lancashire roots moss 6.1 reformat

Lancashire Roots
a mixture of laudanum and treacle. The children were too drugged to eat and
became malnourished. Some died from starvation; others grew up sickly and
stunted.
Following years of campaigning, the working day in textile mills for women
and young persons under 18 was reduced to a maximum of ten hours in 1847.
Factory inspectors interviewed workers
after the new legislation was introduced,
with mixed responses. One married
family and no longer paid her neighbours
however, said that she would rather work
12 hours as she needed the extra money;
her tailor husband was often unemployed.
By 1873, over 26 per cent of women working in cotton mills nationally were
married, and three quarters of them were of childbearing age. Factory inspector
Robert Baker pointed out that, if these women were excluded from the
workplace, they could not support their children or pay for their education. He
to stop women returning to work until several months after the birth of each
child. But he did not suggest how they could be supported while their babies
were tiny (there was no statutory maternity benefit until 1911).
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