Sheffield Steel works - Children Working

[Tony Brown]

How times have changed! My parents have found this photograph of what appears to be children working in a local steel mill.

Has anybody got any thoughts as to where it may be.

[Lysanderix]

My late father in law was working in a steel works….probably Charles Cammel ,when he left school aged 13. The inventor of stainless steel ,Harry Brearley, was working  in1883, as a “nipper” in the crucible furnaces . He was aged 12.

Employing child Labour in those days was a local tradition.

[SteveHB]

3 hours ago, Tony Brown said:

How times have changed! My parents have found this photograph of what appears to be children working in a local steel mill.

Has anybody got any thoughts as to where it may be.

 

I would not even like to guess as to how many "steel mills" there were in Sheffield around that time.

Good photo!

[SteveHB]

Looks like furnace bricks on the left side of the photograph, could be a foundry/melting shop?

 

[MartinR]

The definition of what is a child has changed quite a lot over the years.  The Education Act 1870 laid down compulsory education for those under 13, however school boards could excuse those over 10 if they were needed such as in agriculture.  Ten years later the age range was 5-10, but those 11-12 in employment were required to have a certificate showing that they had reached the basic standard.  In 1893 the leaving age was raised to 11 and six years later to 12.  The photo above probably shows young teenagers (a term only invented in the 1950s) who would not be regarded as "children" at the time.

For completeness: the SLA was raised to 14 in 1902, 15 in 1947 (should have been 1939 but a little contretemps over the Channel delayed it), 16 in 1972, 17 in 2013 and 18 in 2015.

[DJB]

I remember my Dad Bernard saying his brother Jack Badger had left school and had started work hammer driving presumably aged 14 and Bernard aged around I would guess 11 or 12 had to take his dinner to work for him 

Aye they were t good old days