Why Children from Workhouses Were Employed at Styal Mill

Why Children from Workhouses Were Employed at Styal Mill

Source A indicates that children appeared as the best and most

suitable working force available for mill owners, such as Samuel Greg

in the 1790's. According to Samuel Greg, child labour provided many

significant advantages to the children, as well as Styal Mill itself.

The source provides us with a list of factual reasons that help to

explain why they favoured child labour. The attitude is explained

using economic reason, as it was in Greg's own economic self-interest

to employ children, as we can gather from reading Source A.

Considering the majority of the children at Styal were healthy and in

good shape, substantiates that they were physically fit and able to do

the work.

Source A also exhibits that the children were nimble-fingered,

therefore, this would enable them to work a lot quicker and easier,

thus benefiting the children and Styal. Samuel Greg's interpretations

were that children were easy to train for the jobs required and they

were able to carry out simple tasks without any predicament or

difficulty.

Above all, there were many children during this time, who were

obtainable and available to work at Styal. As Source A mentions, there

was a high availability of children from the Parish. Mill owners such

as Samuel Greg, probably thought they were doing the children a

favour, by taking over the responsibility previously held by the

Parish, for keeping the children. Moreover, this would have been a

huge advantage for Samuel Greg, considering there was an insufficiency

of local labour during the time.

Overall, Source A gives a good indication of why childr...

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...presents one mill out of many

in the country at the time. Therefore, the conditions at one mill

could not represent every mill in the country, as it's likely that the

majority were of a much better condition than this one. Overall, this

source is useful as it does provide us with some information on the

horrific conditions which may have been present at some mills, however

it is does not represent the overall conditions for apprentices at

mills, so it could be seen as unreliable.

In summary, it is clear that none of the sources are invaluable to us,

as they all provide us with some facts or opinions, and help us to

understand the different views on child labour and working conditions

at mills during the time. However, like all sources, they all hold

drawbacks as well, and none of them are completely consistent to us.