WEBVTT

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They blamed high wages.

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With one in ten men away fighting

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able adult workers came at a premium

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and cut into profits.

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Pit's advice was short and simple

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He was supposed to have told them,

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Yoke up the children.

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Luckily for Pit and for Great Britain

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and PLC for the first time in it's history

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the country was awash with children.

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In the mid 1700s the population of Britain

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was small and stationary around 5.7 million.

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But by the end of the century it had shot up

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by more than 50 percent.

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to 8.7 million.

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So what changed?

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The answer's in here.

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This is Sir Michael's in Shropshire

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built by that great man of

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the industrial age,

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Thomas Telford in 1796.

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There's been a church on this site

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since Norman times.

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The marriage registers are long.

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And very well maintained.

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Ah now these are beautiful records.

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You can see here somebody's

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not been able to sign their name,

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so they put their mark.

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And elsewhere they struggle to

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write their signatures.

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Now study of these and other records

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have shown that as the 18th century

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progressed more people

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were marrying younger.

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Now why was that?

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Previously men and women were

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employed to work the land

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and lived in with their employer,

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usually a farmer,

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or a big local land owner.

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These men liked to keep their

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young employees single,

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because married employees

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had children

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and were more of a burden.

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But advances in farming practice

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meant less people were needed

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to grow food.

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So fewer people lived in

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and more were kicked out.

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Of course that meant that

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there was no master to

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ask for permission to wed.

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These liberated workers began traveling

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earning their wages in new industries.

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The pay wasn't great,

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but it wasn't based on the sliding

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scales of farmwork.

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They reached their peak

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potential earnings at younger ages

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and so attempted to marry

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and start families sooner.

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Women with jobs found their earnings

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could shore up new families,

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adding again to the temptation.

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to marry younger.

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As for those women who

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couldn't find work,

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well they were eager to marry young

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and gain financial protection.

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The result in the early 1700s

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the average age of British brides

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had been nearly 27.

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By 1800 it had fallen to 23 and a half.

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Those 3 additional years of married life

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were crucial.

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Girls were at their most fertile

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and could produce 2 additional babies.

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[babies crying]

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So at the very moment that Britain

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was prepared to take the giant

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technological leap into the machine age,

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it had it's largest, youngest population.

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And it was a mobile population.

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able to adapt to change.

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Every thing was tailored towards

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delivering the industrial future.

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But that industrial future

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needed feeding.

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Children played a role in that too.

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We tend to think of children

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from this time as working

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in mines and factories.

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But in fact,

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child labor was ubiquitous.

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Almost every work place

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would have had children in it.

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And the biggest employer

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was actually agriculture.

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Agriculture accounted for about

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a third of children's jobs.

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Often on small setups like this one.

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This farm was attached to the

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local rectory

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and worked by a small team

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including boys and girls.

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[cows moo]

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Of course agriculture is one

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area where we still see

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children working today.

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Ushered into the life of the farm

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under the watchful eye of their parents.

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The children of the industrial revolution

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rarely enjoyed such a

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gentle introduction.

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Unlike the factory apprentices,

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child farm workers were often

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the only children employed

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on an establishment.

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And they were also housed with

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their master or another

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adult worker.

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And there was no one looking

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over the shoulders of these

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men to see how they were

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treating their child employees.

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As a result these children

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were often more vulnerable

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than the children who worked

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in factories.

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For example,

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men's reminisces tiptoe around

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the topic of child's sexual abuse

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but in the testimonies I've read,

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there are 2 cases where boys were

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probably molested.

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And both involved lonely little farm

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workers consigned to the care

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of other adults,

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far from the protection

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of friends and family.

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Just like the heavy industries

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agriculture had a job for

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every age group.

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And the entry level into farm

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work began at 6 years old,

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when children could be employed

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as human scarecrows.

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When I was 6 and 2 months old,

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I was sent off to work

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I do not think I shall ever forget

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those long hungry days

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in the fields scaring crows.

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You can imagine the feeling

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of loneliness.

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Hours and hours passed without

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a living creature coming near.

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I cried most of the time.

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And in desperation I would shout

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as loud as I could.

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Mother, mother, mother!

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But mother could not hear.

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She was working in the hay fields

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who knows where.

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By my 7th birthday

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I was driving the plow,

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Any repairs to plow or harness

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had to be taken to tradesmen.

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Once after working all day long

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I had to carry a plow horse collar

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that required whittling

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And the plow coulter

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that needed repairs at the blacksmith.

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These 2 heavy things made a burden

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far too much for me.

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But I had to trudge with them

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as best I could,

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the mile and a half

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across the fields to Evidon.

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William Arnold was just 6 years old

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when he went to work

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on that farm in North Hamptonshire

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And this is a horse collar

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like the one he carried.

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Let me show you just

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how heavy this is...

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[grunting]

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Now we need the coulter

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cuz he also carried that.

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This is part of the plow.

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40 pounds!

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That probably weighs

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more than he did.

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In many ways,

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the crow scarers and the children

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fetching and carrying for farm

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laborers were on the lowest rung

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of the employment ladder.

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But many testimonies tell us

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that even at that level

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and at a young age

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the children saw these punishing

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labors as an opportunity.

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They were proper workers,

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and they wanted to get on.

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I our village there was...

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and justice of the peace.

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I began to draw up a pair of horses

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that plow for him.

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And after a bit,

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thinking I suppose

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I was a small likely lad

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he made me a sort of stable boy

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and gave me 8 shillings a week

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to start with.

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Here was a... lad

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who was set on rising

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as fast and as much as he could.

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There were no slack off hours for me.

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No taking it easy with

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the other lads,

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To make more money,

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to do more,

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to know more,

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to be a somebody in

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my little world,

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was my ambition.

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They might not have had much choice

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about their employment

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but many children were determined

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to seize what opportunities came along

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with a level of determination

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and enthusiasm that's astonishing.

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If sometimes hard to imagine.

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For some jobs really did require

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huge amounts of courage.

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With a view of immediately

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testing my capablitiies,

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my new master persuaded me

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to climb a chimney on my

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very first morning.

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With the feet standing up on

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the grate,

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the body would nearly

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fill up the width of a chimney.

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I climbed with my right arm

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lifted above the head,

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the left arm by my side.

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The elbows were pressed

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hard against the brick work

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to hold the body suspended,

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until the knees were drawn up.

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Then the knees on one side

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and the bare heels on the other,

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held me secure.

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While the right hand held the scraper

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to bring down the soot

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the knees and elbows

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through the constant pressing

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and the friction with the brick work

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became peeled, thus allowing soot to penetrate.

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It caused open, festering sores.

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which took several weeks to heal.

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Breathing was always more or less

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a difficulty.

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A hood, called a climbing cap

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was drawn over the head

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and tucked in at the neck.

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But even with that protection,

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I was subject to the taste

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and inhalation of every kind of soot,

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into my throat and lungs,

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where fires had only just been put out,

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the sulfurous fumes were sufficient

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to stifle them.

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Once the fumes were so strong

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that I fell from top to bottom,

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[boy screams]

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lying sensible.

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[Mary Poppins song: Chim Chim Chiree.]

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Yes they really did put

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kids up chimneys

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And this is a kind of normal chimney

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that George Elson would have

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been dealing with.

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But that one's so wide

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that you would have no

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challenge from that.

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You'd have been up and down

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there like grease lightning.

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What really tested boy's metals

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were chimneys that measured

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9 inches by 9 inches,

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which is this size.

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And so ...

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and wriggle through

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and clean something like this.

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Seems practically impossible.

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Martin is president of the

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National Association of British Chimney Sweeps.

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So Martin, here's a very old chimney

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right here.

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And this is the kind of thing

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those boys would have to clean.

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So tell us,

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how did they go about doing it?

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Well the little boys were known

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as climbing boys.

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Apprentice to the trade

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at 7 years old in some cases

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and they used to use their

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elbows and knees to scamper

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up inside the chimney.

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And uh, in many cases they

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stripped naked

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although they had some sort of early uniform

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the soot used to fill the pockets

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and because the chimney design

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was so small they became wedged,

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so they stripped naked so they could

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escape back down the chimney

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after cleaning it.

00:12:03.916 --> 00:12:05.042
So what equipment did they have?

00:12:05.290 --> 00:12:06.342
The little climbing boys

00:12:06.417 --> 00:12:07.420
and in some cases girls,

00:12:07.884 --> 00:12:09.811
they used to use a small scraper

00:12:10.085 --> 00:12:10.772
such as this,

00:12:10.794 --> 00:12:12.167
a little metal scraper

00:12:12.167 --> 00:12:13.284
with a wooden handle

00:12:13.917 --> 00:12:15.801
and the traditional sweep's hand brush.

00:12:16.231 --> 00:12:17.200
which would literally,

00:12:17.200 --> 00:12:18.375
they would scrape the soot away

00:12:18.375 --> 00:12:20.082
and brush with the hand brush.

00:12:24.987 --> 00:12:26.889
The exploitation of climbing boys

00:12:26.889 --> 00:12:28.636
and girls was rightly seen

00:12:28.674 --> 00:12:30.902
at the time as a national scandal.

00:12:31.755 --> 00:12:32.795
However even when new

00:12:33.091 --> 00:12:34.185
technology was introduced

00:12:34.459 --> 00:12:35.420
in the form of jointed

00:12:35.420 --> 00:12:36.474
chimney brushes,

00:12:36.593 --> 00:12:38.874
and sweeps no longer needed children,

00:12:39.243 --> 00:12:41.263
it didn't mean boys and girls

00:12:41.263 --> 00:12:41.962
were spared.

00:12:43.418 --> 00:12:44.537
There was still a great reluctance

00:12:44.553 --> 00:12:46.322
for the master sweeps of the day

00:12:46.798 --> 00:12:48.042
to do away with boys,

00:12:48.251 --> 00:12:49.381
and it was far cheaper to

00:12:49.381 --> 00:12:51.438
purchase a small boy from a family

00:12:51.568 --> 00:12:52.748
for a guinea or 2

00:12:53.158 --> 00:12:54.774
a few shillings for the poorer families,

00:12:55.425 --> 00:12:56.443
and in some cases,

00:12:56.443 --> 00:12:57.117
little girls as well.

00:12:57.720 --> 00:12:59.018
So boys and girls were cheaper

00:12:59.018 --> 00:12:59.571
than brushes.

00:12:59.619 --> 00:13:00.650
Absolutely at the time.

00:13:01.825 --> 00:13:03.893
In one horrible incident in Dover

00:13:03.922 --> 00:13:06.951
where a master had sent a boy

00:13:06.951 --> 00:13:08.886
up the chimney with a wet towel

00:13:09.010 --> 00:13:10.977
to extinguish a chimney fire.

00:13:11.924 --> 00:13:13.677
And apparently he climbed

00:13:13.677 --> 00:13:14.557
into the flue

00:13:15.365 --> 00:13:17.155
very reluctantly, the master threatened

00:13:17.155 --> 00:13:18.054
to beat him.

00:13:18.607 --> 00:13:19.704
He attempted to climb

00:13:19.704 --> 00:13:20.662
further into the chimney

00:13:20.804 --> 00:13:23.166
then got stuck in the chimney wedged

00:13:23.754 --> 00:13:24.550
And apparently they heard

00:13:24.550 --> 00:13:26.639
his screams for over 2 miles.

00:13:32.426 --> 00:13:34.755
Not exactly Chim Chimney Cheree

00:13:34.838 --> 00:13:36.392
in Mary Poppins is it now?

00:13:37.280 --> 00:13:39.143
It shows how hard life was

00:13:39.293 --> 00:13:40.854
and how few opportunities there were.

00:13:40.959 --> 00:13:42.261
The many climbing boys

00:13:42.421 --> 00:13:43.921
quit the trade and went off

00:13:44.057 --> 00:13:45.474
to serve in the armed forces.

00:13:49.734 --> 00:13:50.892
The scandal of boy soldiers

00:13:50.972 --> 00:13:52.718
is something today that we associate

00:13:52.844 --> 00:13:53.412
with the most

00:13:53.412 --> 00:13:55.831
callous regimes in the developing world.

00:13:56.592 --> 00:13:58.304
But putting boys into war zones

00:13:59.089 --> 00:14:01.541
was actually an old British tradition.

00:14:02.949 --> 00:14:04.637
For example, there were 13 of them

00:14:04.677 --> 00:14:06.254
who fought in the Battle of Trafalgar

00:14:06.590 --> 00:14:08.695
on this ship, HMS Victory.

00:14:10.119 --> 00:14:11.661
One of them was a 16 year old

00:14:11.853 --> 00:14:14.327
midshipmen Lieutenant William Rivers.

00:14:15.672 --> 00:14:17.028
His father was also on board

00:14:17.197 --> 00:14:18.599
and William first went to sea

00:14:18.752 --> 00:14:20.559
with him on Victory age 6 and a half.

00:14:21.223 --> 00:14:22.703
And he immediately saw action

00:14:22.756 --> 00:14:23.886
and was wounded off....

00:14:31.843 --> 00:14:33.009
I had the honor of serving

00:14:33.009 --> 00:14:34.080
in 3 general actions.

00:14:34.779 --> 00:14:35.850
In the first,

00:14:36.047 --> 00:14:37.559
I received 2 wounds in my right arm.

00:14:39.789 --> 00:14:40.910
And in the latter while I was

00:14:40.910 --> 00:14:42.392
receiving orders from his late lordship

00:14:42.677 --> 00:14:43.637
Admiral Nelson,

00:14:44.280 --> 00:14:45.802
I received a wound on my face.

00:14:46.818 --> 00:14:48.155
which was shortly followed

00:14:48.155 --> 00:14:49.481
by a gun shot wound

00:14:49.481 --> 00:14:51.163
which carried away my left leg.

00:14:57.402 --> 00:14:58.429
Both William the father

00:14:58.505 --> 00:14:59.642
and William the son...