Gangs

Gangs, AGRICULTURAL, a name specially given to companies of women and boys and girls, brought together for labour in the fen-districts of England, or the low and level tracts which lie south of the Wash. The reclaimed land was mainly cultivated by labourers from the villages, which are numerous on the high ground that borders it. To save expense, the labourers on the reclaimed land here consisted, as much as possible, of women, girls, and boys, working in gangs. An act of 1867 provided that no woman or child was to be employed in the same gang with men or boys, and that no woman or girl was to be employed in any gang under a male gangmaster, unless a woman licensed to act as superintendent was also present with the gang. See FACTORY ACTS.