# @wild_history_uk on Instagram

- **Type:** Video
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DXZs-dpiIHf
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/64413655-wild-history-uk-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/11ada31681.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-04-21T17:12:36.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Wild History Shocking Stories From the Past (@wild_history_uk) — https://gondola.cc/wild_history_uk

## Caption

This is Martha.
She’s only ten years old.
Cheshire, 1870.
Deep underground in the salt mines, Martha carries heavy baskets of salt up narrow, slippery tunnels. Salt dust burns her eyes, her throat, her lungs. She’s been doing this brutal work since she was eight.
Her father was crushed to death in the same mine two years earlier. Her mother is too ill to work. Martha is the only one left feeding the family.
The tunnels are ancient and rotting. One day the roof gives way without warning. Tons of rock and salt crash down, burying her alive.
She screams for help until the crushing weight slowly ends her life.
This was official British child labour law.
Cheshire, 1870. When ten-year-old girls were legally crushed to death in salt mines.
This was legal.
Drop a 🧂 for Martha if this makes your blood boil.
Which Victorian horror do you want next? Comment the number or name 👇
#VictorianChildhood #CrimesThatWereLegal #SaltMineChild #ChildLabour #ThisWasLegal

## Stats

- **Views:** 1,698
- **Likes:** 182
- **Shares:** 0
- **Comments:** 8

## Tags

saltminechild, victorianchildhood, thiswaslegal, childlabour, crimesthatwerelegal

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