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THIS PROGRAMME - THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: MAN AND MANUFACTURE |
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Melvyn Bragg follows his long historical exploration of the Routes of English with Voices of the Powerless, in which he explores the lives of the ordinary working men and women of Britain at six critical moments across the last 1,000 years.
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN WOOD: AN OLD AND WELL KNOWN BRADFORDIAN
READING ONE
I was born at Allerton, near Bradford, on the 7th day of May, 1802. I was the second son of Titus Wood, who was by trade a hand-loom weaver.
When about six years of age I was sent to a cotton factory, and, although I was of such a tender age, I was treated there by the overlooker in a most brutal manner. I had only been a factory hand about four weeks when my mother, on washing me on the Sunday morning, was quite shocked to see the discolouration of my back as the result of a flogging I had received.
READING TWO
I need scarcely say that all the hand-loom weavers did their work at their own homes, many of which were cottages connected with farm buildings. Some of them were of a mean description, consisting only of one storey and one room, for which they paid a rent of from thirty to forty shillings a year.
The furniture in these cottages consisted of one or two looms, a bobbin wheel, a half headed turn up bedstead, the bed itself being made of chaff, instead of feathers or flocks, a round table standing on three legs, a few turned unpainted chairs, an old chest, and a cradle. Very few indeed were possessed of a clock or any kind, or a chest of drawers.
READING THREE
Their food was of the plainest description. For breakfast they had oatmeal water porridge and blue milk; dinner consisted of boiled potatoes and fried bacon; sometimes they had their potatoes served out in the true Irish fashion, with the 'jackets' on. At 'tea-time,' they had a supply of mint tea, sweetened with treacle, which they drank out of a black pint pot; to this they had a quantity of oatcake slightly covered with bacon-drip.
HOME MEMORIES AND RECOLLECTIONS OF A LIFE: BY BEN BRIERLEY
READING ONE
Factory operatives of the present day have no idea of the hardships endured by those of their class from forty to fifty years ago. At that time there was scarcely any limit to the hours of labour. It was common enough to start the engine at half-past five, and not leave off until seven. The mills of that period were low, and badly ventilated. In some of them gas had not been introduced. In the one I worked at, candles were used, and were so scantily distributed as only to 'make darkness visible.'
Winter was a dreadful time in those days. If the house-fire had gone out at night we had no means of lighting it in the morning except by enclosing a candle in a home-made paper lantern, and going about the neighbourhood in search of an accessible fire. If none could be found at that early hour we had to encounter the severest weather, sometimes fasting, and often without having had anything warm.
READING TWO
I was now earning seven-and-sixpence a week, and things were looking up. But this gleam of prosperity soon became obscured. Work in 'shrouds' fell off, and silk was no better, if not worse. Having no other work to do I employed myself in dragging a wagon laden with coals from the Limeside coal pits, a distance of nearly a mile; having to go twice for a 'tub', for which I received threepence remuneration.
THE DIARY OF JOHN KITSON
READING ONE
Begin here. I, John Kitson, was born at Bell Hill, September 1781, a Little below Haworth, of poor parents, in Yorkshire and when I was about five years of age I began spinning worsted yarn and had five hanks set for my work a day. From thence, we went to live at Haworth Hall. I span there till I was about seven years of age and I had seven hanks for my work.
Then I left there and went to a mill called Wright Mill. There I went to work near three years. In the night then they took me out to make up twist and I did that near two years. When I was about 16 years of age I left mill and began to learn to weave - I believe we lived at Mill Hill then - and I was a weaver near 5 years. Then I thought I would learn to comb.
THE MARCROFT FAMILY - BY WILLIAM MARCROFT
READING ONE
At this period the cotton mills worked twelve hours per day for the first five days and nine hours on the Saturday, after which the machinery had to be cleaned, which often caused the workpeople to remain in the mill until five or six o'clock on the Saturday evening - thus sixty-nine hours per week was the working time. In addition, the mills worked much overtime, and some cotton mills worked night and day with two sets of work people. There were no short-timers, no matter however young were the boys or girls, and also no factory inspectors.
The overlooker had a long strap hung up, and if anything went wrong, according to his views, by either a boy or a girl, that noted strap was struck about their head, arms, or back, and often a puncing with the foot in the bargain.
READING TWO
My lot was one of constant disappointment and toil. It was a hard fate, but I bore it in the hope of a release at some not far distant day. The family had become so poor that my clothes had to be made out of other people's clothing. I had no knowledge of new stockings. My feet were covered with stockings made from men or women's stockings, with flannel bottoms sewed in. When going to my work I had often to suffer the abuse of persons pulling at my trousers' back part, because of their being so wide. They would say, 'Thou hast room enough for a half a score of potatoes.'
READING THREE
I had to go to throstle-piecing at Mr Edmund Taylor's cotton mill, Long Field, Heywood. A plan was adopted to clean the teeth of the wheels with a hard brush when the machinery was at work; a very dangerous practice.
On one unfortunate Thursday I had my hand drawn into the wheels, which broke three fingers and a thumb on the left hand. I was hurried off to Mr Foster, the mill doctor, who happened to be at home. He examined the crushed hand and said, 'There are three fingers and a thumb that will have to come off; they are so injured they will grow no more.' 'But,' said a person standing by, 'whatever must the lad do for a living?'
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Audio Help
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DON'T MISS |
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Thursday 9.00-9.45am, rpt 9.30-10.00pm. Melvyn Bragg explores the history of ideas.
Listen again online or download the latest programme as an mp3 file.
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RELATED PROGRAMMES |
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This Sceptred Isle
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USEFUL LINKS |
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www.bbc.co.uk/history
news.bbc.co.uk
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PRESENTER |
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| Melvyn Bragg |
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Melvyn Bragg presents In Our Time for BBC Radio 4, a series where he and his guests discuss the "Big Ideas" of cultural or scientific significance.
He also presented The Routes of English, his millennial series celebrating 1,000 years of the English language.
Melvyn Bragg was born in 1939 in Wigton, Cumbria - where many of his books are set. He won a scholarship to Oxford to read history, and in 1961 he gained a coveted traineeship with the BBC.
He has presented a number of television series including: Read All about It, Two Thousand Years, and Who's Afraid of the Ten Commandments? and createdThe South Bank Show.
Melvyn presented Start the Week between 1988 and 1998. In his 1998 series On Giant's Shoulders he interviewed scientists about their eminent predecessors.
As well as presenting for Radio 4, he is Controller of Arts for London Weekend Television. In 1998 he was made a life peer. He's written 17 novels, the latest of which, The Soldier's Return, won the WH Smith Literary Award.
Melvyn Bragg was made a Life Peer in 1998 and he took the title of Baron Bragg of Wigton in the County of Cumbria.
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