THE ARKWRIGHT SOCIETY’S INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION CONFERENCE AT CROMFORD MILLS.
HOW DID MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN FARE IN THE DAWN OF MODERN CAPITALISM? WHAT EFFECT DID NEW WAYS OF WORK HAVE ON THE BODIES OF WORKERS? WHAT EDUCATION DID THE WORKERS RECEIVE? WHEN AND HOW DID THEY GET LEGAL PROTECTION?
These are some of the subjects being discussed at the 5th Arkwright Society’s Industrial Revolution Conference taking place on Saturday 29 September 2018. Leading experts on the Industrial Revolution will join us at the iconic Cromford Mills to give their views on the time when Britain changed dramatically, and what this meant for all workers.
At this time of major change, women and children often moved from the informal family-based workforce to a more structured working environment in factories.
More money was flowing into pockets, but what was the physical cost to workers’ bodies? Especially among the C18th and C19th male metal workers in Sheffield and Birmingham where they were described as ‘crippled and blackened with smoke’ but also ‘heroic and brawny.’
Other topics covered are: The Makeshift Economy of the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Framework- Knitters; Stories of the Mill from the historical adviser for the National Trust at Quarry Bank Mill’; Morality or Welfare? The Legal Regulation of Women and Children at Work; Mind over Matter: The Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution; Child Readers and their Books in the Nineteenth Century.
The venue is Cromford Mills, location of the first successful water-powered cotton spinning machines in the world: Cromford Mills, Mill Lane, Cromford, Derbyshire DE4 3RQ.
The conference ticket price is £45 (£35 if booked before the end of August). To book call 01629 823256 or email events@arkwrightsociety.org.uk The price includes lunch and a chance to see Cromford Mills, where successful cotton spinning by water power began for the first time in 1771 and sparked a world -wide revolution in the textile industry.
Events at Cromford Mills are part of a multi-million pound restoration of the site funded by National Lottery players through a Heritage Lottery Fund grant of £4 million. Other charitable donors towards the project include The Monument Trust, AIM Biffa Award, The Garfield Weston Foundation, J P Getty Jr Charitable Trust, Headley Trust, Sylvia Waddilove Foundation, The Wolfson Foundation, and the Architectural Heritage Fund.
Further details can be found on the Cromford Mills Website at www.cromfordmills.org.uk , or call Cromford Mills on 01629 8263256. Follow us on Facebook: Cromford Mills and Twitter @Cromford Mills for updates