move the brick barrows easily
0:56:32 > 0:56:35and by the time they are 11 or 12, they're making bricks.
0:56:35 > 0:56:41Will is a great example of how the child workers were far bolshier than we give them credit for.
0:56:41 > 0:56:45He first went on strike at the ripe old age of six.
0:56:45 > 0:56:49Not surprisingly, he grew up to be a union leader
0:56:49 > 0:56:51and then later a member of parliament.
0:56:51 > 0:56:57He enjoyed a distinguished career until he retired in 1946, aged 84.
0:56:57 > 0:57:01The industrial generation powered Britain's journey towards
0:57:01 > 0:57:07wealth and influence, and then set about improving the lot of those youngsters who followed on behind.
0:57:09 > 0:57:13As that generation grew up, they began to organise into trade unions
0:57:13 > 0:57:16and to campaign for changes in employment law.
0:57:16 > 0:57:20As a result, kids started to disappear from the workplace
0:57:20 > 0:57:24and slowly parliament began to back a new solution
0:57:24 > 0:57:27to the problem of what to do with children.
0:57:27 > 0:57:28School.
0:57:28 > 0:57:35Labour is replaced by learning and childhood becomes defined by new rite of passage. Education.
0:57:35 > 0:57:37By the end of the 19th century,
0:57:37 > 0:57:43school leaving age provides a clear boundary, and one enshrined in law.
0:57:48 > 0:57:52CHILDREN SQUEAL
0:58:02 > 0:58:06Instead of being seen as fuel FOR the future,
0:58:06 > 0:58:09children BECAME the future.
0:58:11 > 0:58:16In effect, that old romantic notion finally came of age.
0:58:16 > 0:58:18Childhood is important.
0:58:18 > 0:58:21It needs protecting.
0:58:21 > 0:58:23Children are special.
0:58:23 > 0:58:27And the children who survived the first industrial revolution
0:58:27 > 0:58:29were even more so.
0:58:29 > 0:58:32We've always given these children our pity
0:58:32 > 0:58:34but it's our respect they deserve.
0:58:34 > 0:58:39They were heroes, whether there's a statue to them or not.
0:58:46 > 0:58:50Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:50 > 0:58:53E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk