Factory, mines, public health and education reform 1833-1848

Overview

Recall questions on the limits placed on children's work, the inspectorate that made them real, the report that closed the pits to women, sanitary legislation and the first state grants for schooling.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   Why did the earlier factory acts of 1802 and 1819 achieve so little?

   Model answer

   They applied only to particular kinds of mill and relied on local magistrates, who were often mill-owners themselves, so there was no effective enforcement.

2. 2

   Who was Richard Oastler, and what was his contribution?

   Model answer

   A Tory land steward whose letters of 1830 on Yorkshire slavery compared child labour in the mills to plantation slavery and launched the Ten Hours Movement.

3. 3

   Who led the Ten Hours campaign in the House of Commons?

   Model answer

   Lord Ashley, an MP who sat in the Commons under a courtesy title, later the seventh Earl of Shaftesbury.

4. 4

   State the main provisions of the Factory Act of 1833.

   Model answer

   In textile mills it banned the employment of children under nine, limited those aged nine to twelve to a nine-hour day, limited those aged thirteen to seventeen to twelve hours, and required two hours of schooling a day.

5. 5

   What made the 1833 Act a turning point despite its limits?

   Model answer

   It appointed paid government inspectors with the right to enter mills and prosecute, which created a permanent central power to enforce the law.

6. 6

   Why did the 1833 Act fall short of what the Ten Hours Movement wanted?

   Model answer

   It left adult hours untouched and allowed relays of children, so mills could still run the long day that the campaigners had set out to end.

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