Victorian Voices
S Laycock & Sons, Sheffield (part 2)
Messrs S Laycock & Sons, hair seating and curled hair manufacturers, Portobello and Millsands, Sheffield.
Children's Evidence
Annie Bull age 11, server - Can weave a little bit, but not a deal. Sometimes the woman lets me weave a little bit at dinner time before we begin again. Sometimes stop nearly an hour for dinner, sometimes half an hour. All do not begin again at the same time: it is when each weaver likes. Sometimes it is 8 or 8˝ a.m. when my weaver comes, but I come afore her and get things ready. Had to come the first eight weeks for nothing as a learner, and then got 6s. a piece, but shall get to my 8s. this piece. Wear this little handkerchief round my neck because it is so cold in the morning. Have to keep going out and warming us hands when it's so very cold.
It is a good many years since I was at any work before I came here. T'master made horn buttons and we had to clip the edges. There were five or six girls, all about my age: think I was going in 9. We worked from 7˝ to 6, with a dinner hour. Got 2s. a week, and master gi'en me 2d. for mysen.
Can say the letters, but not spell many. Go to school on Sunday and used to go on weekdays. Have seen a river at Wicker (part of the town). Don't know if there is any bigger river anywhere. The sea is bigger. Think the sea is not many miles across that ways (
pointing), but many a mile long. There is only one sea, and I cannot tell the names of any.
Would you like to do Annie's work?
What do you think it was like inside the factory?
How many hours each day did she work for the button maker?
Annie earned about 2 shillings (2s). Do you think that this was enough? (for worth/value you can follow the link to the National Archives website below)
Read all the other work place descriptions and decide where you would prefer to work
Learning article provided by:
Sheffield Archives |
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