The Industrial Revolution: life in a factory town
History · Key Stage 2 · The School
Work moves out of the home
Before the INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION, many people worked from home. They spun or wove cloth by hand. Water wheels, and later steam engines, could drive many machines at once. But only in one place: a FACTORY. Workers left the countryside. They moved to new industrial towns to find work. Many families left the land, because changes in farming had pushed people off it.
Long days, young workers
Factory shifts were often twelve hours or more. Children as young as five or six worked too. Some historians say their small hands suited certain machines well. In some mills, machinery had no safety guards. Accidents were common. A few laws from 1802 and 1819 tried to limit child work. They were barely enforced. Some children lost fingers, or worse, in the machines. Hardly anyone checked on their safety.
Towns that grew too fast
Industrial towns grew far faster than anyone could plan for. Housing was crowded and cheaply built. Clean water was often missing entirely. So were proper drains. Disease spread easily in these conditions. Death rates in factory towns were far higher than in the countryside. Neighbours often shared outdoor toilets and a water supply.
The 1833 Factory Act banned children under nine from working in most textile mills. It limited hours for older children too. It also created FACTORY INSPECTORS. The government appointed them, and they were paid to actually check that mill owners obeyed the new rules. It took years of campaigning. It did not fix everything at once. Only four inspectors were appointed at first. But earlier laws, from 1802 and 1819, had been barely enforced. This was the first law to bring in inspectors chosen by the government, not by local magistrates.