When did children stop working in the mines?

The coal mines were dangerous places where roofs sometimes caved in, explosions happened and workers often injured themselves.

Below is a small sample of how children were killed working in coal mines (information from www.dmm.org.uk)

• 
  A trapper, only 10 years old killed in an explosion.
  
• 
  A horse driver aged 11. Crushed by horse.
  
• 
  A driver, aged 14 fell off limmers and was crushed between the tubs and a door.
  
• 
  A token keeper aged 14. Crushed by surface wagons on branches.
  
• 
  A screenboy aged 12. Crushed by surface wagons.
  
• 
  A trapper aged 12. Crushed by tubs.
  
• 
  A driver aged 12. Horse fell on him.
  
• 
  A bank boy aged 11. Caught by cage.
  
• 
  A driver aged 12. Head crushed between tub top and a plank while riding on limmers.
  
• 
  A trapper aged 13. Head crushed between cage and bunton while riding to bank.
  
• 
  Tub Cleaner, aged 13. Fell down the shaft off a pumping engine.
  
• 
  Boy aged 14, drowned.
  
• 
  Boy, aged 7. Killed in an explosion.
  
• 
  Trapper , aged 9. Killed in an explosion.
  
• 
  Driver, aged 14. Crushed against wall by a horse.
  
• 
  Screen Boy, aged 15. Head crushed between a tub and screen legs ; too little room.
  

The Mines Act was passed by the Government in 1847 forbidding the employment of women and girls and all boys under the age of ten down mines. Later it became illegal for a boy under 12 to work down a mine.