From around 1750 to 1900 Britain went through major changes or transformation in industry, agriculture and transportation that affected everybody’s lives. For some it generally improved their lives, however not all were so lucky. The industrial revolution brought with it many changes good for some and bad for others. Between 1760 and 1880 there was a huge growth in the size of cities and a population shift as people started to move into the more industrialised areas in search of work. This was because of the transformation of agriculture. Landowners had now decided to ‘enclose’ their lands so as they realised they could make a profit from selling food as the population of Britain was increasing. Enclosure improved the ways of farming …show more content…

Many factories or mills had no sanitation facilities. There were no supplies for those who got injured and sick. The conditions of the workers' life would soon lead to the growth of labour movements in the form of trade unions. As workers moved into towns, the factory owners built houses for them to live in. There were no planning regulations for the factory owners to follow ,so they could build whatever kinds of houses they wanted. Obviously the owners wanted their workers to live in reasonable housing, but they did not want to spend more than they had to. Buying land cost money so it was important to build as many houses on one piece of land as possible. This meant the houses were built back to back in long rows. There were no gardens and very few windows. Rooms were small and since families were usually large, conditions were cramped. Very few workers had running water, so people had to fetch water from a pipe at the end of the street. There were also no toilets. It was not uncommon for whole streets to share one toilet. This toilet would not be a flushing toilet. Instead it would be wooden seat over a hole called a ‘cess pit’. Men would be employed to empty the cess pit. At this time there was also an improvement to the transportation around Britain. Britain went from canals to railways and trains. The very first railways were on the coalfields were horses pulled coal wagons along wooden rails. Coal mines had steam engines too but these were used to pump