On her history blog on Wrexham's women's' history, Georgina Gittins has posted on "‘The Blue Books’ and Wrexham’s ‘immoral’ pit-head women". She begins:
"The Report into the State of Education in Wales, of 1847 – aka “The Blue Books” was an “audit” of all Welsh schools and a commentary of the social conditions of each area. It was compiled by three Commissioners who were educated middle-class English men who spoke no Welsh and understood little of Welsh culture.
They must have been glad to leave Wrexham, judging by their account of its social conditions in Part III, pages 64-5¹:
They painted a dreadful picture of the poverty, poor housing and social conditions of our working-class families but singled out young women and girls who worked at pit-heads for particular criticism. Any girl or woman prepared to engage in hard physical labour alongside men obviously had low morals and made poor wives. They were the cause of ‘marital distress’ by their lack of skills “in housewifery or economy” and their immorality led to children born out of wedlock. Women doing hard physical work alongside men was never acceptable at this time.
You can read the whole post here: wrexhamwomenshistory.wordpress.com/