Introduction

So many books have been written on the Industrial Revolution in Britain that it may be thought that there is hardly room for another. Should an apology be thought necessary, it may be said that the present volume is an attempt to go some way towards filling what must surely appear to be a somewhat surprising gap in the literature. Its aim and purpose is to enable the men and women—and, let it be said, the children and young people—who lived in and through the Industrial Revolution in this country and who had their part, large or small, in its development and helped to give it direction and impetus, to describe their experiences in their own words.