Part 8 of Nunney Scarecrows: Child Labour and Education in Nunney, Somerset. #OnePlaceEducation 🗃️ Mr Croome rented Manor House Farm from lord of the manor Mr Theobald. He had 400 acres, of which only 80 were arable - mainly corn and potatoes. He employed three women plus two boys from Cloford. 🧵1/~ - ThreadSky

Part 8 of Nunney Scarecrows: Child Labour and Education in Nunney, Somerset. #OnePlaceEducation 🗃️

Mr Croome rented Manor House Farm from lord of the manor Mr Theobald. He had 400 acres, of which only 80 were arable - mainly corn and potatoes. He employed three women plus two boys from Cloford. 🧵1/~

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handle.invalid•1 day ago

He did employ more boys at certain times of year for short jobs, such as crow-keeping and potato setting. More commonly boys did the weeding, led the horses at the plough and picked stones from the field. All the boys had been to school, albeit only sometimes or occasionally night school. 2/~

handle.invalid•1 day ago

The women did pretty much the same work and worked for him all year. Nunney and Cloford also distributed 40l. a year between the girls married in the past year out of money left in trust by Thomas Harris. Cloford did not give it to those who had had a child before marriage; Nunney did. 3/~

handle.invalid•1 day ago

A report to the 18669 Parliamentary investigation into child labour in the countryside said: “Cottages very bad. Women not much employed in the fields, not enough for it to exercise a bad effect on the morals of the village; but the worst characters certainly do go out to agricultural labour." 4/~

handle.invalid•1 day ago

It added that weeding in wet weather was very bad for women, and brought rheumatism. “They are not expected to work when it is wet, but many do so for the sake of the money they earn. They earn about half as much as a man." 5/~

handle.invalid•1 day ago

Witnesses testified almost unanimously to the investigation that no legislative interference was required to protect young children from personal injury as a result of farm work. There were, however, concerns about the moral injury that could result from dull, monotonous work. 6/~

handle.invalid•1 day ago

The scaring of birds would for the most part employ children from the age of 6 for a few weeks in spring or autumn, but other descriptions of 'tenting' (tending to farm animals) often employed a boy almost all summer and in some areas all winter too. 7/~

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