The Sad Death of 26 Children at Huskar Pit 1838

[Tricia_2]

It wasn't just in the coal pits that children suffered:

Items on child labour:
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/IRchild.htm

'The youngest children in the textile factories were usually employed as scavengers and piecers. Scavengers had to pick up the loose cotton from under the machinery. This was extremely dangerous as the children were expected to carry out the task while the machine was still working.'
'a piecer walked about twenty miles a day.'
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/IRscavengers.htm
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/IRpiecers.htm

'Children who worked long hours in the textile mills became very tired and found it difficult to maintain the speed required by the overlookers. Children were usually hit with a strap to make them work faster. In some factories children were dipped head first into the water cistern if they became drowsy...'
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/IRpunishments.htm


John Brown, A Memoir of Robert Blincoe (1828)

"A girl named Mary Richards, who was thought remarkably handsome when she left the workhouse, and, who was not quite ten years of age, attended a drawing frame, below which, and about a foot from the floor, was a horizontal shaft, by which the frames above were turned. It happened one evening, when her apron was caught by the shaft. In an instant the poor girl was drawn by an irresistible force and dashed on the floor. She uttered the most heart-rending shrieks! Blincoe ran towards her, an agonized and helpless beholder of a scene of horror. He saw her whirled round and round with the shaft - he heard the bones of her arms, legs, thighs, etc. successively snap asunder, crushed, seemingly, to atoms, as the machinery whirled her round, and drew tighter and tighter her body within the works, her blood was scattered over the frame and streamed upon the floor, her head appeared dashed to pieces - at last, her mangled body was jammed in so fast, between the shafts and the floor, that the water being low and the wheels off the gear, it stopped the main shaft. When she was extricated, every bone was found broken - her head dreadfully crushed. She was carried off quite lifeless."
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/IRaccidents.htm

'Many parents were unwilling to allow their children to work in these new textile factories. To overcome this labour shortage factory owners ...[bought] .. children from orphanages and workhouses.'
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/IRworkhouse.children.htm

The V&A Museum of Childhood ~ Children at Work
http://www.vam.ac.uk/moc/childrens_lives/health_&_work/work/index.html

1802: The Health and Morals of Apprentices Act. .. No children under the age of 9 were to be apprenticed and the working day limited to 12 hours with no night work. There was no system for enforcement.
1842: Mines Act. This stopped children under 9 .. from working underground.
http://www.angryharry.com/refactoryacts.htm
http://www.angryharry.com/refactoryacts.htm

Also:
http://www.uk.filo.pl/uk_history_9.htm

[katherinem]

Hi Tomkin,

I cannot read one of the words at the moment, this could be because of the tears from reading Tricia 2's post.

Will have another look later, but in the 1st column (when and where died), it has July 4th in the or Day Hole leading from the Huskar Coal Pit, Silkstone, under occupation it actually has miner, cause of death: Accidental death by drowning, the informant was Thos badger, Coroner, Rotherham.

Thank you so very much for the excerpt from the book "children of the dark", a book I will definitely be ordering.

Regards,
Kath

[tomkin]

  Thanks Tricia,
                         When I read the Draft copy of the Commission Report, I
    noticed many references to the fact that overall Miners were healthier
    than those that worked in the Weaving industry. Children were employed
    in both industries because they were cheap and that they could get into
     places where others couldn't.   I also personally think it was because
      they hadn't got a "voice" and had to do as they were told.

       

a book I will definitely be ordering

 
       You might have some difficulty Kath, as it is out of print. There is some hope
         that it might be printed as a paper back to coincide with this years
       commeration of this tragic event.

      Tomkin

[pennine]

Just for information there is a small paperback book called
'The Last of the Dayhole Miners' by John Senior. ISBN 1 874754 78 0 PUBLISHED IN 1997 BY
Happy Walking International LTD. Unit 1 Molyneux Business Park, Whitworth Road, Darley Dale, Matlock, Derbyshire DE4 2HJ. Price £4.95.

This book touches on the Huskar disaster but also gives loads of names and photos of the owners of this mine and several similar mines in the same area. There are sketches of the mines and it gives a clear description of Drift mines and others etc. right up to the closure of these mines some as late as the 1960's. At the end of the book it mentions other similar mines not recorded in the book.These others could perhaps be researched online. It is worth a read for anyone researching Dayhole Mines and the owners.

Pennine

[Bellejazz]

John Brown, A Memoir of Robert Blincoe (1828)
"A girl named Mary Richards, who was thought remarkably handsome when she left the workhouse, and, who was not quite ten years of age, attended a drawing frame, below which, and about a foot from the floor, was a horizontal shaft, by which the frames above were turned. It happened one evening, when her apron was caught by the shaft. In an instant the poor girl was drawn by an irresistible force and dashed on the floor. She uttered the most heart-rending shrieks! Blincoe ran towards her, an agonized and helpless beholder of a scene of horror. He saw her whirled round and round with the shaft - he heard the bones of her arms, legs, thighs, etc. successively snap asunder, crushed, seemingly, to atoms, as the machinery whirled her round, and drew tighter and tighter her body within the works, her blood was scattered over the frame and streamed upon the floor, her head appeared dashed to pieces - at last, her mangled body was jammed in so fast, between the shafts and the floor, that the water being low and the wheels off the gear, it stopped the main shaft. When she was extricated, every bone was found broken - her head dreadfully crushed. She was carried off quite lifeless."
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/IRaccidents.htm

 

[catwomyn]

Some awfully sad messages here.

Can I recommend the National Coal Mining Museum near Wakefield? It has a special exhibition about pre-1842 working conditions.

I feel awfully for my ancestors who had to leave the famine-stricken, stark beauty of the west of Ireland and wound up working down the pits aged 10.

Awful.

Cat

[tomkin]

 Thanks Pennine.
                                       I've tried a quick search but haven't found a copy.
     I'll keep trying.

   

leave the famine-stricken, stark beauty of the west of Ireland and wound up working down the pits aged 10.

       Out of the frying pan.      If only they had known, but life was terribly hard
    for most people and today we moan about so many petty things.

        Tomkin 

[LBobble]

Coming from a mining background as far back as 1800 and having had relations killed in the mines, it still grieves me to read of such dreadful accidents.
In the North East we've had our share of disasters.
Mining terminology relating to children :-

Trappers    1825:  boys of the youngest class, employed to open and shut the doors, which keep the ventilation in the workings regular. 
  1849:  A little boy whose employment consists in opening and shutting a trap-door when required : his wages are 9d. or 10d. per day of 12 hours (1849). At present 1s. to 1s. 2d. per day of 8 hours. (1888). 
  1892:  They are the youngest boys employed in the mine. They are stationed at traps or doors in various parts of the pit, which they have to open when trams of coal pass through and immediately to close again, as a means of directing the current of air for ventilation to follow certain prescribed channels. It was formerly the practice to send boys of not more than six years to work in the mine as trappers. They remained in the pit for eighteen hours every day, and received fivepence a day each as wages. He was in solitude and total darkness the whole time he was in the mine, except when a tram was passing. He went to his labour at two o'clock in the morning, so that during the greater part of the year it was literally true that he did not see daylight from one Sunday till the Saturday following. 
  1894:  Boy attending to a ventilating door.

Bob 

[Alan Gallop]

My name is Alan Gallop and I was delighted to read several references to my 2003 book 'Children of the Dark - Life & Death Underground in Victoria's England.'  It was originally published by Sutton Publishing (now known as The History Press) and the ISBN code is 0-7509-3094-2.  The book is a very detailed re-telling of the story of the Huskar Pit Disaster of 1838 based on a great deal of research.  It runs to 228 pages and contains over 20 photographs, drawings and reproductions from newspapers and magazines of the time.  Some of you might remember a two-page feature about the book in the Daily Mail newspaper back in 2003.

Sadly the book is currently out of print but The History Press are hoping to produce a revised paperback edition in July 2008 to coincide with the 170th anniversary of the disaster, when a number of different events will take place in the twin communities of Silkstone and Silkstone Common.

I am hoping that a gathering will take place at the very spot where the disaster happened - in Knabbs Wood, Silkstone Common, on Friday July 4 2008.  Watch this site for more information closer to the time. I am also hoping to give some talks to local schoolchildren in/around Silkstone and also to other community groups.  I am also looking forward to seeing the Silkstone Community Play about the disaster called 'Profit & Loss' which promises to be a fantastic and moving experience for everyone who goes to see it in the beautiful church in Silkstone.   

You should be able to get copies of the book from your local lending library or if you want to grab a copy for yourself, why not try http://www.usedbooksearch.co.uk, which is a remarkable website for finding second-hand books.  However, I am told that when copies of Children of the Dark come onto the site, they are quickly snapped up - so if at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

If anyone has any specific questions about the Huskar Pit Disaster, I will be delighted to respond.  I understand that it now appears on the 'Recommended Reading List' for the history curriculum of several educational authorities here in the UK.

All good wishes to you all.

Alan Gallop