Reports by R.H. Horne, Esq.


Bilston
* * *

To Her Majesty's Commissioners

Gentlemen, Bilston May 25, 1841 
678. In submitting to you my Report on Bilston, I beg to state that the great importance of the place consists in its mining, iron-making, and other iron-works, which are carried on to a prodigious extent within the small circumference of eight or nine miles.

679. Mr. E.B. Dimmack, iron merchant, assured me that he considered there was as much iron made in the township of Bilston as in the whole of Sweden.

These operations not belonging to my department in this Commission, and the manufactories being at the same time very few in number, and presenting no features of difference from those previously dealt with in my Report on Wolverhampton, I have condensed all my remarks under a general head, except in three instances, where the subjects seemed to require a separate- treatment.

General Statements

I.--General Statements.

Population
680. The census of 1831 showed the population of Bilston to be 14,492; and the census of last June 7th, shows the present number of inhabitants to be 20,180.
Houses
681. There are 3783 inhabited houses and dwelling places of one kind and another, and of these not more than between 600 and 700 exceed 10£. a-year rent. You will perceive, therefore, that the 3000 dwellings are inhabited by the working classes, who are chiefly iron-workers, miners, and pitmen.
Sewerage and ventilation
Filthy accumulations
Trade in poor men's houses
682. Sewerage and ventilation are not considered necessary in the dwellings built for the working classes. Many of those are, consequently, in a most filthy state, particularly a place called the Bury, and also the Workhouse Fold. In front of some of the workmen's houses, on the entrance to Bilston from Wolverhampton, there are several large pools of green stagnant filth, the surface of which is variegated at intervals by dead cats and brickbats, with here and there a rusty saucepan or a collier's hat. "There is a great demand for workmen's houses," says Mr. E.W. Dimmack, "consequently there is a trade in building, which is a profitable speculation. They are built in the most confined situations, where land is the cheapest, and of the worst materials, and in the worst manner, no attention being paid to sewerage at all." (See Evidence, No. 256.)
Children
Mines
Ages
683. All the children of the working classes are put to work as early as possible. The great majority being commonly taken down the coal, ironstone, and other mines and pits at the ages of seven and eight. I have heard they are often taken down at four, five, and six years of age, to sit in the mine, and get accustomed to it before they begin to work.
Manufacturers
684. There are between 20 and 30 japanners and tinplate workers; about 17 brass-founders and iron-founders; and two screw manufactories. There are also a few locksmiths. All of these employ children and young persons, but in very small numbers with the exception of the japanners and the screw manufactories.
Number of children
685. Judging from the returns of the employers, and adding 50 to that of Messrs. Hawksford (screw manufacturers), whose return was incorrect as to numbers, I should estimate the aggregate number of children and young persons employed in the above-named manufactories at between 400 and 500.
Hours
Meals
686. The hours of work, time for meals, nature of employment, state of the place of work, and holidays, present no features essentially different from those described in my Report on Wolverhampton, except that the hours of work and time for meals, in Bilston, are more regular. Here, as in the former place, the manner in which the japan manufactories are conducted, deserves peculiar commendation.
Place of work.
Holidays.
Accidents.
687. Accidents very rarely happen in any of the manufactories, but in the mines, and pits, and iron-works, they are of the commonest occurrence, and often fatal. (See Evidence, No. 240.)
Treatment and care
688. The treatment and care are certainly superior to that which I generally found in Wolverhampton, so far as food, clothing, and corporal chastisement were concerned. Of the goodness and abundance of the food, and the ample clothing of the boys working in the mines, you will have been fully informed by those gentlemen who took the mining department of inquiry. As to corporal chastisement, I have found a few instances of cruel treatment in some of the manufactories and workshops, but only as isolated instances. In the mines, pits, and iron-works, I believe the boys are kicked and cuffed abundantly, but not with any vicious or cruel intention, and only with an idea that this is "getting the work done." (See Evidence, No. 256.) The boys, moreover, are strong and sturdy, and by no means tender and sensitive. Still there are, no doubt, occasional instances of brutal treatment.
Physical condition
689. The physical condition of the children and young persons employed in manufactories is undoubtedly better than in Wolverhampton. As to that of the boys employed in the mines and pits, it is very fine in all respects.
Hernia
690. Some of the boys, however, are afflicted with hernia.

691. The girls who work on the pit-banks are also well grown, healthy, and strong; but thin, sinewy, bony, and very unfeminine.

No prostitution
692. There is no prostitution in the place. "If any unfortunate woman commences," says one of my witnesses, "she gets a name -- is hooted after, and obliged to leave the town."
Illegitimate children
693. A great number of illegitimate children are born, more particularly among the bankers -- girls who work on the pit-banks. For remarks on them, see Evidence, No. 240.
Bank-girls
694. The bank-girls are, in most instances, as gross and immoral in their language and conduct as the men who first made them so. From their constant association with men, and from the nature of their work, one of these girls, in her coarse great coat, with her hands in her side-pockets, presents a picture of rude jovial independence of life, and recklessness of all refinements and delicacies of sex, which often makes an observer forget the objectionable characteristics of the individual in his sense of the uncivilized circumstances by which she has become so unlike the rest of her country-women. They drive coal-carts, ride astride upon horses -- sometimes two or three together upon a large long-backed horse -- drink, swear, fight, smoke, whistle, and sing, and care for nobody. Being very happy, they are certainly no objects for pity, but surely their circumstances are of a kind in which girls should never be placed. I have spoken of them under the head of "Physical Condition," because I cannot use the term "Moral," as having any real applicability to a state which is merely that of animal life.

695. The girls working in the screw manufacturories are some degrees above the bank-girls, and may be considered as in a certain, though very low, condition of moral existence. The girls among the japanners are altogether superior.

Moral condition
696. The moral condition of the children and young persons in Bilston is on the whole, very superior (always excepting the bank- girls, and those, generally, who work at the screw manufactories) to that in Wolverhampton. The great exertions of the Rev. Mr. Fletcher and the Rev. Mr. Owen, in the church, and of gentlemen like Mr. Robert Bew, chemist, and Mr. Dimmack, iron-merchant, among the Dissenters, have been generally seconded by liberal subscriptions from the employers, who have at least shown an interest in supporting all efforts at education, or the improvement of the moral state of the children and young persons. This improvement is likely to continue, and more rapidly than in some other places, because several of the leading men in Bilston are aware of the very imperfect nature of all their present educational arrangements.

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