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South Tyneside Meeting - June 2004

"Aspects of Victorian Childhood" by Malcolm Grady

A Report by Margaret Stafford

Those of us who gave up the football and avoided the attraction of a beautiful summer evening were well rewarded by a talk from Malcolm Grady officially entitled "aspects of Victorian childhood".

He should have warned us we might need tissues after listening to some of the extracts he brought along with him. As he pointed out, childhood is something we all have in common! His aim was to give some context to our family history research and he started by reminding us that, as with all things Victorian, there is no simple description to cover 64 years. There were vast differences between conditions in 1837 and those of 1901.

Malcolm read an extract from a newspaper article wondering where familiar things from childhood had gone (the familiarity of the list may depend on your age) such as rubber spouts for big brown teapots, the man on the bicycle who sharpened knives, cut-throat razors, bile mixtures, fever cures, toy sweet shops with little scales and cardboard money. Why can't things stay the same ?

Think back to your own childhood, the friends, the special toys and games, they evoke memories because we understand what childhood is, a time between 2-9 years when children grow and learn about life.

The concept of childhood did not exist in 1837. Infant death was common, children were little adults, expected to contribute to family income as soon as possible, often from the age of 9. They were subject to the same criminal code as adults and sent to prison along side them if they transgressed. It was not until the early 20th century that children's courts were established which put limits on criminal responsibility for example.

Interestingly childhood is not an area extensively researched but Malcolm had found some texts to illustrate his points. He also asked us to picture an ancestor in, for example, the 1861 census age 6 or 8 and imagine what life must have been like. What would they have worn, eaten, spent their time doing? What would their health have been like ?

Malcolm quoted from Margaret Cruickshank's book about children in the North West in industry. So much was determined by economic necessity, there was a tradition of working at a very young age, as young as 8. The authorities were entitled to refuse outdoor aid to children of that age, they were assumed to be able to fend for themselves. The 1842 commission on the mines referred to 9 year old boys being trappers in the mines (opening the doors to provide ventilation).

A boy of 5 in 1842 could expect a very different lifestyle than a 5 year old boy in 1901. In 1837 he would not be educated, he would not be able to read, he would have no experience of railways, would not have seen a photograph. As well as experiencing all of the above, by 1901 the boy would also have access to leisure, to outdoor swimming pools, parks.

Employment structure also changed over the reign of Victoria. At the beginning the employment of 8 and 9 year olds was expected and accepted, largely in industry and domestic service. With the advent of the Education Act in 1870 this not only gave some protection from early employment but also led to the dissemination of information about healthier lifestyles, better diets, improved cleanliness.

Children in 1837 had a significant risk of not surviving beyond the age of a year-think of all those times you have been tracking family members and become confused by siblings with the same name-one child being named after a brother or sister who had died early.

In 1837 families would have been driven by economic necessity to send a child out to work. Think of today and a world which in many ways centres around children as consumers-the TV channels devoted to them, the computer games, the leisure opportunities. It was only between the period of 1830-1900 that children gradually became seen as a distinct kind of human being.

The chances of better childhood experiences was largely linked to social class. In South Shields, just along from where we were meeting, in 1888 the medical officer of health advised the area was the worst district in Shields , contributory factors being proximity to the river, industry and the sheer density of population. The death rate was the highest in South Shields. Between 1888-1892 concerns were expressed in successive reports and one of the outcomes was the creation of the Marine Parks-open spaces to promote health.

Children of the labouring poor were more susceptible to illness. Cruickshank uses Preston as an example, in 1843 18% of under 5s amongst the gentry died, 38% in the tradesman classes and 55% in the working classes. Not far away, in the rural community, the children of ag labs lived as long as those of the tradesmen in the town.

Children in the lower to middle classes generally fared better in terms of family support, access to education, a better diet, even the opportunity to change clothes. It was usual for the children in working class homes to wear the same clothes for 6 days, only changing into "Sunday best". Now, although some of us could think of some children known to us who would love this idea, (how many come back from camp with change of clothes untouched!), just take time to think of the discomfort, the dirt, the smell this would engender.

For the upper classes there was much emphasis on the codes of conduct-children being seen and not heard, "don't speak unless spoken to". They generally entered employment later, having stayed on at school longer.

Think of what the daily diet might have been. Staple foods were bread, potatoes, beer (as the water might kill you), some meat and fish. Vitamin content was poor, the immune system was weakened, disease prolific. The records of the Ingham Infirmary are full of references to TB, asthma, diphtheria. Cholera was of course no respecter of position and wiped out whole families but it was more prevalent in the more densely populated areas.

Employment for children in the Victorian era included going down the mine, working in factories, errand boys and chimney sweeps-or being sent up a chimney-imagine the impact on a boy of 8.

Here Malcolm turned to poetry-the Chimney Sweeper by William Blake "A little black thing in the snow,
Crying "weep! weep!" in notes of woe!
"Where are thy father and mother? Say!"
"They are both gone up to the church to pray. "

Chimney sweeping was a dangerous occupation with a high risk of suffocation, falling, injury and subsequent infection.

Again Malcolm invited us to return to our childhood-what was our favourite toy-offers ranged form Hornby trainsets to doll's houses and bagatelles. Malcolm's own was a red fire engine which was his comfort when he had an infection which led to hospitalisation, when he left, the fire engine had to stay behind in case of re-infection. (We don't think he has recovered form this!). He then read from a book called the Victorian Nursery Book by Antony and Peter Miall quoting advice given to parents in the 1880s suggesting girls be given dolls to encourage their love of children, it did caution against giving boys toys which had savage and warlike properties as they encouraged war like tendencies such as could be seen in France!!

Even though Victorian children were expected to work and behave like adults there is evidence that they remained children at heart. The 1842 Commission on the mines reported on a tragedy which happened at Willington pit on 19th April 1841. 32 people were killed in an explosion-the cause was a 9 year old trapper, Richard Cooper, leaving his door open as he went to play with a friend.

With the football fresh in our minds, Malcolm also reminded us that nothing is new. In 1869 an MP was quoted in a House of Commons' report expressing concern that there was no cloud so dark and dangerous, no blot so foul upon the social system, no stain so deep on Christianity as to the evidence that 500, 000 children were going to be because of the curse of being uneducated. In the Victorian Underworld by Chesney Kellow there is reference to the daily threat of marauding gangs of young people and their impact on crime.

As we have come to expect we finished with some poetry and quotes, to see childhood from a child's perspective, who better to turn to than Robert Louis Stevenson

Whole Duty of Children
"A child should always say what's true
And speak when he is spoken to,
And behave mannerly at table;
At least as far as he is able. " and

Bed in Summer
"In winter I get up at night
And dress by yellow candle-light.
In summer quite the other way,
I have to go to bed by day.

I have to go to bed and see
The birds still hopping on the tree,
Or hear the grown-up people's feet
Still going past me in the street.

And does it not seem hard to you,
When all the sky is clear and blue,
And I should like so much to play,
To have to go to bed by day?"

Finally we were given useful advice from a 1701 book entitled "School of manners and rules for children in church, at home, at the table and in company", take them to heart!

"Come not unwashed or uncombed to the table, sit not down 'till bidden, never gaze in someone's eyes, ask not for anything, find not fault with anything given to you, don't begin to eat first, when given meat do not smell it, feed yourself with 2 fingers and the thumb of the left hand, eat not too fast or too much or too slow, make not a noise with your mouth or tongue whilst eating or drinking, dip not thy meat in the sauce, spit not, nor cough nor blow your nose at the table, lean not thy elbows on the table, stuff not thy mouth so as to fill thy cheeks, spit not forth anything that is not convenient to be swallowed. . "

Sentiments we all of course agreed with and always follow!!

Other books you might like to look at are "The Art of Victorian Childhood" Richard O'Neill, "The Victorian and Edwardian School child" Pamela Horn, and the Penguin Book of Victorian Verse.

Malcolm will be returning to talk to us next year when his topic will be "history through poetry"-one to watch out for.


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