Robert Busk's Flax Mill, Leeds

in Hunslet, Leeds

1819 'extensive flax manufactory occupied by Robert Busk, Esq. at Hunslet-Moor side'

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Elizabeth Bentley

Elizabeth Bentley was employed in flax mills, staring at Busk's mill at the age of six. She gave evidence to the House of Commons Select Committee appointed to investigate Factory Children's Labour, over which Michael Thomas Sadler presided.

Her evidence does not all refer to her experience at Busk's mill, as she went on to Tatham and Walker's mill.

From the Albion and the Star - Friday 11 January 1833:-

1833 'EXTRACTS from the EVIDENCE TAKEN before the COMMITTEE on the FACTORIES BILL
ELIZABETH BENTLEY’S EXAMINATION
What age are you? – Twenty-three.
Where you live ?—At Leeds.
What time did you begin to work at a factory ?—At six years old.
At whose factory did you work ?—Mr. Busk's.
What was your business in that mill ? —I was a little doffer.
What were your hours of labour in that mill?—From five in the morning till nine at night, when they were thronged.
For how long a time together have you worked that excessive length of time ?—For about half a year.
What were your usual hours of labour when you were not so thronged ?--From six in the morning till seven at night.
What time was allowed for your meals ?--Forty minutes at noon.
Had you any time to get your breakfast or drinking ?—No, we got it as we could. .
And when your work was bad you had hardly any time to eat it at all ?—No ; we were obliged to leave it or take it home, and when we did not take it the overlooker took it and give it to his pigs. .
Do you consider doffing a laborious employment ?—Yes. .
Explain what it is you had to do ?—When the frames are full they have to stop the frames, and take the flyers off, and take the full bobbins and carry them to the roller; and then put empty ones on and set the frame going again.
Does that keep you constantly on your feet ?—Yes, there are so many frames, and they run so quick.
Your labour is very excessive ?—Yes; you have no time for anything. .
Suppose you flagged a little, or were too late, what would they do P—Strap us. .
Are they in the habit of strapping those who are last in doffing ?—Yes.
Constantly ?—Yes.
Girls as well as boys?—Yes. Have you ever been strapped ?—Yes.
Severely ?—Yes.
Is the strap used so as to hurt you excessively ?—Yes, it is.
Were you strapped if you were too much fatigued to keep up with the machinery ?—Yes ; the overlooker I was under was a very severe man, and when we have been fatigued and worn out, and had not baskets to put the bobbins in, we used to put them in the window-bottoms, and that broke the panes sometimes, and broke one one time, and the overlooker strapped me on the arm, and it rose a blister, and I ran home to my mother.'

'The carding-room is more oppressive than the spinning department ?—Yes, it is so dusty they cannot see each other for dust.
It is on that account they at allowed a relaxation of those few minutes ?--Yes; the cards get so soon filled up with waste and dirt they are obliged to stop them, or they would take fire.
There is a convenience in that stoppage ?—Yes, it is as much for their benefit as for the working people. When it was not necessary no such indulgence was allowed? No.
Never ?—No. Were the children beat - up to their labour there ?—Yes. With what ?—A strap. I have seen the overlooker go to the top end of the room, where the little girls hug the can to the backminders. He has taken a strap, and a whistle in his mouth, and sometimes he has got a chain and chained them, and strapped them all down the room.
All the children ?—No, only those hugging the cans.
What was his reason for that ?—He was angry.
Had the children committed any fault?—They were too slow. Were the children excessively fatigued at the time . ?—Yes, it was in the afternoon.
Were the girls so struck as to leave marks upon their skin ? Yes, they have had black marks many times, and their parents dare not conic to him about it, They were afraid of losing their work.
If the parents were to complain of this excessive ill-usage the probable consequence would be the loss of the situation of the child ?—Yes. In what part of the mill did you work ?—ln the card-room.
It was exceedingly dusty ?—Yes.
Did it affect your health ?—Yes, it was so dusty the dust got upon my lungs, and the work was so hard. I was middling strong when I went there, but the work was so bad. I got so bad in health that when I pulled the baskets down I pulled my bones out of their places.
You dragged the baskets?—Yes, down the rooms to where they are worked.
And as you had been weakened by excessive labour, you could not stand that labour ?—No.
It has had the effect of pulling your shoulders out I—Yes; it was a great basket that stood higher than this table a good deal.
How heavy was it ?—I cannot say, it was a very large one, that was full of weights up-heaped, and pulling the basket pulled my shoulders out of its place, and my ribs have grown over it.
You continued at that work ?—Yes.
You think that work is too much for children ?—Yes.
It is women's work, not fit for children ?—Yes.
Is that work generally done by women ?—Yes. How came you to do it ?—There was no spinning for me.
Did they give you women's wages ?—They gave me 5s. and the women had 6s. 6d.
What wages did you get as a spinner ?—Six shillings.
Did you perceive that many other girls were made ill by that long Iabour ?—Yes; a good many of them.
So that you were constantly receiving fresh hands to supply the places of those that could no longer bear their work ?—Yes; there are fresh hands every week ; they could not keep their hands.
Did they all go away on account of illness ?—They were sick and ill with the dust.
Do you know whether any of them died in consequence of it? —No, I cannot speak to that.
You do not know what became of them ?—No, we did not know that. If a person was to take an account of a mill, and the hands in it that were ill, they would know very little of those who had suffered from their labour; they would be elsewhere ?—Yes.
But you are sure of this, that they were constantly leaving on account of the excessive labour they had to endure ?—Yes.
And the unhealthy nature of their employment ?—Yes.
Did you take any means to obviate the bad effects of this dust ?—No.
Did it make you very thirsty ?—Yes, we drank a deal of water in the room.
Were you heated with your employment at the same time ? No, it was not so very hot as in the summer time; in the winter time they were obliged to have the windows open, it made no matter what the weather was, and sometimes we got very severe , colds from frost and snow.
You were constantly exposed to colds, and were made ill that cause also ?—Yes.
Could you eat your food well in the factory ?—No; indeed I had not much to eat, and the little I had I could not eat it, my appetite was so poor, and being covered with dust; and it was no use to take it home, I could not eat it, and the overlooker took it, and gave it to the pigs.
You are speaking of the breakfast ?—Yes. How far had you to go for dinner ?—We could not go home to dinner.
Where did you dine ?—ln the mill. - Did you live far from ths Yes, two miles. Had you a clock ? --No, we had not.
Supposing you had not been in time enough in the morning at these mills, what would have been the consequence ?—We should have been quartered.
What do you mean by that ?—lf we were a quarter of an hour too late they would take off half an hour; we only got a penny an hour, and they would take a halfpenny more.
The fine was much more considerable than the loss of time ?. Yes.
Were you also beaten for being too late ?—No, I was never beaten myself; I have seen the boys beaten for being too late.
Were you generally there in time ?— Yes, my mother has been up at four o'clock in the morning, and at two o'clock in the morning ; the colliers used to go to their work about three or four o'clock, and when she heard them stirring she get up out of her warm bed, and went out and asked them the time ; and I have sometimes been at Hunslet Car at two o'clock in the morning when it was streaming down with rain, and we have had to stay till the mill was opened.
Supposing your hours of labour had been moderate, could you have awoke regularly ?—Yes.
Was it a matter of anxiety and difficulty for you to rouse yourself to be early enough for those hours of labour ?—Yes.
To what did he attribute it ?- He said it was owing to hard labour and working in the factories. He told you that ?—Yes.
Did the deformity come upon you with much pain and weariness ?—Yes; I cannot express the pain I had all the time it was coming.
You went to Tatham and Walker’s afterwards ?—Yes.
Is that a flax-mill ?—Yes.-
In what situation did you go there ?—I went into the spinning-room.
What were the hours of labour there when they were busy? —From half-past five in the morning to eight, and half-past eight
To what did he attribute it ?- He said it was owing to hard labour and working in the factories. He told you that ?—Yes.
Did the deformity come upon you with much pain and weariness ?—Yes; I cannot express the pain I had all the time it was coming.
You went to Tatham and Walker’s afterwards ?—Yes.
Is that a flax-mill ?—Yes.-
In what situation did you go there ?—I went into the spinning-room.
ls it found necessary in that mill to strap the children up to their work ?--Yes, the doffers; I have seen them strap them as well as others.
So that, as far as you have experience in those factories, these poor children are beaten when so much labour is exacted from them ?—There is nothing else for them.
You do not think they could be kept up to their work unless they were so abused ?—No, they could not.
In that mill also did they strap the children ?—Yes, they did.
Perpetually ?—Yes.
What were the hours for refreshment at that mill at the time to which we are alluding ?—Forty minutes at noon.
There was no time allowed for drinking or breakfast at that mill ?—Yes, they have at present.
Had they before the present measure was in agitation ?—No, only 40 minutes in winter, and half an hour in summer.
Was that time ever abridged ?—Yes.
What time did you work in winter ?—From six in the morning till seven or eight, if they were much thronged.
The children in all cases did not have that time allowed them for their dinner ?—No.
Was it the general impression among tho children that the time allowed them for their noon meal was improperly abridged ? —Yes, it was.
What do you call the short hours or common hours in the flax business ?—From six in the morning till seven at night.
What time for meals ?—Forty minutes.
Are the children brought in occasionally from their meals before the time ?—Yes.
By what means ?—By the clock; sometimes the hand have slipped down two or three minutes.
Were the children whipped in sometimes to their work ? Yes, out of the mill-yard—the boys after they have gone out to play ; the overlooker has got a strap, and gone out and strapped them in before their time, that they might come in and get on with their work.
You have had the misfortune, from being a straight and healthful girl, to become very much otherwise in your person ; do you know of any other girls that have become weak and deformed in like manner ?-No.
Do you know of anybody that has been similarly injured in their health ?—Yes, in their health, but not many deformed as I am.
You are deformed in the shoulders ?—Yes.
It is very common to have weak ankles and crooked knees ? Yes, very common indeed.
That is brought on by stopping the spindle ?—Yes.
Do you know anything of wet spinning ?—Yes, it Is very uncomfortable. I have stood, before the frames till I have been wet through to my skin. And in winter time, when we have gone home, our clothes have been frozen, and we have nearly caught our death of cold.
Were you permitted to give up your labour at any time to suit your convenience and your health, and resume it again when you were more capable of it ?—Yes, we have stopped at home one day or two days, just as we were situated in our health.
If you had stopped away any length of time should you have found a difficulty to keep your situation ?—Yes, we should.
Were the children constantly beaten to their labour as you have described ?—Yes.
Where are you now ?—ln the poorhouse.
Where ?—At Hunslet.
Do any of your 'former employers come to see you?- No.
Did you ever receive anything from them when you became afflicted ?—When I was at home Mr. Walker made me a present of 1s. or 2s., but since I have left my work, and gone to the poorhouse, they have not come nigh me.
You are supported by the parish ?—Yes.
You are utterly incapable now of any exertion of that sort ? Yes.
You were very willing to have worked as long as you were able, from your earliest age ?—Yes.
And to have supported your widowed mother as long as you could ?—Yes.
State what you think as to the circumstances in which you have been placed during all this time of labour, and what you have considered about it as to the hardship and cruelty of it.
(The witness was too much affected to answer the question.)'

Note: This seems to represent 'normal' working practices in Yorkshire flax mills at the time, and was by no means an extreme example.

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