Herefordshire Through Time
Herefordshire Through Time
Evidence for the conditions surrounding child labour in Herefordshire is patchy. Among possible sources are vestry minutes for parish meetings where the fate of pauper children was discussed. Each parish had its own way of dealing with these children, some sending them to work in the emerging industries in Bristol and the Midlands, others boarding them with local farmers as farm servants. Several parishes in the county preferred to apprentice the workhouse children to local craftsmen and women. If a child was apprenticed to a craftsman, an indenture document had to be drawn up, specifying the terms and conditions of the apprenticeship.
In 1869, for example, the Guardians of the Poor of the Ledbury Union sent a boy of about thirteen years of age to work for George Cherrill, a shoemaker in Mathon. The apprenticeship was to last seven years. For the first four years the boy, William Green, was to be given room and board, but during the fifth year he was to be paid 1s per week, 2s per week for the sixth year and 3s per week for the seventh year.
The Bromyard Union liked to place children in domestic service. In July 1883 the Board of Guardians decided to put an advertisement into the Bromyard News "shewing the Children in the Workhouse ready for service". Each child was to be given a set of clothes by the Union before taking up a position. But domestic service was not the only option considered by the Workhouse Guardians.
During the May 1890 meeting an opportunity arose for three boys to be sent to work for the Great Grimsby Ice Co. Unsure of what the conditions were, the guardians, thinking the work might be too hard for the boys, decided to send the workhouse master with the boys to Grimsby to get more information on the nature of the placement and what kind of treatment the boys could expect (Herefordshire Record Office, file on Bromyard News). It is doubtful whether all workhouse guardians showed such humanity in the placement of apprentices, unless by the 1890s attitudes had changed and the treatment of pauper children had become more humane on the whole. Unfortunately, it is not known whether or not the boys were actually sent to Grimsby.
Companies on the look-out for labour would write to workhouses requesting apprentices who, as already mentioned in the general introduction, were often little more than cheap labour.
One example for the Hereford Union involves the Great Western Cotton Works of Bristol, which requested girls of about thirteen years of age, offering to pay them 3s.6d. a week and lodging for the first six months. After that the girls would only receive a piece-work rate of 6s. to 8s. per week. Imagine a thirteen or fourteen year old girl having to go to Bristol to work in a factory and after six months having to find lodgings and survive on what little money she could earn doing piece work. No wonder employers had to approach workhouses up and down the country for their workforce!
Another example involves a wool manufacturer, who in 1850 offered to take a number of children aged between nine and fourteen (Sylvia A. Morrill, "Poor Law in Hereford 1836-1851", Transactions of the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club, Volume XLI, 1974, p. 247). Once again there is no evidence whether or not the Hereford Union Workhouse actually sent any children. Needless to say, few children would have been given a choice in the matter.
Not all workhouse regimes were uncaring, though. Nancy Elliott, in "A Dore Workhouse in Victorian Times" (Hereford Library, H/362.5094), believes that the children at the workhouse in Abbey Dore were relatively well looked after:
"Great trouble was taken with disabled children, fares being paid for relatives to take them for medical consultation and treatment; even to London. Consideration of the children's wishes were shown when the time came for apprenticeships and the Board continued an interest in their welfare." (Published by the Ewyas Harold Branch of the Workers' Educational Association, 1984, p. 6)
Was this personal attention due to the fact that Dore workhouse was small, with space for only 80-100 inmates? Or was it because the inmates of the workhouse were part of a rural community where everyone was known to everyone else and where many people were related to each other?
The workhouse in Hereford had to deal with a very sensitive problem caused by an illegal form of child labour. In 1839 a fourteen-year-old girl suffering from venereal disease was admitted. It was found that she had been working as a prostitute in a brothel in Bowsey Lane. Child prostitution was not uncommon in Victorian England and the guardians decided to take action to have this particular house of ill repute shut down.
The 1881 Census lists occupations as well as age, thus making it a useful source with regard to child labour (Hereford Library and the Herefordshire Record Office have copies on microfiche). Children who attend school are listed as "scholars", and girls who are neither listed as "scholars" nor as having an occupation are recorded as "daughters". Along with the common occupations, such as "kitchen maid" and "dressmaker" for girls and "agricultural labourer" and "brickmaker's labourer" for boys, were some unusual jobs. The fourteen-year-old Albert Ruck from All Saints parish in Hereford, for instance, is recorded as being a "billiard marker" and another fourteen-year-old from the same parish as a "railway number taker".
According to a random sampling, the youngest child in employment was Thomas Brewer from Tarrington, an eleven year old "waggoner's boy". A lad called Alfred Powell was working as an agricultural labourer in Brampton Abbots by the age of twelve. According to the 1881 Census, girls were more likely to be fifteen or sixteen before taking up their positions.
During the later part of the 19th century charities started up homes for orphans and destitute children. In Hereford there was an "Industrial School and Orphanage for Girls" in St. Owen Street, as well as a "Herefordshire Working Boys' Home" in Commercial Street. The emphasis was on training so that the children could be sent out to work as soon as they were ready and a suitable position could be found. The slogan on the front page of the annual report is a fair reflection of the charity's mission: "Established to Aid the Destitute Boys of the District in their efforts to obtain a livelihood".
[Original author: Toria Forsyth-Moser, 2004]