On 21 Dec 2020 Ann-Marie Hamblett wrote on West-19963: in the old day kids used to leave school about 14 and 15 and have a job
George, born in Sheffield in 1846 was very lucky if he was able to stay on at school to the age of 14. In England, the mininum age to work in a factory was raised to 9 in 1833 and an act of 1842 prevented children under 10 working in mines but younger children still worked in other jobs. Some of my 19th century ancestors were working in the fields at 9 and one little girl is recorded as a lace maker, aged 5. It wasn't until 1878 that the minimum age for a child to start work was 10. https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/child-labour
My father, born in 1928 left school at 14, the school leaving age wasn't raised to 15 until the post WW2 education act of 1945.
Child labour in Sheffield Steel works https://www.mylearning.org/resources/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-young-sheffield-steel-worker-in-victorian-times
