The Worst Children's Jobs in History
Today's 'Modern Apprenticeships' are a challenge to any young person. But apprenticeships in the past could expose children to danger, filth and terribly hard work for hardly any earnings. In this edited extract from his children's book, Tony Robinson nominates what he thinks is the very worst sort of apprenticeship that children had to endure in the past …
Climbing boy
Job score
Danger ••• Watch out for the fires
Filth ••• You'll never be clean
Hard slog •• Tough and painful
Cash • Some food if you're lucky
You might think that 'climbing boys' spent their time out in the fresh air, shinning up trees. But you'd be wrong. Actually, it was the name for boy chimney sweeps in Victorian Britain. Everyone knows what a horrible job the chimney sweeps had. They were made to crawl through the tightest spaces and brush poisonous soot out of the chimneys.
The younger and smaller a climbing boy was, the smaller the chimney he could get into, so adult sweeps liked to use kids of six or even younger. They were supposed to be apprentices, but learned hardly anything at all. Not only that – they were always covered in the filthy, dangerous soot that constantly rained down on them.
So you still fancy being a climbing boy? Before you say yes, read on …
What to expect as a climbing boy
Age: The younger the better. You'll probably start when you're six years old but you could be as young as four. The good news is you'll never have to worry about your weight. Your boss will make sure you don't get enough food to get fat.
Face: It'll be permanently filthy. You get a bath at Whitsuntide (spring), Goose Fair (autumn) and Christmas. For the rest of the year, your face is stained black with soot.
Cry: When you're walking round the streets, you have to shout, 'Wee-eep!' as loudly as you can so people will come out and hire you.
Stoop: You might find your back starts to bend and your shoulders get hunched. Don't worry. It happens to every climbing boy. It's because of the heavy sacks of soot you have to carry around.
Eyes: You'll get plenty of soot in your eyes. This will make them go red and oozy.
Lungs: You'll soon start to find breathing difficult. This is normal. It's just what happens when you breathe in soot all day.
Knees and elbows: You have to use them to press against the bricks, so they'll get grazed every time you climb a chimney. To harden your skin up, your master might rub salty water into the grazes. Expect it to sting like crazy.
Clothes: When you're climbing, you'll probably wear a tunic – unless you're being punished, in which case you'll have to go up naked.
Feet: Cleaning chimneys can give you sore feet, partly because of the climbing but more because of what happens when you stop climbing. A bigger boy will be sent up behind you, and if you slow down, he'll stick pins in your feet or tickle them with burning straw to get you moving.
Cancer: Watch out for 'sooty warts', a kind of cancer. Unfortunately, if you do get it, there's no cure. But even if there was, you wouldn't have the money to pay a doctor.
