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Factory work in Victorian Lancashire |
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Hazards of the work
From the 1830s onwards, cotton factories were regulated more strictly than other British industries under successive Factory Acts. Those of 1847 and 1850 imposed a ten-hour working day and gave factory workers Saturday afternoon off. This heretical government intervention in the labour market was justified by the need to protect women and children from overwork and the moral hazards of the night shift.
Weavers worked in cottages before the rise of factories
© Harris Museum & Art Gallery, Preston |
By the late-19th Century other industries had caught up, and despite the existence of safety regulations there was a high incidence of accidents and industrial disease. Card-room workers were vulnerable to byssinosis, a lung disease, and long-serving mule-spinners risked cancer of the scrotum, through contact with mineral lubricating oils, although many retired with poor eyesight before this became a problem.
Weavers passed on tuberculosis by 'kissing the shuttle' to draw the thread through, and all cotton workers suffered from the winter transition from overheated workplaces (which were made artificially damp in some weaving areas to ease the process) to the chill of the outside world. Local medical officers also blamed working mothers for high infant mortality rates, although it seems that the real reasons lay in cold, damp soils, inadequate housing and sanitary arrangements that encouraged house-flies.
Words: John K Walton - University of Central Lancashire
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