Visionary Women and Visible Children, England 1900-1920: Childhood and the Women's Movement

236 Pages·2018·2.41 MB·English

by  Berry Mayall (auth.)

Visionary Women and Visible Children, England
1900–1920
“By focussing on pioneering women’s work to improve childhood and the social
status of children, Mayall re-writes the history of the early women’s movement in
England, showing how women pioneers in the early 20C fought for justice for
both women and children. Childhood emerges as a social status in society, and
children as the new generation on which the nation’s prosperity depended.
Alongside their suffrage work, women were at the forefront of work to ensure that
children acquired rights and status as deserving of national and international inter-
vention. Through analysis of memoirs, Mayall casts new light on elementary school
children’s status as contributors to the economic survival of their families.”
—Virginia Morrow, University of Oxford, UK
Berry Mayall
Visionary Women and
Visible Children,
England 1900–1920
Childhood and the Women’s Movement
Berry Mayall
UCL Institute of Education
London, UK
ISBN 978-3-319-61206-5 ISBN 978-3-319-61207-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-61207-2
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017949480
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A
cknowledgements
I am grateful to my grandson, Louis Mayall, who worked as a research
assistant in the early stages of this study, collecting and analysing useful
background information. Many thanks to Abigail Knight who provided a
valuable link to interviews carried out in Ambleside; also to Priscilla
Alderson for discussion of children’s rights; and to Virginia Morrow for
her expertise on the law relating to education. I am greatly indebted to the
UCL Institute of Education library staff, who, unfailingly helpful and
kindly, have helped me track down books and papers; and given me access
to the very valuable archives held at the Institute.
v
c
ontents
Chapter One Introduction 1
Chapter Two The Women’s Movement and Childhood,
1900–1920 23
Chapter Three The Economics of Childhood: Home
and Neighbourhood 57
Chapter Four Experiencing Elementary School 89
Chapter Five Women and Children and the Great War Years 129
Chapter Six After the Great War 161
Appendix A 193
Appendix B: Legislation and Other Board of Education
Documents Relating to Children 1870–1918 203
References 209
Index 221
vii
A n c
ote on urrency
For those familiar only with decimal currency, that is UK money since
1972, I give some notes on the currency in the earlier part of the twentieth
century. During the course of the book, I include some details about
incomes and expenditure.
One farthing—¼d; one quarter of one penny, 1d. (the d. is short for
denarius, Latin for a Roman penny…)
One half penny, or ha’penny—½d; one half of 1d.
One penny: 12 pennies—one shilling 1s., 144 pennies—one pound: £1
Farthings, ha’pennies and pennies were coppers.
Money above this level was in silver.
Sixpenny bit—6d. or half a shilling
One shilling—12d., or 24 ha’pennies
Five bob—5 shillings, 20 shillings—£1
Half a crown—two shillings and six pence or 2/6. eight half crowns—£1
One pound: £1
One guinea: £1.1s.0d.
We also have to note that weights for food were in pounds and ounces.
A pound is about half a kilo and 16 ounces make one pound.
ix
x A NOTE ON CURRENCy
whAt Incomes dId PArents of elementAry school
chIldren receIve?
For an unskilled male worker, weekly income might be between 18s and
28s. This is shown in Pember Reeves’ list (1988) of the incomes of 31
families studied in Lambeth in 1911–13.
Another good source of information is Clementina Black’s edited col-
lection of papers on married women’s work (1915). Generally, these
women earned half a man’s wage, and many of the occupations were
‘women’s jobs’, not unionised, including work carried out at home for
employers, notably dress-making work.
The memoirs also provide information. Rolph’s father, a sergeant in the
police, was earning 28s. a week, when Rolph was born (Rolph p. 12).
Rolph emphasises that they were not poor—this salary was enough to
house, feed and clothe the family of four (two parents and two children)
in London. But he went to school with barefoot children and family
income was clearly reflected in clothes.
On the other hand, Jasper’s father, a drunken casual labourer, gave his
wife only 8s. or 10s. a week. She tried to make up for this by making and
selling clothes. But they were often short of food and boots and some-
times fell behind with the rent. (Jasper passim)
Rent for housing might vary from 5s. to 8s. a week. Commonly, the
city houses offering three or four floors would each house three or four
families, each having two rooms on a floor. Washing and laundry facilities
and lavatories were commonly shared. In rural areas, agricultural labourers
often lived in a tied cottage, that is, rent free and owned by their employer—
the farmer, but their wages might reflect this, and 10s. a week is noted for
male agricultural workers (for detail on earnings see Len Thompson’s
account in Blythe (1972) pp. 31–38). Those in tied cottages sometimes
had a garden, so they could grow vegetables and keep chickens and pigs.
whAt could these moneys Buy?
An illuminating account is given by Robert Roberts, whose mother kept a
corner shop in a slum area of Salford. Most of the money she took in each
day was in coppers: farthings, ha’pennies and pennies (Roberts 1977,
p. 104). Families bought food by the day, sometimes shopping both
morning and evening. This is partly because they had nowhere safe, dry
and clean to keep food and partly because income was insecure—some
A NOTE ON CURRENC y xi
fathers were paid by the day (Pember Reeves chapter 8). Some women
shopped late at night, because then the perishable food was reduced in
price (Rolph 1980, p. 75).
A good source is Pember Reeves, who collected detailed accounts of
weekly income spent by Lambeth housewives (chapter 10) (See my
Chapter Three). They had to budget in fuel for heating and to cook by;
often funeral insurance (since a child might die); money for boots and
clothing.
On food, Pember Reeves notes, the main expense was for bread, which
cost about 2½d. a loaf (this was the main food eaten for breakfast and the
evening meal). Sugar was 2d. a pound (used for sweetening tea) and fami-
lies might use 3 or 4 pounds a week. Potatoes were cheap at about ½d. a
pound. Meat, mostly for the father, was a once-in-the-week buy (for the
Sunday main meal) and might cost 2s.6d. a week (2/6). Mid-week, a fish
or a rasher of bacon or an egg might be bought for the father’s evening
meal. Bennett records that a haddock or bloater was 1½d. or 2d. (Bennett,
p. 22). Pember Reeves records the average spent on food per person per
day; in most of her 31 families it is about 2½d. each per day.
Children could earn money. But just as women were paid half of male
wages, so children were paid even less. Girls might ‘mind’ a neighbour’s
child for a penny or two (1d. or 2d.) a session. Jan Jasper was paid 6d. for
a long day helping with an expedition of people out to Epping Forest (but
his mother forced the employer to stump up 2/6) (Jasper 1974, p. 68).
Clifford Hills was in more regular employment from the age of 9: he
worked in the big house from 7 a.m. till 10 a.m., then went to school,
then worked from 4 p.m. till 6 p.m. and on Saturday from 7 a.m. till 1
p.m. For this he was paid 2s. a week (Thompson T. 1981, pp. 57–63).
Pember Reeves details the wages earned, by children, in families where the
father was out of work or had only intermittent earnings. For instance the
eldest girl in one family was earning 6s.per week working full-time in a
factory and her brother earned 2s.6d. as a milk delivery boy, working two
hours before and again after school plus ‘several hours’ on Saturday and
Sunday (Pember Reeves, p. 181.)
Rolph (pp. 64–65) gives some detail on what children could buy with
the amounts of money they might personally have. In his relatively
well-off family, he had weekly pocket money of 1d. With a quarter of that,
a farthing, you could buy a toffee apple, or a foot-long strip of toffee or a
sherbet dab (a hollow stick of liquorice poking out of a screw of sherbet).
With a penny, you could frequent the Marks and Spencer’s penny bazaar,
xii A NOTE ON CURRENCy
which sold toys (such as dolls and tin model vehicles), painting books,
pencils and crayons. Bennett (p. 21) also notes the cost of sweets: four
ounces of toffee for 1d. or a farthing’s-worth of sweets.