THE MOULD RUNNERS

I believe most of us have a few cherished heirloom plates, bowls or cups in our cupboard which may have been handed down from loved ones, or which caught our eye in an antique shop, or even a thrift store.  From the shelf they call out to us with their beauty, their intricate design or depth of color.  We turn them over to inspect the maker’s mark.  Who was the potter?  When was it made?  Could it be a highly-desirable collectible?

Admittedly, I have also sold quite a few pieces on EBay, but I also have quite a few pieces with which I will not part.  Do I bring them out when guests come over?  No … but I love to display them, inspect them and wonder what story lies behind their manufacture.  I conjure up images of a romantic industry of rugged, muscular potters, each in their drafty factories, sitting at their wheel throwing  on a rough ball of clay and shaping it until the clay morphs into the symmetrical shape the potter had intended, creating the stunning pieces we have come to revere.

What I’ve never thought about was how could these individual potters produce thousands of pieces of pottery, in the over 300 factories located in the six-town area which made up the “pottery district” of Stoke-on-Trent.  It had to have taken hundreds if not thousands of people, working continuously, to keep up with the demand of the Victorian era.  Who were these people?

Burleigh Ware Factory, Middleport, England 1888

Sadly, the majority of people who worked in the potteries were children.  Some as young as five or six … with most children in the area employed by the age of eight.  Why?  Because children were cheap.  Most of the factory owners saw nothing wrong with children working to run errands, carry raw materials, and provide power for the potters machines.

Of course, adults were employed too by the factories, quite often the children’s parents.  The adults were paid on a ‘piece-meal’ basis, which meant their earnings were dependent on how many saleable pieces they actually produced, but not the children.  The children were the ‘batters’, the ‘jiggers’ and worst of all, ‘mould runners’.

For individual pieces, a typical potter or thrower would need three helpers … one to actually turn the wheel, one to cut the clay into the right-size balls, and another to carry the finished pieces to the stove or kiln where they would be fired.  As the demand grew, more and more pottery was made using molds.  The plate-maker or presser would press the balls of clay into a plaster mold while it was spinning on a ‘jigger’ wheel.  The plate-maker also required three helpers … a ‘jigger’ turner, a ‘batter’ to prepare the clay, and finally a ‘mould runner‘ who would take the plaster molds, each with clay plates on them and then run the molds to the stove buildings.

The young boy would place the molds on the shelves in the oven rooms, and then pick up two dried molds with plates on them and run back.  This would continue for 12 to 14 hours a day, six days a week, with Sundays off.

Many of the children worked much longer hours because they were expected to be in the factories before the adults arrived in order to have the fires lit, the water brought in, and the clay ready for the potters.  Working a 72-hour week for an eight or ten-year old was commonplace.  And many employers saw nothing wrong with this.  Let’s not forget that, at the end of the day, the children then had to walk home, sometimes two to three miles.  Because of the long work days, children could not attend school, most never learning to read or write.  If they did, it was through Sunday school.

Of course, there were  many other dangerous jobs being done by young children in the potteries including carrying 60 lb. baskets of clay up to the workshops … or working in the 100 degree oven rooms … stacking the earthenware to be fired and then bringing it out again when finished … but the most dangerous of all jobs at the factories was dipping the fired pots into the liquid glaze which contained raw lead.  Needless to say, mistakes by tired children happened often.  But these would not be tolerated … the children would be beaten, or not allowed to take their meal breaks.

I’m sure , by now, you’re asking yourself how could the parents allow their children to work under these circumstances.  Because poverty was everywhere and families needed every penny they and their children could earn, regardless of how dirty or dangerous the work.   And ‘pennies’ were just about what they did earn.


During Victorian times, children not only worked in the potteries and factories, they worked in the mines, as chimney sweeps, as ‘ratters’ and even as ‘pickpockets’ as we’ve learned from Charles Dickens novel, OLIVER TWIST.  In 1840 a commission was set up to inquire into the state of employed children.  Adults and children were interviewed by the Commissioner in 1841 as were employers, religious leaders and school teachers.

This is an interview with Robert Hood, age 10:

“I run moulds for father; have been employed three years for Mr. Hood.  I cannot read; I cannot write; never went to day school ; I go to Sunday school. My father is a saucer- maker; he is always in work; don’t know how much he gets a week; but I get 3s.

Have no mother. Have one sister and one brother. My sister stops at home to look after house; she cannot read. My brother goes to school, but he is young yet. I go home to breakfast, and have milk-meat ; and go home to dinner, when I get bacon and tatees.

I like my work very well; would like to work in the warehouse better, cause they are paid there for working till nine, and I am not; I think ours harder: and get so much a day. I am always very tired when I go home at night, get my supper, and be glad enough to go to bed. 

‘Tis very hot in the mould-room, and a good deal hotter in summer; it makes us sweat, and we drink plenty of water. I catch cold very often, but have never been laid up with it. Father flogs me some-times, if I let go a mould or break a saucer ; nobody else. Master is very good to me.”

Reformers like Lord Shaftesbury were very worried about children at work, and he, and other politicians tried to change the laws in the “Factory Acts” so that children under nine were not permitted to work, and that they must have schooling.  But potteries were not classified as factories until the 1860s.  Unfortunately, changes did not happen as quickly as they should have and as recently as WWII children under the age of 16 were still finding work in the potteries.

So, the next time I pick up that Wedgewood, Burleigh Ware or Royal Doulton figurine or plate, I’ll be thinking about the young boy or girl slogging away in the potteries for pennies a week to bring home to their families, for their not having the opportunity to go to school, or even to play with other children.  I won’t romanticize about brawny potters creating magnificent pieces of porcelain, but rather the “mould runners” without whom I wouldn’t be holding that plate.

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References:  Wikipedia, BBC – Staffordshire Potteries, Fun Kids Live, The PotteriesVictorian Children

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PIT BROW LASSES

If you read my post on THE COURTING CAKE you might remember where I mentioned how the coal mines in Great Britain during the Industrial Revolution were staffed by, not only men, but women too.  Today is National Women’s Day and, I feel, it’s the perfect day to shine a little light on these brave, incredibly hard-working women who never received the attention they so rightly deserved … Pit Brow Lasses.

Because of the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain during the 19th century, coal production increased dramatically.  Not only was coal used for fueling the steam engines, it was also used for heating and lighting.   In the coal mining areas, from Yorkshire County to Wales, it was very common for whole families to work in the mines.  “Pitwork” in these areas, was usually the only work to be found.

Prior to the passage of “The Mines and Collieries Act of 1842” when it became illegal to employ women and children to work underground, it was commonplace for women, young and old, and their children to work in the mine shafts … alongside their husbands, fathers and brothers … with pick axes and shovels … hauling coal and moving stones.  Children as young as five often worked underground alongside other members of their family.  From 6am to 6pm, six days a week, the work was dirty, brutal and incredibly dangerous.  And for a mere six to eight shillings per week,  depending upon which owner you worked for, which was just enough to keep them out of the workhouse.  The women and children, of course, worked for less than half what the men received.

The shafts were dimly lit, hot, cramped, with no ventilation.  Most often the children worked either as ‘trappers’, opening and closing ventilation doors, or as ‘hurriers’, pushing tubs of coal.  And with baskets strapped to their backs, or chains wrapped around their chests, armed with picks and shovels, the women worked right alongside the men, in the shafts, hauling coal.

Sweating profusely and stripped to the waist, if they weren’t completely naked, the women would wear trousers.  It was extremely hot in the shafts, but if they wore lightweight, flimsy clothing, it would be seen as inviting promiscuity.  The trousers were practical, but often led to large holes wearing through, and provided no protection after all.  Needless to say, Victorian England was outraged.  About the dangers of working in the mines?  NO, about the clothing or ‘lack of’ which these women miners did or did not wear!

The mining women were then branded as “unsuitable for marriage and unfit to be mothers.”

Devastating accidents occurred more frequently than not … fires and explosions were commonplace.  But it only until a flash flood in 1838 in a Yorkshire mine, which caused the deaths of 26 children, all of whom died trying to escape the pit … 11 girls aged from 8 to 16 and 15 boys between 9 and 12 years, when things began to change.

This disaster led to a public outcry and finally came to the attention of Queen Victoria who ordered an inquiry.  Commissioners began to investigate the working conditions in the mines and seeing for themselves, they were appalled by what they found. The working conditions were horrific.  This resulted in the passing of the Mines Act  which prohibited the employment of women and children under the age of 10 to work underground in the mines.  But for many mining families who were dependent upon this income, it was a devastating blow.  These women were not afraid of hard work and needed their wages.

After the passage of the Act, some women, knowing there were few inspectors around, and that the employers (who paid the women half of what the men earned) would turn a blind eye, continued to work underground in the pits.  Others continued to work at the mines, but above ground, sorting the coal.  Slowly, however, these strong, hard-working women began to accept the inevitable fact that they had to work above the pits, and not in them.  Women and children were eventually replaced with pit ponies, horses who were bred to be miniature in stature, whose size and strength was perfect for pulling the coal barges in the mine shafts.

Above ground the work was still rough, cold, dirty and physical.  But now the women chose practical clothing and dressed more as men than as women.  They wore thick boots to protect their feet, trousers under heavy, rough skirts to protect their legs, and kerchiefs tied tightly around their heads to keep out the coal dust.  These hard-working coal mining women quickly became known as ‘Pit Brow Lasses’.

 

But now Victorian society feared these “Pit Brow Lasses” who dressed and acted like men.  Somehow though, they became a sort of fascination for social commentators of that time.  These Victorian ‘influencers’ had a fascination for not only mining women, but any woman who worked outside the home, from servants to factory workers.  It wasn’t the fact that these women worked at the mines, however, that caused the stir, it was only the fact that they wore trousers.

Photographers came from around the country just to photograph them.  Most of the “Pit Brow Lasses” saw this as an opportunity to make a little extra cash and began charging to have their photo taken.  Now many of these extraordinary images are on display in mining galleries in and around Yorkshire County.  As with most women, though, these Pit Brow Lasses didn’t think they were doing anything out of the ordinary.  They did what all women around the world do.  They had a job to do, a family to support, and they did it!


“A Pit Brow Wench For Me”

Anonymous

“I am an Aspull collier, I like a bit of fun
To have a go at football or in the sports to run
So goodbye old companions, adieu to jolity,
For I have found a sweetheart, and she’s all the world to me.

Could you but see my Nancy, among the tubs of coal,
In tucked up skirt and breeches, she looks exceedingly droll,
Her face besmear’d with coal dust, as black as black can be,
She is a pit brow lassie but she’s all the world to me.”

 

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References:  Balmaiden, History, Atlas Obscura, Daily Mail, Wikipedia, History Extra
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