![]() ![]() Perhaps they were lucky enough some days to hitch a lift their general direction of travel taking them to Beartown, the Potteries, Dunstable Downs and, eventually, to London. It was likely that these enterprising travellers took advantage of the drovers roads and the newly developed motorways of the times-the canals. ![]() ![]() Quarry Bank Mill was some 200 miles north of London and the boys had to sneak out unnoticed and then attempt to walk all the way. These jobs could be just as unpleasant and difficult for a poor child as those we may have heard of, such as chimney sweeps and match girls. Children as young as nine would be employed there as scavengers, piecers, mule doffers or can tenters. Their starting point was in the pleasant Cheshire countryside, where they were apprenticed to the cotton mill built by Samuel Greg in 1784. Book Synopsis In the early 19th century, when it was the policy of many of the poorhouses and workhouses to deter paupers from applying by making the conditions inside harsh and unpleasant, two boys set out on a journey to Hackney Workhouse in London. ![]()
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