John
Birley,
a factory worker from Derbyshire, was interviewed by James
Rayner Stephens in the summer of 1849. John's account of his life
as a child worker at Cressbrook Mill appeared in The
Ashton Chronicle on 19th May, 1849.
Child
Labour Debate Activity (International School of Toulouse)
Child
Labour Simulation (Spartacus Educational)
(1)
The Ashton Chronicle (19th May, 1849)
I
was born in Hare Street, Bethnal Green, London, in the year 1805.
My father died when I was two years old, leaving two children, myself
and Sarah my sister. My mother kept us both till I was about five
years old, and then she took badly and was taken to the London Hospital.
My sister and I were taken to the Bethnal Green Workhouse. My mother
died and we stayed in the workhouse. We had good food, good beds and
given liberty two or three times a week. We were taught to read and
in every respect were treated kindly.
The same year my mother died, I being between six and seven years
of age, there came a man looking for a number of parish apprentices.
We were all ordered to come into the board room, about forty of us.
There were, I dare say, about twenty gentlemen seated at a table,
with pens and paper before them. Our names were called out one by
one. We were all standing before them in a row. My name was called
and I stepped out in the middle of the room. They said, "Well
John, you are a fine lad, would you like to go into the country?"
I said "Yes sir".
We had often talked over amongst ourselves how we should like to be
taken into the country, Mr. Nicholls the old master, used to tell
us what fine sport we should have amongst the hills, what time we
should have for play and pleasure. He said we should have plenty of
roast beef and get plenty of money, and come back gentlemen to see
our friends.
The committee picked out about twenty of us, all boys. In a day or
two after this, two coaches came up to the workhouse door. We were
got ready. They gave us a shilling piece to take our attention, and
we set off. I can remember a crowd of women standing by the coaches,
at the workhouse door, crying "shame on them, to send poor little
children away from home in that fashion." Some of them were weeping.
I heard one say, "I would run away if I was them." They
drove us to the Paddington Canal, where there was a boat provided
to take us.
We got to Buxton at four o'clock on Saturday afternoon. A covered
cart was waiting for us there. We all got in, and drove off to the
apprentice house at Litton Mill, about six miles from Buxton. The
cart stopped, and we marched up to the house, where we saw the master,
who came to examine us and gave orders where we were put. They brought
us some supper. We were very hungry, but could not eat it. It was
Derbyshire oatcake, which we had never seen before. It tasted as sour
as vinegar.
Our regular time was from five in the morning till nine or ten at
night; and on Saturday, till eleven, and often twelve o'clock at night,
and then we were sent to clean the machinery on the Sunday. No time
was allowed for breakfast and no sitting for dinner and no time for
tea. We went to the mill at five o'clock and worked till about eight
or nine when they brought us our breakfast, which consisted of water-porridge,
with oatcake in it and onions to flavour it. Dinner consisted of Derbyshire
oatcakes cut into four pieces, and ranged into two stacks. One was
buttered and the other treacled. By the side of the oatcake were cans
of milk. We drank the milk and with the oatcake in our hand, we went
back to work without sitting down.
We then worked till nine or ten at night when the water-wheel stopped.
We stopped working, and went to the apprentice house, about three
hundred yards from the mill. It was a large stone house, surrounded
by a wall, two to three yards high, with one door, which was kept
locked. It was capable of lodging about one hundred and fifty apprentices.
Supper was the same as breakfast - onion porridge and dry oatcake.
We all ate in the same room and all went up a common staircase to
our bed-chamber; all the boys slept in one chamber, all the girls
in another. We slept three in one bed. The girls' bedroom was of the
same sort as ours. There were no fastenings to the two rooms; and
no one to watch over us in the night, or to see what we did.
Mr. Needham, the master, had five sons: Frank, Charles, Samuel, Robert
and John. The sons and a man named Swann, the overlooker, used to
go up and down the mill with hazzle sticks. Frank once beat me till
he frightened himself. He thought he had killed me. He had struck
me on the temples and knocked me dateless. He once knocked me down
and threatened me with a stick. To save my head I raised my arm, which
he then hit with all his might. My elbow was broken. I bear the marks,
and suffer pain from it to this day, and always shall as long as I
live.
I was determined to let the gentleman of the Bethnal Green parish
know the treatment we had, and I wrote a letter with John Oats and
put it into the Tydeswell Post Office. It was broken open and given
to old Needham. He beat us with a knob-stick till we could scarcely
crawl. Sometime after this three gentlemen came down from London.
But before we were examined we were washed and cleaned up and ordered
to tell them we liked working at the mill and were well treated. Needham
and his sons were in the room at the time. They asked us questions
about our treatment, which we answered as we had been told, not daring
to do any other, knowing what would happen if we told them the truth.
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