Assistant Commissioners |
inspectors who travelled around the country to check that
the Poor Law was being carried out according the Act. |
Bank holidays |
the first public holidays introduced in 1871; workers were
unpaid however. |
Bell pit |
small coal pit near the surface and easier to mine. |
Chadwick, Edwin |
carried out an investigation into the state of the Poor Law
in 1833; see the Find Out More section of the exhibition. |
Choke damp |
gas that could cause fires in the mine. |
Cholera |
disease caused by drinking impure water. |
Corves |
in Derbyshire the term means a shallow wooden box on runners
like a sled used for hauling coal out of shallow mines; also
refers to wicker baskets used to carry coal to the surface;
the corve held about 4½ cwt of coal. |
Dehydration |
loss of water from the body, can sometimes be life threatening. |
Football league 1888 |
collection of professional football teams who played against
each other and played according the rules of the League. |
Gallery |
work area of a coal seam in the mine. |
Getter |
coal miner who works at the coalface breaking it down so the
coal can be separated from other rock. |
Great Exhibition 1851 |
Prince Albert’s idea to celebrate British Empire and
industry; held at the especially built Crystal Palace in Hyde
Park, London. |
Hulks |
anchored ships which held prisoners awaiting transportation. |
Hurrier |
young person who pulled trams or wagons containing coal in
the mine. |
Inflammable |
substance that can easily be set on fire and burn quickly. |
Legal guardian |
person in law who can act for somebody else, usually a child. |
Less eligibility |
conditions within the workhouse should never be better than
those for an independent labourer of the poorest class. |
Licensing Act 1872 |
controlled public houses by insisting they had to be licensed
by magistrates; close at midnight in the town; adulteration
of beer by adding salt was made illegal (this was designed to
make people drink more). |
Metropolitan Police Act 1829 |
set up the first civilian unarmed London Police force. |
Miasmatic theory |
disease was caused by impure air which had been polluted by
rotting material. |
Outdoor relief |
payments given to people at home, usually the very sick or
old; to be banned after 1834. |
Peelers |
first policemen named after Sir Robert Peel who introduced
them. |
Pentonville |
model prison which was run on the basis of separating the
prisoners, allowing them not to communicate with each other. |
Pit and stall |
columns of coal left intact to support the roof and prevent
the mine from caving in. |
Poor Law Commission |
body consisting of three commissioners with Edwin Chadwick
a secretary, which ran the Poor Law throughout the country,
ensuring that the rules and regulations of the Poor Law Amendment
Act 1834 were followed. |
Railways Act 1844 |
Government claimed the right to take control of all railways
in times of national emergency; it also said that at least one
train having third class carriages must stop at every station
per day, charging no more than a penny per mile. |
Sanitation |
methods of protecting public health, especially by removing
and treating waste. |
Shilling days |
day on which the entry charge to the Great Exhibition was
one shilling. |
Snow, John |
doctor who worked out the link between cholera and polluted
water supply; see Find out More section of the exhibition. |
Speenhamland System 1795 |
started in Berkshire at a place called Speenhamland by a group
of magistrates who came up with a plan to support those on low
wages; payments were made on a scale linked to the price of
bread and number of children. |
Suffrage movement |
demanded the vote for women. |
Transportation |
prisoners were sent to Australia as punishment; the last ship
arrived there in 1868. |
Trappers |
children as young as 5 years old who opened and closed trap
doors in coal mines to aid the flow of air preventing the build
up of dangerous gases; they also opened the trapdoors for people
with trams of coal. |
Typhoid |
disease known as “bowel fever” caused by poor
drainage and sewage disposal; Prince Albert died from it. |
Unions |
groups of parishes authorised to build workhouses by the Poor
Law Commissioners. |
Workhouse |
a place which provided board and lodging for the able bodied
poor in return for employment; workhouses were intended to replace
all forms of relief for the poor. |