The Industrial Revolution

1. The Industrial Revolution England becomes the Workshop of the World

2. Background • As the number of factories grew people from the countryside began to move into the towns looking for better paid work. • The wages of a farm worker were very low and there were less jobs working on farms because of the invention and use of new machines such as threshers. • Also thousands of new workers were needed to work machines in mills the factory owners built houses for them.

3. Cities • Cities filled to overflowingand London was particularly bad. • At the start of the 19th Century about 1/5 of Britain’s population lived there, but by 1851 half the population of the country had set up home in London. • London, like most cities, was not prepared for this great increase in people. • People crowded into already crowded houses. Rooms were rented to whole families or perhaps several families. • People lived in houses known as ‘back to backs’

5. The Factories • Before factories were invented people mostly worked from home. This was called 'cottage industry' and was part of the domestic system. All members of the family worked together to produce cloth. • By about 1810 powered looms began to be used in factories. Many handloom weavers found it difficult to sell their cloth and were forced to move into the towns with the new factories and mills. • Working in the factories was very different. Rules had to be followed. There were long shifts and few breaks. The mills were very dirty, noisy and hot as well as being very dangerous.

7. The Mills • Check out how cloth was made: http://www.mylearning.org/from-wool-to-cloth/p-2738/ • Children started working in mills from the age of 5 or 6 and usually started out as a 'scavenger' or 'piecer'. • The job of scavenger involved crawling under machinery to pick up loose scraps of cotton or wool. It was a very dangerous job as the children had to crawl under the machinery while it was working. Children got crushed by machinery, lost fingers or limbs, or lost their hair after getting it tangled in the machinery. • A piecer had to watch over power looms and tie any loose threads that got broken by the machinery. • Children were not allowed to stop working, often even to eat, and were expected to work a whole shift without sitting down once. Shifts often lasted over 12 hours, and standing up for that length of time left children with rickets (bowed legs), fallen arches (flat feet) and bad backs, which made standing and walking painful.

9. The Mines 'Their chief occupation is to open and shut doors...by which a current of air is kept in its proper course for the due ventilation of the...mine...the trapper has to sit often exposed to damp completely in the dark and in silence.' • The factory machines worked on steam power, fuelled by coal. This meant that children were employed in the coal mines too, often in dangerous conditions. In 1842 a Royal Commission into the Employment of Children in Mines was set up to investigate working conditions in the mines and these two extracts are taken from the report the Commission produced. • People were scandalised by the conditions described in the report and in 1842 the Act to Prohibit the Employment of Women and Children in the Mines and Collieries was passed. This included the following measures: • Employment of women underground is illegal. • Boys under the age of 10 are no longer to work underground. • Parish apprentices aged 10-18 can continue to work in the mines. '...the lads hurry with a belt and chain on all fours. Thirty-eight years ago they had no belt and chain, but used to run along on one hand and feet, and pull the corves with the other hand; that was much worse for them.'

11. Changes for the Better • It took time for the government to decide that working children ought to be protected by laws as many people did not see anything wrong with the idea of children earning their keep. • They also believed that people should be left alone to help themselves and not expect others to protect or keep them. They felt parents had a right to send their children out to work. • People such as Lord Shaftesbury and Sir Robert Peel worked hard to persuade the public that it was wrong for children to suffer health problems and to miss out on schooling due to work.

12. Have you been listening? • Why did people begin to move to cities in the 18th century? • By 1851 how much of the population of England lived in London? • What conditions did city dwellers have to put up with? • What does the term ‘cottage industry’ mean? • What was a a)scavenger b) piecer? • What were some of the jobs children had to do in the mines? • Name 2 people who worked hard to change the conditions of working children.