Women and young boys are barred from working underground
The Mines and Collieries Act followed the Children's Employment Commission, whose report — illustrated with engravings of children harnessed to coal tubs in low seams — caused a public reaction strong enough to carry legislation quickly. It prohibited the employment underground of women and of boys below a specified age, and it is the clearest instance in the period of published testimony changing the law.
Historical — it happened, and the record is settled.
Subjects
- Industrial child labour · phenomenon · United Kingdom · not located
- Coal · natural resource · United Kingdom · not located
Evidence
Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent. This is the standing of the weakest source, not an average.
Children's Employment Commission: First Report (Mines)
Supports the sworn testimony of child workers underground and the direct causal link between the report's publication and the Mines and Collieries Act of the same year. V55 verification basis: NOT consulted; the report is a well-known Parliamentary Paper but no page of it was read here.
UK Parliamentary Papers, HMSO · 1842 · Partly verified
First Report of the Commissioners for Inquiring into the Employment and Condition of Children in Mines and Manufactories, UK Parliamentary Papers, 1842
Mines and Collieries Act 1842
Supports the prohibition on underground employment of women and of boys below a specified age. V55 verification basis: NOT consulted; the minimum age in the Act is therefore described as "a specified age" rather than stated, and the regnal citation is omitted.
Parliament of the United Kingdom · 1842 · Partly verified
Mines and Collieries Act 1842, UK Public General Acts — text held at legislation.gov.uk
Recorded on Industrial child labour
- The first commercially successful steam engine begins pumping
- The Bridgewater Canal opens from Worsley into Manchester
- The first factory statute is passed and largely ignored
- The Stockton and Darlington Railway opens
- The Factory Act creates an inspectorate
- Women and young boys are barred from working underground
Related
Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.