23rd March, 2007
Factory Acts
There is no doubt that conditions in the early mills in the Wigan district were appalling. This is surprising because most of the early mill owners in the town were self made men, who had once been ordinary mill workers and presumably suffered under the same dreadful circumstances to which they subjected their employees.
The Factory Acts of 1802 and 1809 tried to improve conditions. Among other rulings they stated that children under nine were no longer allowed to work in the mills and apprentices between the ages of 9 and 16 were limited to working no more than 12 hours per day.
Previously children had worked as "doffers" - they changed empty bobbins for full ones, especially on "throstles". They also cleaned the machines, which were left on during the process to ensure continued production. Under these dangerous conditions children were often severely injured.
The Factory acts were largely ignored in the Wigan area.
Home Office "Visitors"
In 1823, the Home Office sent "visitors" to inspect conditions in Lancashire Mills. They were far from impressed with those in the Wigan area.
Three mills in the town were said to be in "a most abominable and filthy state" and with "insufficient air".
In 1828, Darwell and Wood, who owned the Sovereign Mills, were reprimanded for making children under the age of 16 work from 5am to 9pm. Such long hours caused them to become drowsy and therefore more vulnerable to lapses of concentration which could lead to accidents. Overseers were said to have beaten any children who dozed while they were at work.
And of course there were the social implications. Children only had time to work and sleep - except on Sundays, when they mainly slept.
Workers who were injured were not usually compensated. Anyone who became incapacitated through a work accident had to cope without help from the mill owners.
Good Employers
There were some good employers.
The Home Office "visitors" were particularly impressed with the conditions they encountered in Messrs Jones and Co's mill at Tyldesley.
This was said to have been clean. The workers had been well treated and consequently healthy. A sick club had been established where the workers paid 1d a week and if they fell ill, or were injured, received 4s (20p) per week while they were unable to work. The firm had opened a Sunday School for the education of their workers and time off was allowed for the local wakes. The workers at this mill were said to have been well motivated.
William Dodd
In 1841 conditions seemed to have been no better.
In that year William Dodd was employed by Lord Ashley, Earl of Shaftesbury, to collect information about the treatment of children in factories.
He gave a particularly grim account of Wigan, stating:
"The first answers to my queries furnished me with so melancholy a view of things, that I at once set them down for exaggerated statements and determined to examine for myself."
Oddly, considering his brief, his account of mill life contained little about children but gave many examples of mill workers who had suffered appalling injuries and had been reduced to a state of desperation as the mill owners had done little or nothing, to compensate them.
A list here would make grim reading, so one typical example will suffice:
"EDWARD LEATHERLAND, a young man about nineteen years of age, lost his right arm in a scutcher in WILLIAM WOOD's factory. He has received nothing from his masters, and is endeavouring to gain a living by gathering manure in the streets. He lives with his parents who are very poor."
Dodd sited many cases where workers had lost their right arms in a "scutcher" - a machine for cleaning cotton and preparing it for carding. He also mentioned a disability he called "in-knee'd" crippling. The workers blamed the "throstles" for this but Dodd thought the condition was largely caused by standing in the same position for long hours.
This was a subject close to him, as he himself had been crippled while working in mills during his younger days.
He described the wages for men as being "very low" and women earning only 6s to 6s 6d per week (30p to 32.5p). Fines for minor transgressions were "frequent and heavy" and reduced the already meagre wages.
He seemed surprised at the number of women who worked in mills - many of whom were heavily pregnant.
Dodd did find some positives. He mentioned the case of Ann Siddle who had lost her arm in Ryland and Son's factory but, as she had been educated at the expense of the firm, she was able to make a decent living as a school mistress, working in a school built on the premises for the education of factory children.
Help from Relatives
Finally, here is a poignant scene described by Dodd:
"As I was standing by my window... about eight o'clock in the morning, I was surprised to see about forty or fifty elderly men and women, and almost double that number of children, going down the street with the breakfasts of their sons and daughters, or brothers and sisters. Some of these people had three, four, or five tin cans, and a little basket; and, although it was a cold wet morning, and snow lying upon the ground, many of the children had neither stockings nor shoes to their feet, nor covering of any kind for their head."