Mines and Collieries Act 1842

At the beginning of the 19th century, methods of coal extraction were primitive and the workforce of men, women, and children, laboured in dangerous conditions. In 1841 about 216,000 people were employed in the mines. Women and children worked underground for 11 or 12 hours a day for lower wages than men. The public became aware of conditions in the country's mines in 1838 after an accident at Huskar Colliery in Silkstone, near Barnsley. A stream overflowed into the ventilation drift after violent thunderstorms causing the death of 26 children; 11 girls aged 8 to 16 and 15 boys between ages 9 to 12. The disaster came to the attention of Queen Victoria who ordered an inquiry.

In 1840 Lord Ashley headed the Royal Commission, which investigated the conditions of workers —especially children — in the coal mines. Commissioners visited collieries and mining communities gathering information and evidence (sometimes against the mine owners' wishes). Compiled by Richard Henry Horne, the report, accompanied by illustrations (most of them by the artist Margaret Gillies) and the personal accounts of mineworkers was published in May 1842. Victorian society was shocked to discover that children as young as five or six worked as "trappers", opening and shutting ventilation doors down the mine, before becoming "hurriers", pushing and pulling coal tubs and corfs. Lord Ashley deliberately appealed to Victorian prudery, focussing on girls and women wearing trousers and working bare-breasted in the presence of boys and men, which "made girls unsuitable for marriage and unfit to be mothers" – such an affront to Victorian morality ensured the bill was passed.

Lord Londonderry, a coal-mine owner, opposed the bill in the House of Lords and pushed through amendments that watered it down. The bill passed the House of Lords at its third reading on 1 August 1842.

Even before the Act, the underground employment of women in most forms of metal mines was rare, but it did take place much more frequently in iron ore mines which were thus impacted by the Act.

Results of the act

• No females could be employed underground.
• No child under 10 years old was to be employed underground.
• Parish apprentices between the ages of 10 and 18 could continue to work in the mines