Children under the age of eight were usually considered to be too young to work unless the family was so poor that even their wages were essential. Instead they stayed at home, often minding even younger children, and played in the streets until they were old enough to start earning.
Although the working conditions described in the 1841 report into child employment showed the level of exploitation of child workers, the report had little practical effect in the short-term. As a result of the practice of the division of labour into skilled workshops, potteries were not classed as factories until 1864 and the children employed in them were not protected by the Factory Acts until that time. This, combined with the Education Acts of the 1870s and later, gradually removed young children from pottery factories although children aged thirteen were working full-time at pottery making into the 1920s.
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