Breadth study timeline

First water-powered factory opened in Cromford, Derbyshire

1771

Sunday schools established

1780

Boulton and Watt opened the Soho Foundry to make steam engines to power factories

1796

Combination Act

1799

Health and Morals of Apprenticeships Act

1802

Repeal of Combination Acts

1824

Parliamentary Reform Act

1832

Factory Act

1833

Government grant for education

1833

Tolpuddle Martyrs

1834

Mines Act

1842

Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol published

1843

Ragged Schools Union formed

1844

Start of New Model Unions

1851

Christmas trees well-established in middle-class homes and at pauper Christmas parties

1860

Charles Kingsley’s Water Babies published

1862

Parliamentary Reform Act

1867

Education Act (Forster’s Act)

1870

Trades Union Act

1871

Education made compulsory for children aged 5-10

1880

Bryant and May matchgirls’ strike

1888

Education made free for children aged 5-10

1891

Education (Provision of Meals) Act

1906

School medical service set up

1907

Children’s Act

1908

J M Barrie’s Peter Pan is published

1911

Outbreak of First World War

1914

End of the First World War

1918

Triple Alliance of miners, railway and transport workers

1919

General strike

1926

Trade Disputes Act

1927

Impact of Trades Dispute Act

1928