<<< Back
Title: Children in the labour force - MOT00365
Click on the photo to enlarge. Click here to Comment
To license a hi-res version of this image or order a print: Copy the full title, including the number and quote this when contacting us. Not all images are available to license or print.
Title
Children in the labour force - MOT00365
Description
'Little piecers' in the mule room at Mons Mill, c.1910. Walter Stott, seated on the right in the middle row, went to work as a half timer at the age of 12.
Children were an important part of the labour force. For employers they were cheaper to employ than adults. Operatives also favoured children working as it meant their sons and daughters could bring in a wage from an early age.
Legislation in the 1830s meant that children working in the cotton mills had to receive some formal education. After the introduction of compulsory state education in the 1870s, children in the cotton towns were permitted to continue working in the mills on proof of having attained an agreed standard of education. They worked half time in the mills and the other half at school and so were called half timers.
Children usually began as half timers at the age of 12, in one week working until mid-day and attending school in the afternoon, and in the next week reversing this arrangement. What skills they learnt in the poorly paid half time jobs was more than offset by their poor performance at school.
The cotton industry was one of the last major industries to give up employing children. When balloted on the question, all the cotton unions voted to retain the half time system, presumably because of the difference that a child's wages made to a family's income.
The half time system was abolished in 1918, and from 1920 children could stay at school until they reached the age of 14.
Children were an important part of the labour force. For employers they were cheaper to employ than adults. Operatives also favoured children working as it meant their sons and daughters could bring in a wage from an early age.
Legislation in the 1830s meant that children working in the cotton mills had to receive some formal education. After the introduction of compulsory state education in the 1870s, children in the cotton towns were permitted to continue working in the mills on proof of having attained an agreed standard of education. They worked half time in the mills and the other half at school and so were called half timers.
Children usually began as half timers at the age of 12, in one week working until mid-day and attending school in the afternoon, and in the next week reversing this arrangement. What skills they learnt in the poorly paid half time jobs was more than offset by their poor performance at school.
The cotton industry was one of the last major industries to give up employing children. When balloted on the question, all the cotton unions voted to retain the half time system, presumably because of the difference that a child's wages made to a family's income.
The half time system was abolished in 1918, and from 1920 children could stay at school until they reached the age of 14.
Creator
Unknown
Source
Todmorden Information Centre Trust
Date
1910, 1900s
Rights
PHDA - Todmorden Information Centre Trust
Relation
Pennine Horizons Digital Archive
Identifier
MOT00365.tif
Collection
Citation
Unknown, “Children in the labour force - MOT00365,” Pennine Horizons Digital Archive, accessed April 24, 2024, https://penninehorizons.org/items/show/10682.
Comments