7.00 am get up

1
? Starter activity

• Your task
• Draw a timeline showing a typical school day.
  Include breaks and travelling times as well as
  leisure time after school and the time you
  normally go to bed.

10.45- 11.05 am break
7.00 am get up
8.45 am start school
2
Compare your daily routine with that of a factory
girl working in Lancashire 1820. How are they
different?
3
What was life really like for Victorian children?
4

• In the nineteenth century many young children
  worked in the fields. Other poor children
  laboured in textile factories or in the mines to
  help with the family income. Gradually new laws
  such as the Factory Act of 1833 changed all this.
  Today we would be shocked at the idea of children
  children as young as nine working for twelve
  hours a day in a mill or a mine or a field it
  would be against the law!
• Minds Machines, published 1999

5
? Your task
Task sheet

• Watch the film clip from Simon Schamas History
  of Britain series and answer questions on the
  task sheet.

6
? Your task
Teachers notes

• Why is it difficult for modern historians to find
  out what factory conditions were really like?
• Read through the sources 4 -17 on p.17-19 of
  Peace and War and complete a chart similar to
  the one below with 3 columns 18 rows.

7
Did conditions get better?

• 1831 govt. enquiry into childrens working
  conditions in factories
• 1833 first of the Factory Acts passed (no
  children under 9, limit of 9 hours work 2 hours
  schooling)
• 1842 Mines Act banned employment of women
  children (under 10) in coal mines

8
? Your task

• It is 1831. The govt has decided to set up a
  commission to investigate working conditions of
  children. You belong to a pressure group headed
  by one of the leading campaigners for reform Lord
  Shaftesbury, and want to produce a short film
  highlighting the appalling conditions that
  children worked under in early Victorian
  factories mills. Your film will hopefully
  influence politicians and businessmen into
  improving conditions. Use Photostory and your own
  images, music and commentary to create your film.

9
? Your task

• Imagine there is to be a debate in the House of
  Commons over child labour in Britains factories
  and mills. The resolution is Parliament should
  pass legislation making it illegal for children
  under the age of 12 to work in textile factories.
  Some of you will support the resolution and
  others will be against it. Prepare a speech using
  the writing frame and hold a class debate to see
  which view prevails.

10
Did things change?

• 1819 Factory Act
• 1833 Althorps Factory Act
• 1842 Mines and Colleries Act
• 1844 Grahams Factory Act
• 1847 Fielders Factory Act

Cotton Mill
11
Did things change?
Child labourer in India

• Find out about continuing exploitation of
  children around the world BBC news

12
1819 Factory Act

• No children under 9 to work in factories.
  Children from 9 to 16 allowed to work a maximum
  of 72 hours per week with one and a half hours a
  day for meals.

13
1833 Althorps Factory Act

• Children from 9 to 13 to work a maximum of 42
  hours per week also children aged 13 to 16 to
  work a maximum of 69 hours a week. No night work
  for anybody under the age of 18.

14
1842 Mines and Collieries Act

• Banned all women and children under 10 from
  working underground. No-one under 15 years was to
  work winding gear in mines.

15
1844 Grahams Factory Act

• Minimum age for working in factories reduced to 8
  years old. 8 to 13 years old to work a maximum of
  six and a half hours a day. 13 to 18 year olds to
  work a maximum of 12 hours a day and the same
  applied to women. Safety guards had to be fitted
  to all machines.

16
1847 Fielders Factory Act

• 10 hour day introduced for under 18's and for
  women.