Industrial Revolution - Reading List: Recommended Primary Source Resources

Find out about the impact of the Industrial Revolution and how living and working conditions changed for many in Britain. Political protest and crime and punishment are key themes in our resources for this period.

Happy, healthy and wealthy, or divided, lawless and poor? Explore Victorian Britain.
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In the 17th century, the British Isles were seen as backward, politically unstable and irrelevant to the rest of Europe. By 1850, Britain was the ‘Workshop of the World’, the centre of the global economy, the richest, most powerful and advanced nation of earth...

The Rebecca riots took place in the rural parts of west Wales, including Pembrokeshire, Cardiganshire, and Carmarthenshire, in 1839-1843. They were a series of protests made by tenant farmers against the payment of tolls (fees) charged to use the roads.

In 1833 the Government passed a Factory Act to improve conditions for children working in factories. Young children were working very long hours in workplaces where conditions were often terrible.

Trimdon is an area of County Durham in the north of England which covers the towns of Trimdon, Trimdon Grange and Trimdon Colliery. At the beginning of the 19th century it was simply fields and moors.

The Industrial Revolution took place over more than a century, as production of goods moved from home businesses, where products were generally crafted by hand, to machine-aided production in factories...

In the latter 1700s, inventions in the textile industry in Great Britain were the first signs of major changes in a revolution in production that greatly altered many aspects of society.

Includes: The Industrial Revolution, The Industrial Revolution and the Transformation of the World, Social and Political Effects, Literary Response.