Jobs for the Boys and Girls Trivia Quiz

Answer: Coal mines

All day young children sat by trapdoors in narrow mine tunnels, opening and closing doors to let the air in. Sometimes they had to sit in the dark.

Answer: Chimney sweeping

Up to 1840 children as young as five were employed to climb up inside the chimneys and clean them as they climbed. Many children died of fright in the dark.

Answer: Textile factory

As a piecer, Margaret's job was to crawl under the machines, where an adult would not fit, and tie broken threads together. In some factories the machines were not switched off, while children like Margaret worked, for fear of losing profit.

Answer: Coal mine

My job was to pile coal into carts, which ran on tracks, and to pull or push the coal along tunnels. Girls also worked as hurriers. Margaret Higgs told the great social reformer, Lord Shaftsbury, "I fill a bagie (cart) with 2 to 3 cwt. and drag it. The pavement is wet and I have to crawl on my hands and knees".
Quoted in "People of the Past", vol.2, p. 141.

Answer: Textile factory

The cotton fibre was very fluffy and piles of fluff built up under the machines. Children were employed to crawl under the machines to sweep out the fluff.

Answer: Sewage collector

Sewage was a big problem because of urban overcrowding. Toilets as we know them did not exist. Earthen holes were really all the poor had. The earth absorbed water but solid matter was collected at night by these nightmen. Ugh!

Answer: Barrels

Barrels were vital in the nineteenth century, as they were the only container large enough and strong enough to carry food and drink. Sailors, for example, took meat salted in barrels, water on a voyage was also stored in barrels. The cooper's job was to put the metal staves on the wooden barrels, making certain they did not leak. William would be well paid and had a job for life.

Answer: Road building

During the early years of the Industrial Revolution canals brought much of the heavy goods as roads were inadequate. Navvies were the unskilled people who did the heavy digging work for canals, roads and later railways. The word is a shortened form of navigator.

Answer: Clothes

Draperies sold woollen cloth originally. Later, they sold woollen clothes and by the time Eliza was working, in the nineteenth century, silk, lace garments etc would have also been sold. The word comes from the French word 'drap' meaning cloth.

Answer: 1847

This was a great step forward, especially as five years earlier 1842, another act had been passed which made it illegal to employ either women or children in the mines. These acts also stipulated that children were to be provided with some basic education. Moreover, for the first time an inspectorate was created to enforce the acts.