I've often discussed workers and the types of
machinery they tended on this blog, and the long hours they worked. But what
was a typical timetable for a working day in the 1840s for a Lancashire mill
family (including my ancestors)?
Their day began at 5.30 a.m. with a rap at the window from
the long stick of the knocker-upper – they paid him or her a small fee to act as their
alarm clock. If the family lived a long way from the mill, they might have to
get up even earlier to allow time to walk to work. Even if workers were only
two or three minutes late for work, they were ‘quartered’ - fined 15 minutes’
wages - and if they were 15 minutes late, they lost a whole quarter of a day’s
wages. Some mill masters locked the mill gates after ten minutes, which meant
that workers were locked out till breakfast time.
On their way to work, our factory family bought hot coffee
or cocoa from street vendors. The factory bell began ringing at five to six in
the morning until 6 a.m., when the mill engine started up. The youngest child workers arrived at the factory gates, still half-asleep. Breakfast was from 8.30–9
am; perhaps some bread wrapped in a cloth, but not every mill stopped for
breakfast, so workers ate while they worked.
The factory owner sometimes provided hot water for the operatives to
make tea, but in some mills in the 1830s, the mill engineer’s wife sold hot
water to the workers for 2d a week. (One witness estimated that the engineer’s
wife made 30-40s every week just selling hot water). If they could afford
it, workers took tea and coffee to the mill, and brewed up with jugs kept at
the mill. If they couldn’t afford fresh tea, it was left at home: tea-leaves
were dried out and re-used whenever possible.
After breakfast they worked until the dinner-hour at 1 pm,
when our family met up by the factory gate; they might perhaps buy lunch from
the corner shop. If the mill was too far
away for them to go home for lunch, some took bacon with them and paid 1d to
the engineer’s wife for a dish of mashed potatoes, and 1d a week for cooking
the bacon to go with it. If Grandma was minding her daughter’s children, she
might cook lunch for her daughter and take it to the factory, so she didn’t
have to rush home. Work started again at 2 pm, and finished at 5.30pm - so
workers were at the factory for 11 and a half hours including meal breaks.
Saturday was payday - the highlight of the week, when the
factory closed at 2.30. After work, the operatives hurried to the shops, which
stayed open until midnight; they knew from experience if they left it too late
only the worst food would be left - rancid cheese, rotten meat and
vegetables. Tea, coffee and sugar were
bought a ‘pennyworth’ at a time, as was pickle, which was used to relieve the
monotony of their usual diet of potatoes. By the time they reached home, Mum
was often too exhausted to cook much, but a typical supper might be oatmeal
gruel or potatoes boiled in their jackets. Working children instantly fell
asleep after supper. Next day, the whole routine began all over again (holidays were rare).
And that’s why mill workers were considered ‘old’ if they
were lucky enough to reach the age of forty.
