During the Victorian period Britain continued to move towards large-scale industrialisation, and by the twentieth century the factory reigned supreme. In this book Trevor May explores the lives of the men, women and children who toiled in these factories, producing everything from hats, cloth and dinner-plates to beer and locomotives. It was a grim and often perilous existence of long hours, meagre pay and exhausting labour ù and one into which many children were plunged at a young age. Generously illustrated with old photographs, artwork and pieces of ephemera, Victorian Factory Life highlights and explains the social iniquities that enabled the prodigious growth of British industry. Book jacket.