I have 'Four Pence a Day' in a book somewhere (can't put my hand on it this very moment) but I know the song is listed as traditional, having been collected in the Middleton -in -Teesdale area and referring to the lead mining industry.

A visit to the Killhope Wheel Mining Museum will show you the work of the young 'Washer Laddies'. It was a very hard life undertaken by women and those children not old enough to go down the mine.