Interview - Tony Robinson / Worst Children's Jobs in History

An interview with Tony Robinson about his book ‘The Worst Children’s Jobs in History’ (interviewed November 2005)

Here’s the good news: there’s no more school ever again. Now here’s the bad news: you’ve got to get a job. Tony Robinson knows a thing or two about children’s jobs, so take your pick from these:

 • Fuller’s apprentice – spend all day treading in a barrel full of someone else’s wee.

• Climbing boy – disappear up a sooty chimney to sweep it clean.

• Whipping boy – buddy-up with a prince, but if he gets an answer wrong, you’ll be the one that gets whipped.

• Tooth donor – let a dentist pull one of your teeth out, so he can stick it into someone else’s mouth.

• Gong-scourer – be a toilet-cleaner, in the dark!

 These are just some of the rotten jobs Tony Robinson describes in his new book ‘The Worst Children’s Jobs in History’. We’re so used to protecting children today – over-protecting some would say – that it’s hard to believe that these awful jobs once existed. But, they did.

“I knew about some rotten jobs, like being a chimney sweep,” says Tony. “But I didn’t have any idea of the extent of the horribleness throughout history.”

Actor, broadcaster, and presenter of ‘Time Team’, Channel 4’s long-running archaeology programme, Tony takes readers on a guided tour through all the lousiest places for a boy or girl to work.

He might have had some idea of the jobs children did, but when he started looking closely, he was in for a surprise. “I never realised that when factories were originally built, there were places in them that were so tiny only children could work in them.”

Time moves on and, thankfully, we’ve said goodbye to the climbing boy and his like. But, then again, were things really that bad for children in the past? “You have to remember,” says Tony, “that just because we think a job was grim, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the people who did it felt the same. Before there were lemon-scented chemicals, people used horse pee for a variety of jobs, but were used to the smell. So we shouldn’t necessarily get too dewy-eyed.”

And if there was a worst job in history you wouldn’t want to do Tony, what would it be? “I wouldn’t fancy being stuck as a rower in a Roman slave ship!”