All is not what it seemed……
Samuel Barnett was quite clearly a local rogue in the Tipton area, and with the involvement of his sons into the brickmaking empire things don’t appear to have got any better, even after his accidental bizarre death.
The canal breach of 1899 was just one incident where his activities at Rattlechain were called into question. I have also previously outlined how workers at Samuel Barnett‘s dangerous Rattlechain brickworks site had died but had received little in the way of public attention. Another had seriously broken his leg leaving him unable to work.
In these cases, they attempted to put blame on their own employees rather than their dangerous practices, in a time when health and safety at work did not exist.
I have found another story however which puts into context the exploitation of this local wealthy man and his sons of his workforce, who as local councillors ,Barnett Senior and then his son William would have been well placed in civic circles. Did this raise any eyebrows however amongst the other band of elite industrialists who bought their way into pompous local legislature? I somewhat doubt it as they were no doubt all onto the same crack. Nepotism, cronyism and crookedness have never left the town of Oldbury to this day.
The story from the 4th April 1903 Worcestershire Chronicle details how Barnett and sons were fined £6 2 shillings for employing a boy under the age of 18. The age is not given but the term “boy” implies to me that he would have been barely a teenager, if that.
Even worse Harry Ball had once worked a shift of 30 hours! Can you even imagine working beyond a whole day into the next without stopping and the consequences that could have occurred through physical exhaustion!
It is even stated that the company based in Dudley Port had been previously fined, no doubt for the exact same offence.
suffer the little children
The piece from which the picture at the top of this post is taken dates 9 years later, and I believe that the son in the picture is William- there was never any “Julius”.
Like his father before him, he also became a councillor, and this absolute sycophantic letter to the Dudley Chronicle from 22nd March 1919 from a Labour rimmer from Dudley Road singing his praises should be put in context with the facts of the case above.
stomach churning puke
“The working man’s children” of the area had a playing field to play in – after their 30 hour shift at the chain no doubt, FFS! More than ever, this article is evidence for me of why these industrialist wannabe “socialist” politicians should never be feted as being community stalwarts or remembered as somehow giving something to the community. Perhaps Willy Barnett was a communist “in spirit” as they do seem to like child slavery in such countries where it unfortunately exists. The Barnett family were child exploitation criminals, and their brickmaking empire moulded in dodgy practices.
No doubt some other pompous political arsehole who followed them was responsible for getting a street in Tipton named after these crooked shiesters; so shame on them too.
The brickmaking industry in this area, as shown by their pollution in 1938 was notable then as it is now. A coal strike in 1912 appears to show how the Barnett’s two brickworks at Rattlechain and Stour Valley were shut down as a result of a lack of fuel, and thus how dependent they were on environment soiling coal and the pollution that went with it.
Saturday 9th March 1912 Newspaper: Bromsgrove & Droitwich Messenger
At least this would have temporarily stopped the Barnett’s from exploiting and abusing children at their wretched brick works.