Factories in Britain during Victorian times
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can describe how factories changed Britain during Victorian times, using some paintings from the period as evidence.
Key learning points
- During Victorian times, Britain changed a lot as people left the countryside to work in new factories in towns.
- Some people thought these changes were good; this can be seen in William Wyld's painting 'Manchester from Kersal Moor'.
- He makes the factory chimneys look pretty by putting them next to church spires, and painting golden sunlight on them.
- But these cities and towns were not nice places to live, with lots of crowding, pollution and poor health.
- These poor conditions can be seen in Gustave Doré's engraving 'Over London - By Rail'.
Keywords
Factories - large buildings full of machines where people work making things are called factories
Chimney - chimneys extend out of the roof of a building, they carry smoke from a fire inside the building and allow it to be released into the sky
Spire - a spire is a tall, narrow, pointed structure usually on top of a church tower
Common misconception
Pupils may think that only adults worked at jobs in factories in Victorian times.
In Victorian times, there were no laws stopping children working. Children had to earn money to live, so many of them worked in factories. Since they were young and small, children were useful for getting into tight spaces to clean or fix machines.
Teacher tip
Is there a factory in your local area? Were there factories in the past? Investigate in your locality and find out what might have been made or is made in factories nearby. You might be able to arrange a visit to a historic factory site or for a guest speaker to come to talk to the class.
Content guidance
Depiction or discussion of sensitive content
Supervision
Adult supervision recommended
Licence
Lesson video
Loading...
Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.If you have a lot of money and own many expensive things, you are...
Q2.In Victorian society, classes were based on how wealthy people were.
Q3.Who painted 'Work' in 1863?
Q4.What job did the ‘navvies’ in the painting do?
Q5.Who was the Queen at the time of Victorian society?
Q6.Classes in society were small groups, like classes at school.
Assessment exit quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Only adults worked in factories in Victorian times.
Q2.Match the word to the correct meaning.
Q3.Select all the problems of living in Victorian cities and towns.
Q4.All artists painted pretty pictures of cities in Victorian times.
Q5.Gustave Doré's engraving 'Over London - By Rail' shows a image of London.
Q6.William Wyld's painting 'Manchester from Kersal Moor' shows a image of Manchester.
To help you plan your 2 history lesson on: Factories in Britain during Victorian times, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 2 history lesson on: Factories in Britain during Victorian times, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 1 history lessons from the Queen Victoria: how did Britain change during her lifetime? unit, dive into the full primary history curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.