Seeking the Hidden Histories of the Victorian Child-Millworker As Offspring, Worker and Pupil in Saltaire, West Yorkshire 1853 – 1878.’ Thesis Submitted for Edd
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‘Seeking the Hidden Histories of the Victorian Child-millworker as Offspring, Worker and Pupil in Saltaire, West Yorkshire 1853 – 1878.’ Thesis submitted for EdD. September, 2020.University of Sheffield. Supervisors Tom Billington & Heather Ellis. Word count 62,128 Andrea Dishman. Registration 120102400. Abstract. This thesis seeks to illuminate aspects of the child factory-mill workers’ home, work and school lives as inhabitants of Saltaire, a model factory-village built by the paternal-philanthropist and industrialist Sir Titus Salt, for the period 1853 – 1878. Accepting the stratified nature of social class in Victorian England during the period, this study presents counter narratives to those often contained in the public records of the time. The study attempts to illuminate the all-pervading ideological and cultural hegemony, past and present, that has sought to own both the children and their histories, exploring structural aspects of the relationships between child, employer and teachers through a different lens to that of the dominant Eurocentric and male lens that has prevailed over the past decades. Gramsci’s theories of cultural hegemony and common sense will be analysed within the context of the child millworker’s acceptance of their position in society. The study will explore the role of the pupil millworker as Half-timer within a broader social context including what we know from other studies of social relationships of the period. A comparative analysis is made with the Utopian factory-village of New Lanark. In determining the clearly defined roles within society and in particular the working classes of whom the child labourers of Salt’s Mill are a subgroup, this study will attempt to re-imagine ‘his-tory’ by identifying the dominant discourses of the time and the effects such dominant discourses have had on the re-telling stories of such ‘others’. Their stories will be corroborated by use of primary and secondary sources from identifiable contemporaries in an attempt to give an authentic perspective of how the child labourers lived aspects of their childhoods. This study, using mixed methods, will give a bottom-up historical analysis of the key social and economic drivers of the period 1853 – 1878. 1 | P a g e Abstract 1 Contents 2 Chapter 1.0. Introduction 8 1.1. Focus of the Study 8 1.2. The History of Education and the Relationship with Other Disciplines in the Social Sciences 9 1.3. Using an Interdisciplinary Approach 12 1.4.The Canon of Social, Industrial & Educational Academic Historical Research 16 1.5. Hidden Histories 18 1.6. Using a 19th Century or 21st Century Lens? 19 1.7. The Research Questions 20 1.8. Summary 21 Chapter 2. Methodology 22 2.1. Ideological and Cultural Hegemony 22 2.2. Questioning the Dominant Discourses in Historical Research 27 2.2.1. Histories of the Non-dominant Groups 28 2.3. Cultural Relativism 29 2.4. History ‘From Below’ 31 2.5. Knowledge and the Marginalised 35 2.6. Gaps in Recorded Histories 38 2.7. Life stories as Egodocuments 39 2.8. Ethics and Historical Research 41 2 | P a g e 2.9. Ethics and Past Cultures 42 2.10. The Ethical Turn 43 2.11. Consideration of the Sources 44 2.12. The Methods of the Sociologist and of the Historian 45 2.13. The School Logbook as a Primary Source: in Theory and Reality 46 2.14. The Sources: Remains and Traditions 48 2.15. Considering the Value of Memoirs 50 2.16. The Archive as a Locus of Power and Knowledge 52 2.17. Critical Insights Hidden in Plain Sight 52 2.18. Theory and Historical Research 53 2.19. Theory as a Toolkit 54 2.20. Theory is a Vehicle 55 2.21. Procedures Conducted within the Study 55 2.22. Summary 57 Chapter 3.0 Socio-economic Conditions Affecting Bradford and Saltaire During the Mid-19th Century with a Comparison to the Utopian factory-town of New Lanark 60 3.1. The Borough of Bradford, Worsted Manufacture and the Establishment of Titus Salt (Snr) as a Leading Industrialist and Employer 60 3.2. Social and Environmental Conditions in Bradford 61 3.3. Bradford’s Industrialisation 62 3.4. Bradford’s Urbanisation 62 3.5. Environmental Impact on Bradford 63 3.6. Occupational Health of the Worsted Workers 65 3.7. Desperate Urban Squalor 67 3 | P a g e 3.8. The Woolcombers’ Report 1845 of Social and Living Conditions of the Millworkers 68 3.9. Worsted Committee and Gramsci’s Arguments on Control of the Workforce 69 3.10. Paternalism and the Saltaire Experiment 71 3.11. The Common Sense Argument of Gramsci 71 3.12. The Blueprint for Saltaire 75 3.13. Comparisons with the Utopian factory-town of New Lanark 74 3.14. Child Labour in the North of England During the British Industrial Revolution with Particular Reference to the Ten-hour Movement as a Catalyst for Change at a Time when Titus Salt Opened His First Factory in Bradford 77 3.15. The Sadler Report 1832 78 3.16. The Ten-Hour Movement 79 3.17. The Childs’ Rights to Health, Food, Education and Protection 79 3.18. The Royal Commission 1833 81 3.19. The Memoir of Robert Blincoe 82 3.20. Summary 84 Chapter 4.0 Socio-educational Conditions: State Policy in the Education of the Poor 84 4.1.Elementary Education from the Factory Act 1833 to the 1880 Education Act. Through Cycles of Adaptation and Implementation 84 4.2. The Early State Education Grants 85 4.3. Developments Prior to The Revised Code 1862 85 4.4. The Revised Code 1862 86 4.5. The System of Payment by Results 87 4.6. The Elementary Education Act 1870 and the Formation 4 | P a g e of School Boards 89 4.7. Elementary Education and Implications for Employment 90 4.8. The Elementary Education Act 1876 91 4.9. The Changing Societal Attitude to Elementary Education 92 4.10. Composition of the Elementary Education Curriculum 94 4.11. Tensions in Society Regarding State-wide Intervention in Elementary Education 94 4.12. Laissez-Faire & Objections to Perceived State Interference in Education 95 4.13. The Half-time System operating in the Factory-mill Schools following the Factory Act 1833 Althorp’s Act and Subsequent Legislation Covering the Period 1853 – 1880 97 4.14. Schooling for the Child Factory-mill Worker & the Half-time System 97 4.15. Pupil Educational Achievement 99 4.16. Requirement for Certificate of School Attendance & Age Certificates 102 4.17. Froebelian Influences within the Salt’s Mill Factory Schools 104 4.18. Circumvention of the Legislation 106 4.19. The School Sites Acts and Grants Awarded 107 4.20. Protection from Exploitation 109 4.21. The Factory Inspectors as the First Inspectors of Schools and Her Majesty’s Inspector of Schools 110 4.22. The Disruption Caused by the Half-time System 112 4.23. The Benefits of the Half-time System 113 4.24. The Claimed Benefits of the Half-time System as Compared to 5 | P a g e Disadvantages 114 4.25. Other Views on Half-time Education 117 4.26. The Royal Commission 1880 119 4.27. The Elementary Education Syllabus 120 4.28. The Requirement for a Trained, Skilled and Compliant Workforce 121 4.29. Summary 123 Chapter 5.0 Saltaire : Key Findings and Analysis 123 5.1. Description of Saltaire Model Factory-Village 125 5.2. Saltaire as an Industrial Settlement and Labour-Relations Experiment 127 5.2.1. The Role Buildings Played in Saltaire 129 5.3. Mortality Rates and Health in Saltaire 131 5.4. Testing of the Sources 132 5.5. Working With/in the Archives 135 5.6. Legislation Applicable to the Dining Rooms Factory School, Victoria Road Factory School and Albert Road Board School 136 5.6.1. The Dining Rooms 1854 – 1868 136 5.6.2. Victoria Road School 1868 – 1878 136 5.6.3. Albert Road Board School 1878 – 1880 138 5.7. Shipley School Board and its Schools in Saltaire 142 5.8. Pupils on Roll in Shipley, September 1874 –September 1877 143 5.9. Build & Furnishing costs of Various Shipley School Board Schools 144 5.10. Attendance Figures During the Period September, 1874 –September, 1877 144 5.11. Newspaper Report on Opening of Albert Road Board School 6 | P a g e - 11th March, 1878 145 5.12. Description of Albert Road Board School as Provided to the Paris Commission in 1868 149 5.13. The Stories and Recollections of Half-timers at Salt’s Mill Factory Schools 150 5.14. Tracing the Links between Then and Now 153 5.14.1. Bessie’s Story. Born Circa 1908 154 5.14.2. Journeys from Further Afield to Saltaire – Bertha’s Story 154 5.14.3. Schooldays at Albert Road – Nellie’s and Annie’s Stories 155 5.14.4. Out of the Classroom into the Mill 155 5.14.5. Beginning work as a Half-timer at Salt’s Mill – Nellie’s Story 157 5.14.6. Bessie’s Story 158 5.14.7. Authority in the Mill Control of the Workforce – Gramsci’s Theories in Action 158 5.14.8. Paying Rent, Wages and Living in Saltaire 159 5.15. The Decline of the Worsted Industry 161 5.16. Summary 162 Chapter 6.0. Further Discussion 162 6.1 Realism and Oral History 163 6.2 Summary 169 Chapter 7.0 Conclusion and Limitations of Research 169 7.1. Revisiting the Research Question 169 7.2. Limitations of the Research 188 Bibliography 193 Appendices including Figures and Tables 213 7 | P a g e Chapter 1.0.