ABSTRACT
A gradual mechanization of farm operations, with farmers using horse-drawn cultivators, drills, hoes and reapers, and steam-powered threshers and barn machines, was probably only a minor factor in the change. More influential were the limited employment opportunities on the land, the lack of prospects, the heavy hand of some squires and farmers, the lowness of the wages and the scarcity and badness of rural housing. The consequences of urban improvements for overcrowding were felt in all the major cities where old slum quarters were pulled down for street widening, railway stations, omnibus and tram depots, schools and hotels and town halls. Recognition of working people's needs gradually extended to include public slipper-baths, wash houses, and public libraries. The industrialization of Britain had made it possible for a population increased more than three-fold in the course of a century to subsist: the majority at substantially improved living standards, a few in great wealth, a large minority in continuing and hopeless deprivation.
