Victorian children at work

By Diya and Xenon

This power point tells you about Victorian children at work. Children would work to help get money for their family. They would start work at the age of 5 most of the time. Children would start work at 5:00am and finish at 9:00pm. Children often died in between the ages of 7 and 15.

Chimney Sweeps

Chimney sweeps would climb up chimneys to clean the dust and dirt away. Many children died or got severely injured. Children were used instead of adults due to the fact they can fit into smaller spaces and could fit their hands in smaller cracks.

Coal Miners

Victorian coal miners would push heavy trucks along dark, dusty tunnels. Also inside the coal mines, there were trappers who would open doors for trucks, but if they weren’t quick enough they would get run over by them.

Factory Workers

In match factories, children were often employed to dip matches into a dangerous chemical named phosphorous, as a result, they would die because of lung disease.

Road Sweepers

Road sweepers cleared horse dung and litter off the streets. They did it in front of people to get money.

Cotton Mill Workers

Cotton mill workers would dive under machines to collect the dust and dirt that stopped the machines working. Sometimes, girls would get their hair stuck and it would get ripped of their scalps. Also, if they got stuck they would die because they would get squashed.

Cotton mill workers (Piecers)

Piecers would rub bits of rope together. Sometimes there hands would start to bleed but they had to come back the next day.