John Thomas,
aged 59, and George Hughes, aged 46, foremen at the Hafod Copperworks. John Thomas had been working in
the works for 26 years and George Hughes has been there for about five years.
‘We look after the
boys and girls that are labouring about the works. We put them to work and keep their time. We have in all about 130 boys and girls
under 18. There are about 60 boys
and 70 girls, about one half of them under 13.
The hardest work
to which the boys are put is working ‘the calciners’ [types of furnace]. They are mostly worked by boys from 13
to 16 years old. Their turn
continues for 24 hours and they are obliged to tend the furnaces every two
hours. They can sleep for an hour,
perhaps two or three times in the night.
They work six turns or ‘watches’ one week and eight the other and get
2s. 6d. [12 ½ p] for each double watch of 24 hours.
The youngest boys
and girls are employed to wheel the coal and ashes for the furnaces which are
worked by their fathers and most of the children employed are the children of
the workmen or those who have worked her.
We do not consider the children are overworked her but we don’t think it
is a fit place for girls to work as it unfits them for all other work.
The characters of
the men and their wives are generally improvident. The men are rather fond of drink and the women are bad
managers. The colliers appear to
save more money than the copper men although they do not get so much. The copper men must, however, from the
nature of their work at the fires, live better, and they wear out more clothes,
particularly shoes. They mostly
wear flannel shirts and wear out four in the years when two will serve to
colliers.
Source: Children’s Employment
Commission (1842)
Author ID: Professor Huw Bowen
More: A World of Welsh Copper
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario