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Employment of Children in the Button Trade
Other inspections – 1841
The 1841 reports refer to button manufactories in Birmingham owned by various people: Mr Chatwin, Mr Thomas Hasluck, Mr Elliott (Regent Street), Mr Aston (St Paul’s Square), Messrs Smith and Kemp, Mr Thomas Bullock, Mr TW Ingram, Pearl Button Trade ‘AB’
The reports of which these are transcriptions were purchased from an excellent historical documents website, www.lightage.demon.co.uk, which no longer exists. If you know where these resources are now available, please let me know using the ‘Contact us’ page of this website.
I hope to compile a list of the working people named in these reports – watch this space if you have an ancestor who worked in the button trade as their name may be in the list.
It must be said that these reports are more interesting from a social history point of view than for the button-making details they contain! They make very sad reading – children were employed in this industry, as in so many others at the time, in conditions that were hard and with very long working hours. The inspectors pay close attention to the morals of the workers as well as to the provision, quality and privacy of privies in these factories.
to check on the conditions under which children were working. The links below will take you to the two later inspections.
