Could You Survive as a Victorian Factory Worker?
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Published 2023-03-20
As new technologies emerged throughout the 19th century, and the use of water and steam power became commonplace, millions of rural workers, including thousands of children, descended on the growing industrial towns to work in mills and factories. Northern cities such as Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield became industrial powerhouses, exporting textiles such as cotton, wool, silk and linen worldwide to Britain's expanding empire. As well as producing textiles, these establishments would generate enormous profits for a new class of industrialists and entrepreneurs.
But what was ordinary life like for a Victorian factory worker? What were the conditions and safety standards like in a mill in Victorian England? And how did their lives compare to ours today?
In episode one of this two-part series, History Hit presenters Luke Tomes and Louee Dessent delve deep into the historic spirit of the 1800s industrial revolution, filling the shoes of a wealthy Victorian industrialist and a poor Victorian labourer respectively at National Trust's Quarry Bank Mill in Cheshire, built in 1784 by the renowned entrepreneur Samuel Greg.
Together, using contemporary accounts and testimony, they'll explore how your experience of the industrial revolution could be very different, depending on what you did for a living... and your place in society.
So the question is, could you survive as a Victorian factory worker? Watch the video to find out!
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00:00 Introduction
01:51 Quarry Bank Mill
04:12 Mill Workers
06:28 Water Wheel
07:42 Cotton Mill Block
09:33 Spinning Mule
15:04 Child Indenture Contract (1785)
17:31 Working Conditions
19:47 Factory Discipline
23:18 Workers' Toilet
23:57 'Factory Time'
25:54 Accidents and Injuries
30:21 Workers' Rights
32:05 The Atlantic Slave Trade
34:26 Next Time...
All Comments (21)
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Part Two has just been uploaded guys! We explore the living conditions of poor industrial workers and rich industrialists 🏭 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p6ltR49zQU
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This makes me appreciate all the labour protection laws we have today
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When people romantize the Victorian Era and wish they could have lived during that period always assume they would be part of the aristocracy class when in reality this would be their life.
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My great grandmother was a mill worker in Yorkshire and she said. "Death was improper in the mill as the cotton would need to be cleaned or discarded"
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As someone who works in one of the few textile based factories left in the US, it’s absolutely astonishing to see the machinery and layout of the factory floors. Now, we work with wool as opposed to cotton, but the carding machines look identical to what we work with. It’s a nice touch to talk about the humidity level being essential to the fabric performing as needed. I can tell you, even with all the regulations and workers rights that are in place now, it’s a tough job. Enormous respect to the folks who worked there and did the job. They walked so we could run.
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The conditions in the coal mines of England were even worse for children. Some as young as 3 years old, according to the Yorkshire section of the 1842 Commission
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HistoryHit, making a solid advert for Trade Unions here...
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We can all agree that although the victorian london aesthetic is nice, actually living in that period fucking sucks.
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I visited the mill on school trips multiple times as a child, I've never forgotten the experience days I had there even as a 26 year old man who has kids himself now. As a child, I remember the depressing and unpleasant feelings those machine halls had. Now, being a father myself, I can't imagine the desperation parents of the time must have had to force their children into work. Makes me feel very lucky to live in the 21st century, and I have great respect for all of our ancestors who worked in the Mills.
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I never met my great-grandmother, (my mom's grandma). I was told that in the Victorian era she worked in a hat factory, cutting strings off the hat's that were already finished, to be sent to the shops, or she would cut the ribbon to put onto the hats. She was only 5. She was so tiny that she had to stand on top of an apple box. Though we are still going through a lot of tough things today, we have to remember that we have come a long way from the times of my great grandmother, and what these people went through. sometimes we forget on how lucky we are in many ways today.
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People look back at eras like this through rose tinted glasses a bit too much. Life was tough for 90 percent of people, in many cases worse than tough.
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I would argue that rudimentary hunter/gatherer life was leaps and bounds better than so called "civilization" in its early days... I simply cannot comprehend what was the purpose of life for these workers...
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About 20 years ago I worked in a mattress factory from the 1920s or so using open drive belt driven cotton batting machines. The air full of dust as the sunlight steamed in. I am currently a manager in a sweatshop style clothing store. No chairs or stools for workers. Clothing packed in with almost no room for the workers or customers. No windows. 6 days a week. Denver Colorado USA.
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This is exactly why it's so important for workers to unionise and stick up for themselves. Business owners would have no problem continuing to treat workers like this today, if they could get away with it.
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I love how the thumbnail says "you'll work til you drop" I do that every day at my current job.
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North and South (the BBC adaption) is a wonderful drama that doesn't shy away from depicting the difficulties Mill workers suffered during this time and their fight to change it. It's a fantastic series.
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I love the Victorian episodes. Luke and Louee do such a good job of making history fascinating and enjoyable.
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Not with the length of the working day, but with the retirement age going up and up it seems like "You'll work til you drop" is kinda coming back. 🤣😂
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Some of the talk about conditions I find genuinely funny. I know people today who work 12 hr shifts 6 days a week (6 nights, 6 days with one day break to adjust) in an enourmous factory which is freezing in winter and baking in summer, doing really tough work for not much pay.
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I worked at a place just a few years ago that operated exactly like this. No joke. The only difference is that they didn’t employ children.
