Did you know that 2019 marks 200 years since the landmark Factories Act of 1819?

Otherwise known as the Cotton Mills Act, the act was passed to regulate work practices in textile factories.

It stated that no children under 9 could be employed in the factories, and that children aged 9 to 16 were to be employed no more than 12 hours a day.

Before that the mills could employ whoever they wanted, of whatever age, and get them to work very long hours.

Oh how UK textile mills have changed these days!