Scientists have found the first direct evidence of the harrowing and wrecked lives of children in the early 19th century who were transported from cities such as London to work in rural northern England cotton mills.
Academics at Durham University have published research from a project examining the skeletal remains of “pauper apprentices” found in a rural North Yorkshire graveyard.
It was a historical story of abused and forgotten children but also a story for today, said Rebecca Gowland, a bioarchaeology professor at Durham. To see evidence of their hardships literally “written in the bones” was very moving, she said.
The excavation came about because a heritage centre was to be built on the side of a church in the village of Fewston. More than 150 skeletons were found and, unusually, most of them were teenagers.
“When we looked more closely they were riddled with disease and they were really short for their age so we wondered what was going on,” said Gowland.
The researchers, working with local historians, pieced together the story of the forgotten children, identifying them as pauper apprentices.
These were children, born of impoverished parents, who were taken from workhouses in places such as Lambeth and Southwark in London and indentured to work in the large and often rural cotton mills of northern England which were central to the Industrial Revolution.
They were promised a better life. The reality was long hours working on their feet in a polluted atmosphere amid noisy, heavy machinery.
Their diet, the study finds, was lower in animal protein than those of other adults in the village but also “distinctively low compared to other published post-medieval populations”.
Prof Michelle Alexander of the University of York, a senior author of the study, said the lack of animal protein in the diet was “more on a level with the victims of the Great Irish famine”.
Gowland said the team found evidence of significant vitamin deficiencies as well as deformed and unnaturally short bones. There was also evidence of respiratory disease.
“Their skeletons are articulating a story of incredible hardship and it is direct evidence, not opinion; it is undeniable.”
The study echoes written accounts in which people who were apprenticed talk of working from 6am to 8pm, feeling constant tiredness – “tired beyond all telling” – and the fear of the overlooker’s “leather strap on our small shoulders”.
Gowland said the research was the first bioarchaeological evidence of the lives of pauper apprentices.
“It unequivocally highlights the toll placed on their developing bodies,” she said. “To see direct evidence, written in the bones, of the hardships these children faced was very moving.”
Gowland said the research had a resonance today. “There are still children around the world working in similar conditions to these children in the past.”
The research also fed into contemporary debates about poverty and health inequality, with poor children likely to be poorly as an adult, Gowland said. “There’s this idea that children bounce back from adversity. But they don’t and we know that.”
Gowland said the research showed the need for investment in early life. “I do think it is relevant because what we are seeing in these workhouse children, in their teeth and in their bones, is the deprivation that almost precedes their life. We can see the poor maternal health as well.”
A number of years ago, the remains were reburied in a ceremony, which involved contributions from the local community, volunteer researchers, scientists and descendants of those excavated.
Artwork inspired by the analysis and an exhibition are on permanent display at the Washburn Heritage Centre, which was built on the church.
Sally Robinson, from the centre, who led the team of local volunteers, said it was easy to forget the industrial past of such a beautiful area.
“It was important to us to find out about the children who worked in the mills,” she said. “They were overlooked in life and treated as a commodity – but we hope we have done them some justice by telling their stories and creating a lasting commemoration.”