Factory Life
History: KS3, topic 11.1.5
Factory Life
The invention of new and efficient machines led to factories springing up across Britain, in which thousands of workers would produce cotton to be exported. The hours were long and the work was gruelling.
Urban migration
- As factories sprang up across Britain, many people flocked from the countryside to the growing cities in search of a stable job.
- However, the factories were not pleasant places to work.
Conditions
- Hours were long, with labourers sometimes working up to fourteen hours a day, six days a week.
- Pay was minimal, and families depended on their children to work as well, since they needed the extra money.
- In the cotton mills especially, the cotton fibres and dust from the machines irritated the lungs of factory workers, and even caused lung diseases.
Rules
- There were strict rules in the factories, and these were enforced by the factory owner or the foreman.
- Workers who broke these rules would have their wages cut, or risked being beaten or sacked.
Children in the factories
- Children in the factories faced dismal conditions.
- They were often beaten for not working hard enough, carried out harsh physical labour that their undeveloped bodies were not able to cope with, and risked losing limbs from the moving machinery.
- From around the 1830s, efforts were made to improve conditions in factories, particularly in regards to children.
Test yourself on Factory Life
When did efforts begin to improve conditions in factories, particularly regarding children?