IRONBRIDGE

IRONBRIDGE

Ironbridge is a place near Birmingham in the valley of the River Severn.

In this place there is a bridge made of iron made from the grandson of Abraham Darby.

Abraham Darby developed a new method of making iron and this with the invention of the steam engine marked the beginning of the INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION.

Blists Hill is a typical city where you can visit a living museum , here you can see, hear and smell the everyday life of a Victorian industrial town.

In this town there are many factories, mines, pubs

The Industrial Revolution and the Children in the 19^th century

The Industrial Revolution began in the 18^th century.

The first industrial cities were places like Manchester and Birmingham.

With this Revolution there were great changes in the way people lived and worked.

In this period only the children of rich families went to school.

The children of poor families worked in the factories because their owners preferred their because the owners didn't pay them very much.

Some children lived in the workhouse because their parents were ill or in prison.

These children worked from the age of six until the age of twenty-one.

They worked from five o'clock in the morning until ten o'clock in the evening.

They can't they stop to eat, so they ate while they worked.

The place where they work were often dangerous and unhealthy.

The owners hit the children that arrived late.

Some novelist like Charlie Dickens wrote stories about these children (Oliver Twist).

From the 20^th century politicians made laws to prohibit young children's work.

Nowadays all children go to school from the ages of five to eighteen.