A tasty morsel?

These insects must think so!

Dad, H and I spent the afternoon at Quarry Bank Mill. We finally got to tour the Apprentice House, where the children who worked in the mill lived.

The apprentices had to be 9 or over, and were taken usually from local workhouses. Their working day was 6am until 7pm, but they did benefit from spending their Sundays in the classroom (after a 2 mile walk to church). They were well fed in comparison to those children in the workhouses, and Samuel Greg the mill owner, did employ a doctor to ensure that his apprentices were treated when sick.

An interesting fact we learned, is that to test if a child is about/over 9, the doctor would ask the child to put their arm over the top of their head and touch their ear. Apparently, only children around or over 9 can do this!