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Question: What was Manchester, England like in the Victorian times!?
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Despite the growing wealth due to trade and commerce, prosperity lay in the hands of very few of Manchester's residents!. The working people, who actually produced the wealth, lived, worked and died in conditions of the most desperate poverty and degradation!. Innumerable reports and surveys were carried out during the 19th century, and they all told much the same story : poor wages, impossibly long working hours, dangerous and unsanitary working conditions, even more unsanitary dwellings, little or no health provisions, high infant mortality and a short life expectancy!. A map of Manchester showing age of death figures in the mid-nineteenth century revealed that life expectancy was directly related to wealth!. Put simply, the poor died younger and the rich lived longer!. At that time, Ancoats was the death black spot of Manchester!.
Records show that by 1830 there were over 560 cotton mills in Lancashire, employing more than 110,000 workers, of which 35,000 were children - some as young as six years of age!. Wages for children were about 2s!.3d!. (two shillings and three pence) per week (about 11? new pence), but adults were paid about 10 times more!. Hence, it made economic sense to employ as many children and as few adults as possible, and this is exactly what happened!. Youngest children were employed to crawl beneath machinery (while still in operation) to gather up loose cotton - they were known as "scavengers" and many died by getting caught up in machinery!. Those that survived to adulthood had permanent stoops or were crippled from the prolonged crouching that the job entailed!. The typical working day was 14 hours long, but many were much longer, as, without regulation, unscrupulous mill owners could demand any terms they liked!.
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Manchester was a thriving centre of the textile industry, with many mills manufacturing cotton, wool, and silk!. Living conditions for the poor were very bad, with shoddy housing and poor wages!. In 1846 three public parks were opened in Manchester to be the 'lungs of the city' where people of all classes could walk and relax!. After the 1851 Museums and Public Libraries act was pased, Manchester was the first city to build a public library where books could be borrowed for free!. Manchester was made a city in 1853!.

While it is true that conditions in the mills were very harsh, laws were passed in the course of the century to limit the hours worked by women and children, and the age at which children could start work!. By the time Queen Victoria came to the throne, there was already legislation in place to protect children!. The Cotton Mills Regulation Act of 1825 limited children under 16 to a 12-hour working day!. The Factory Act of 1833, prohibited the employment of children under 9, and restricted children under 16 to a nine-hour day!. In 1843, when Victoria had been Queen for six years, another Factory Act imposed a 12-hour working day for women, and 6-hour day for children aged 8-13!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

You see like manchester was at that time full of of old and historical buildings!.It was a very happy and silent town!.Everybody enjoyed over there!.But some people say that ghosts are there in some renovated houses!.(people like me)!.I hope that we don't go back to the past!.I would like to live in the 21st century with my parents itself!.directly,if i say manchester was an old,silent,melodious,sweet and historical city in the victorian times!.That's all i have to say!.Bye!mwaah!(kiss)love you!(don't feel shyWww@QuestionHome@Com

visit www!.manchester!.gov!.uk and ask their library service for local history information sources!.Www@QuestionHome@Com