"Digging for Clay"

Very poignant Angela.

Why thank you Diane, I researched child labour a few years ago and because our mother's Ancestry originated in Arlesey Bedfordshire I discovered the premise where there were once claypits and a brick-making industry evolved. As my mother's grandfather was French I was curious about their lives and employment and discovered some were builders and straw plaiters! I wrote an imaginative story about a little boy who drew chalk drawings before he could read and write expressing his daily chores when he and his sister travailed and laboured in the clay-pits. This little girl was drawn posterior view of our grand-daughter one day so I transformed into this illustration.

So interesting and so poignant as Diane says

Children were also employed down coal mines! Many years ago, I lived in a tiny miner’s cottage and the neighbours were full of stories about the mines. It was a 2 up, 2 down and only 10 ft wide. Apparently 6 children would sleep in the same room, before going down the mine.

Thank you Heather and Linda for your comments and we forget how children were miss - treated in the 1800's, fortunately the Education Act served them well, and abolished these work practices so life altered quite considerably!