Victorian Potteries - The Social Conditions
Working conditions
Wages
Working at the potbank was in the past an arduous and ill-paid task. For a 66 hour working week starting at 6.30am the average mid nineteenth century potter would earn only 25 shillings. Potters were bound to their employers on pain of imprisonment, but the factory did not have to find work for the potter to do. Payment was made per piece for ware 'good from oven', breakages, no matter whose fault, affected all workers. Deductions were made for the machinery and gas he used. Workers were paid as a group and would usually go to the pub to get change.
Children at work
Children contributed to the family income. In 1861 there were 4,500 children under 13 working in potbanks and receiving just a couple of shillings a week. Children worked the same if not longer hours than adults as they usually set the work place ready for work and cleaned up afterwards. Children's first job was usually as a mouldrunner, running with clay on moulds from makers to the drying room, and bringing empty moulds back, often in temperatures around 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
Towards the end of the century concern prompted legislation to protect child workers. They received little in the way of education. There were Sunday and evening schools but they did little to combat widespread illiteracy.
Women at Work
Most women were employed as attendants - assistants - to men or in the finishing processes - painting, transferring, checking and warehouse. Discrimination by employers and male workers ensured low wages and low status. Women had poor job security and little hope of improvement, they were regarded as flexible cheap labour.
Health Hazards
Pottery workers in general suffered above average bad health. The levels of dust in potbanks was dangerously high. Pneumoconiosis, known as 'potters rot' was a common problem. Difficulty in breathing, and premature death were common. The absorption of lead through the skin of potters who worked with the lead glaze was very dangerous causing paralysis of the lower arm and a range of problems with the nervous system, but affected fewer workers.
Living conditions
Housing
Most houses in the Potteries were built to rent out. Early housing development created cramped and unhealthy living conditions for pottery workers. In Longton, lack of planning led to a hap-hazard arrangement of potbanks and houses even those who did not work in the factory were affected by smoke.
Poor sanitation led to health problems. After the mid nineteenth century conditions began to improve. Model development such as those of the Duke of Sutherland at Dresden set the standard. Built to a regular two up, two down design by the beginning of this century housing compared favourable with that of other industrial town.
Health and Sanitation
Prior to the 1850s sewers in the area were of a rough brick construction and easily silted up. This added to the problems of inadequate toilet facilities. The water supply in most of the towns was also extremely poor and prone to contamination. Street cleaning was restricted to market places and main road leaving residential streets strewn with decaying rubbish.
In the first half of the 19th century up to half the children born did not reach five years of age and those that survived were at risk from diseases including Diarrhoea and Typhoid. Towards the end of the century paved streets, glazed stoneware sewers and expanded street cleaning improved living conditions.
Food and Drink
The poor health of potters was aggravated by their inadequate diet. Low pay gave limited scope in the type of food available. Some vegetables were home grown and livestock was sometimes kept in back yards but most food came from the local Grocer. Every scrap of food would be made use of . Lobby for instance was a stew made from left overs. 'Wiggy' or 'Wiggin' was an item used to add interest to a meal e.g. fish or treacle. A local speciality was the Staffordshire oatcake often filled with offal and much larger than its modern counterpart. The unhygenic water supply and the drudgery of the potters life meant beer was a common and popular beverage.
Bibliography
- C Shaw. When I was a Child, 1903.
- G W Elliot. Some Descriptions of Pottery Making and Working Conditions 1557-1844.
- F Burchill and R Ross. A History of the Potters Union.
- D J Machin and R L Smyth. The Worker and the British Pottery Industry.
- E McArthur. Outlines of English Industrial History.
- G W Elliot. Some Descriptions of Pottery Making and Working Conditions 1557-1844.
