Conclusion

The attention paid to the pit brow women in the 1880s did have some beneficial side-effects. The publicity helped to reveal differences in conditions, the press praising those collieries where screening methods were most advanced (for example Fletcher and Burrows Atherton pits in Lancashire). It also revealed the continuation of illegal practices. It had been only too easy to bypass the law. Munby had found that colliery wages were still being paid at Wigan pubs in 1860 although this had been prohibited in 1842. ¹ Now further evasion of the law was exposed. For example, the Leigh Journal revealed in 1886 that a girl of eighteen had been employed locally to do night work although this had been made illegal in 1872. ²