Lesson Y8-U04-L05

Y8-U04-L05 Children at Work Mines, Mills & Reform Quiz: KS3 History, Unit 10

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

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Lesson Y8-U04-L05, Children at Work Mines, Mills & Reform: 20 multiple choice questions for the KS3 History (National Curriculum), Unit 10: Year 8: Industrial Revolution, written with Revision Ninja.

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The 20 questions

  1. What was a 'trapper' in a coal mine?

    • A worker who bought coal from the miners and sold it in town
    • A young child who opened and shut the air doors in the dark
    • A boy who drove the horses that pulled the coal carts
    • A man who cut coal from the seam with a pick and shovel

  2. What was a 'hurrier' in a coal mine?

    • A worker who lowered the miners down the shaft in a cage
    • A child who sat by the air doors and listened for dangerous gas
    • A boy who sorted the coal into piles at the surface of the pit
    • A child who dragged or pushed heavy coal carts along the mine tunnels

  3. What does 'reform' mean?

    • To keep a system exactly as it has always been
    • To change something to make it better or fairer
    • To close a factory or mine that has become unprofitable
    • To punish workers who ask for higher wages from their employers

  4. What is an 'Act of Parliament'?

    • A law passed by Parliament that everyone must obey
    • A public speech given by an MP to a local meeting of workers
    • A petition signed by workers and sent to the Prime Minister
    • A report written by an inspector after visiting a factory

  5. Why were children used so widely in factories and mines?

    • They were the only people allowed to enter the mines by law
    • They were the only workers with the strength to lift heavy machine parts
    • They were trained for years before they were allowed to work with machines
    • They were cheap, small and less likely to argue or form unions

  6. Which child worker crawled under moving machines to clean up loose cotton fluff?

    • A piecer
    • A hurrier
    • A trapper
    • A scavenger

  7. What was a piecer's job in a textile mill?

    • Sorting the finished cloth into bales for export to the colonies
    • Leaning over the spinning frame to join threads that had snapped
    • Driving carts loaded with cotton along the tunnels of the mill
    • Opening and shutting air doors to let fresh air into the spinning room

  8. What did the Mines Act of 1842 do?

    • It required every mine owner to provide a school for children under 13
    • It banned all women and girls, and boys under 10, from working underground in coal mines
    • It set the first minimum wage for children in coal mines, and it required owners to pay them in cash each Friday
    • It limited all miners to a maximum of ten hours of work in each shift

  9. What did the Factory Act of 1833 do?

    • It set a ten-hour working day for every worker in the textile mills
    • It banned all child labour in every factory across the British Empire
    • It banned under-9s from textile mills and created the first factory inspectors
    • It gave every child in a mill the right to a paid holiday each year

  10. What did the Ten Hours Act of 1847 limit?

    • All workers in the country to a ten-hour week, including weekends
    • Women and young people in factories to a ten-hour working day
    • All children to a ten-hour school day in the new factory schools
    • All miners to a ten-hour working day underground in every coal pit

  11. Under the Factory Act of 1833, how many hours a day were 9 to 13 year olds allowed to work in textile mills?

    • 9 hours
    • 10 hours
    • 6 hours
    • 12 hours

  12. Why was a trapper's job so dangerous?

    • They worked in bright sunlight, which damaged their eyes over many years
    • They had to fight off rats that lived in the tunnels of the mine
    • They sat in total darkness for up to 12 hours, and falling asleep could cut off the air
    • They were forced to climb ladders to the roof of the mine every hour

  13. Why was a hurrier's work especially harmful to a growing child?

    • The hurriers had to lift the coal into carts by hand above their heads
    • The hurriers were fed poisoned food that stunted their growth each year
    • The cart pulled the child off the ground and left them hanging for hours
    • A belt and chain rubbed the skin raw, and the low, wet tunnels twisted growing bodies

  14. What was the main danger for a coal getter who hacked coal from the seam?

    • Falling into the sea while climbing down the shaft
    • Freezing to death in the open air while waiting for the cage
    • Being bitten by rats that ran through the open tunnels
    • Roof falls, choking coal dust and explosions from gas

  15. A child trapper described going to work in the dark before dawn and never sleeping. What does this show about the work?

    • Trappers worked very long hours alone in darkness
    • Trappers were only allowed to work in the light of day
    • Trappers were given a bed at the mine and slept through most of their shift
    • Trappers worked in pairs for a few hours each day with plenty of rest

  16. A coal mine owner argued that child mine work did children no harm and that shorter hours would ruin his pits. Why might he describe the work this way?

    • He was ordered by Parliament to describe mine work in favourable terms
    • He wanted to protect the children from the dangers of the open air above ground
    • He believed that children should be paid higher wages than adult miners
    • He feared his pits could not compete if hours were shortened, and families would grow poorer

  17. Source A is a trapper's account and Source B is a mine owner's view. Which source would help a campaigner such as Lord Shaftesbury more, and why?

    • Source B, because it argues that mine work does children no harm at all
    • Source A, because it is a child's own account of the dark and fear of the mine
    • Source A, because it was written by a government minister who supported the mines
    • Source B, because it describes the owner's profits from the coal trade

  18. Why was reform of child labour slow and only partial?

    • Parliament had no power to pass any laws about working conditions at the time
    • Each law fixed only part of the problem, and only after the public was shocked into demanding change
    • Factory owners were paid to stop the reform campaigns by the government
    • Factory owners were paid by the government to stop the reform campaigns, and the Army broke up their meetings

  19. Why did many owners argue against government interference in their businesses?

    • They believed that factories were illegal and should be closed down
    • They believed that children should be paid for their work by the government
    • They believed the government had no right to interfere with how they ran their business
    • They believed that only the Royal Navy should inspect mines and factories

  20. A seven-year-old works in a textile mill in 1835. Which law would make this illegal?

    • The Mines Act of 1842, which banned all children from working in mines
    • The Factory Act of 1833, which banned under-9s from working in textile mills
    • The Combination Acts of 1799, which banned children from joining unions
    • The Ten Hours Act of 1847, which limited children to ten hours a day

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