Gathering acorns

D ILN 85/6/290

Nov, 1868

black & white illustration from The Illustrated London News, 1868

type: CUT, dimensions: 36 X 24cm (length x height)

English

file

Harvesting- acorns, Harvesting- forage crops, at work, Graphic Materials

<DIV STYLE="text-align:Justify;font-family:Georgia;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;font-size:16;color:#000000;"><P><SPAN><SPAN>2. &lt;B&gt;Acorn gathering, taken from The Illustrated London News, 1868&lt;/B&gt;&lt;P&gt; The highest level of exploitation of farm working children was on the large arable holdings of East Anglia during 1850s and 1860s when the notorious gang system was in operation. Prior to the introduction of large machinery in agriculture, the labour intensive work was carried out by gangs of children, youths and women, employed under a gang master, who contracted with the farmers for work, and moved their gangs from farm to farm as needed. Children as young as six were employed full time. The gang master's remuneration depended on the amount of labour he could extract from the workers and few concessions were made to the age and strength of the children. The hours were long 8am till 6pm in the summer, and till 5pm in the winter and did not include the long journey to and from the farms. In the Sixth Report of the Children's Employment Commission of 1867, a mother says of her son working in such a gang, "that he had been six miles and further to work, and had come home so tired that he could scarcely stand; and that they had also had to send out late in the evening to look for him as he did not come home, and had found him dropped asleep in a cowshed." Young children worked by collecting acorns, as in the illustration, gathering potatoes, mangold wurzels, sedge picking, sparrow or vermin catching, bird scaring and herding sheep.&lt;P&gt;D ILN 85/6/290</SPAN></SPAN></P></DIV>

Available

RHC neg. NMC 35/24023; digital image