Mines and Collieries Act 1842
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Mines and Collieries Act 1842
The Mines and Collieries Act 1842 (c. 99), commonly known as the Mines Act of 1842, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was a response to the working conditions of children revealed in the Children's Employment Commission (Mines) 1842 report. The act prevented boys under the age of ten and all females from working underground.[1]
Background
In 1838, a freak accident occurred at Huskar Colliery in Silkstone, near Barnsley, when a stream overflowed into the ventilation drift after violent thunderstorms. The flood caused the death of 26 children; 11 girls aged from 8 to 16 and 15 boys between 9 and 12 years of age.[2] This disaster raised public awareness about the employment of children in coal mines and Queen Victoria ordered an inquiry. The Commission was headed by Lord Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury.[3]
The commission investigated the conditions of workers in the coal mines. Commissioners visited collieries and mining communities gathering information sometimes against the mine owners' wishes. The published report used engraved illustrations to show the conditions and Victorian society was shocked to discover that children, as young as five or six worked as trappers, opening and shutting ventilation doors down the mine before becoming hurriers, pushing coal tubs. Hewers, the men who cut the coal, and female hurriers worked underground wearing little or no clothing.[4]
References
- ^ Davies 2006, pp. 15–16
- ^ (PDF) Huskar Colliery Disaster, cmhrc.co.uk, p. 68, http://www.cmhrc.co.uk/cms/document/1820_39.pdf, retrieved 2011-07-27
- ^ The Mines Act, 1842, University of Paris, http://anglais.u-paris10.fr/spip.php?article88, retrieved 2010-12-05
- ^ Davies 2006, p. 17
- Bibliography
- Davies, Alan (2006), The Pit Brow Women of the Wigan Coalfield, Tempus, ISBN 0-7524-3912-X
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