Gruelling labour ... and no running water

BRITAIN was the major manufacturing powerhouse of the world during Victorian times but the vast majority of the population were still extremely poor by today’s standards.

Work was very physical with many labouring in industry, construction and mining in the cities and in agriculture in the countryside.

Society had become divided into social classes as the Industrial Revolution took hold and by 1851 the census showed that the urban population was larger than that of rural areas. Factories and workhouses took the place of craft workshops as many towns and cities became centres of industry – often dirty, noisy and overcrowded.

School was not compulsory though well-off boys attended while girls were taught embroidery and music rather than academic subjects.

There was no running water so the poor often had to use cesspits rather than toilets which led to outbreaks of cholera. However, a network of sewers built across London in the 1860s did help to limit deadly water contamination.