The Industrial Revolution

Between 1750 and 1900 Britain went through a huge change in how and where men and women worked and lived. Students of history call it the Industrial Revolution.

In a few trades at first, people started to make things with machines, instead of by hand. The machines were in mills and factories, so men and women (and children) worked there, not in workshops or in their homes. Before long, power (first water, then steam) was used to drive the machines.

Farming ceased to be the main work of the people. Its place was taken by industry. And as the mills and factories were mainly in towns, that is where people had to live. And finally, the population rose - in 1900 it was six times as large as 150 years before.

Walter Robson: Britain 1750 - 1900; Oxford University Press, 1993, page 14