In the 1800s, following prison reform and the abolition of slavery, Lord Shaftsbury was responsible for an investigation into the employment of children in mines.  The official who collected evidence from the Cumberland collieries had just two weeks to complete the task.  At times this was difficult because of ‘… the extreme fear of offending great men on the part of timid or dependent witnesses’. The fear of losing their jobs was greater than the fear of their working dangers.

Sarah Gooder aged 8, told the Commission that ‘Sometimes I sing when I've light, but not in the dark; I dare not sing then.  I don't like being in the pit.  I am very sleepy when I go sometimes in the morning.  I go to Sunday-schools and read … I would like to be at school far better than in the pit.’  The report observed that for children to work in the darkness without companions was nothing more than the worst kind of ‘solitary confinement’. 

Mary Barrett age 14 and working with adult men said, ‘I do not like working in pit, but I am obliged to get a living; I work always without stockings, or shoes, or trousers; I wear nothing but my chemise’ – a chemise being a shirt-like piece of underwear.  The men often wore less than that!

It is easy to see why the report from the Commission resulted in legislation to outlaw the worst conditions.