Social reforms

• Social reformers- Octavia Hill

  • housing for the urban poor
  • Appalled by the slums
  • Bought run down apartment blocks and renovated them
  • Rented out to poor tenants
  • Ran courses on health and household management
• Elizabeth fry

  • Prison reformer
  • Quaker
  • Lives of women in prison
  • Clothes prisoners and trained them in useful work
  • Set up a school for prisoners and they children
  • gave evidence to parliament about conditions
  • Influenced Peel to reform prison conditions 1823
• Lord Shaftesbury

  • MP in 1826- four committees for social reform
  • Led the chimney sweep ban campaign
  • 1875 chimney sweepers ended the use o0f children
  • Supported the public health campaign
  • Supported factory reform
  • Improved treatment of mentally ill
  • Founded ragged schools
• Impact of social reformers

  Education

  > 1870- Education act set up school districts

  > 1874 5000 new schools founded

  > Education became compulsory

  Public health

  > Public health acts passed in response to unsanitary living

  Housing

  > 1875 public health act
• Why did campaigners want to reform factories

  • dangerous conditions
  • Fines for talking/lateness and dirty machines
  • Child labour
  • Low wages
• Opposition to reform


  Laissez faire - government had no right to interfere

  > Spending money on workers, owners did not want to reduce profits

  > 1819 banned children under nine from working, widely ignored
• methods campaigning for change

  > Richard Oastler 1789-1861 was a tory, opposed universal suffrage and trade unions

  > 10 hour movement- kids don't work over 10 hrs
• Impact: new laws on working conditions

  • 1833 factory act- earl of shaft bury banned children under nine from working
  • 1847 10 hrs act