The employment of women and children in agriculture: A reassessment of agricultural gangs in nineteenth-century Norfolk

This article examines one of the most infamous forms of rural labour in nin eteenth-century Norfolk, the agricultural gang. Using Parliamentary Papers as its source, the paper argues that some previous interpretations of this form of organized labour have both exaggerated the scale of ganging in the county, and misrepresented the composition of agricultural gangs. It will b e shown that, far from exploiting the cheap labour of young children and ad ult women across Norfolk, by the 1860s, agricultural gangs mainly consisted of a youthful workforce and were regionally concentrated int he west of th e county. It calls for a more considered approach to using Parliamentary Pa pers to prevent the perpetuation of generalizations concerning female and c hild labour in the nineteenth-century countryside.