Although unrelated to swimming, we felt it was important to present this page to evidence things that occurred during the Victoria Era that are contradictory to our present way of thinking of that period. One of the hardest facts for people that live in the 21st century to believe is that during the Victoria Era men would often be stark naked in the presence of women in open venues such as swimming areas like the seaside, or, as this page reveals, in the work place. The Victorian Era is perhaps best known as a period of extreme conservatism in many things, particularly in dress. Under Queen Victoria's rule, women rarely dressed in a manner that would reveal even their ankles, and men dressed equally conservative wearing waist coats and hats whenever in public.
But one area where by even today's standard would be considered extremely immodest practices was in the workplace, and most notably, the coal mines. During the 19th century, men worked deep in coal mines throughout the Yorkshire and Wales. Because of the intense heat in these underground shafts, men often worked completely stark naked. Some also attribute the nudity because of how men were compensated and the tight spaces they had to navigate. During this period, men were compensated by the ton of coal they procured, not by the hour. Clothes would get caught on surrounding rocks, and although they risked getting their skin scraped, men learned that working totally nude allowed them better maneuverability and they could work faster producing more coal. In addition, washing machines were not invented, and by not working in clothes, they could bathe upon exiting the mine and thus avoid the effort and cost of continually maintaining their clothes in a clean condition.
Although male coal miners working nude is well documented, what is less documented is that during the Victorian Era, females of all ages worked in the same coal mines with the men. One such article that discusses this phenomenon was published by Fordham University in New York. The article recites the UK's Parliamentary Papers, 1842, Vol XVI, pp. 24, 196, which evidences how pervasive it was for men to be completely nude while in the presence of these women.
Excerpts from this historical documentation are as follows:
"...In England, exclusive of Wales, it is only in some of the colliery districts of Yorkshire and Lancashire that female Children of tender age and young and adult women are allowed to descend into the coal mines and regularly to perform the same kinds of underground work, and to work for the same number of hours, as boys and men; but in the East of Scotland their employment in the pits is general; and in South Wales it is not uncommon.
West Riding of Yorkshire: Southern Part - In many of the collieries in this district, as far as relates to the underground employment, there is no distinction of sex, but the labour is distributed indifferently among both sexes, except that it is comparatively rare for the women to hew or get the coals, although there are numerous instances in which they regularly perform even this work. In great numbers of the coalpits in this district the men work in a state of perfect nakedness, and are in this state assisted in their labour by females of all ages, from girls of six years old to women of twenty-one..."
and...
"....In the Flockton and Thornhill pits the system is even more indecent: for though the girls are clothed, at least three-fourths of the men for whom they "hurry" work stark naked, or with a flannel waistcoat only, and in this state they assist one another to fill the corves 18 or 20 times a day: I have seen this done myself frequently.
When it is remembered that these girls hurry chiefly for men who are not their parents; that they go from 15 to 20 times a day into a dark chamber (the bank face), which is often 50 yards apart from any one, to a man working naked, or next to naked, it is not to be supposed but that where opportunity thus prevails sexual vices are of common occurrence. Add to this the free intercourse, and the rendezvous at the shaft or bullstake, where the corves are brought, and consider the language to which the young ear is habituated, the absence of religious instruction, and the early age at which contamination begins, and you will have before you, in the coal-pits where females are employed, the picture of a nursery for juvenile vice which you will go far and we above ground to equal."
The entire document can be found at this link: