Society and social changes 1851-86

Question 1

what were the two groups in the upper class?

Answer 1

aristocracy

gentry

Question 2

characteristics of the aristocracy

Answer 2

• inc about 800
• annual income generally over £10,000
• land over 10,000 acres
• house + estate in the countryside
• own or rent a house in London
• many sat in House of Lords

Question 3

characteristics of the gentry

Answer 3

• inc about 3000
• annual income £1000-10,000
• land 1000 - 10,000 acres
• many sat in House of Commons

Question 4

why were the gentry resentful towards aristocracy?

Answer 4

due to their dominance of key positions

Question 5

what were the middle class?

Answer 5

people who generated a steady income from non manual labour
typical jobs were teachers, lawyers, doctors and bankers
min. income of £100
their influence grew, major role in the development of Britain industrially + commercially
‘new money’ earned their wealth

Question 6

living standards of middle class

Answer 6

• living could be cheap -> maids could only be £6 a yr
• clerks work form 9-5
• could take lodgings in Brighton or margate, easily accessed by train or steam boat
• children would grow up to respect + obey their father

Question 7

what was the biggest divide between the working class?

Answer 7

unskilled + skilled workers

Question 8

jobs of working class

Answer 8

coach maker - could make five shillings a week (top or working class pyramid)
conductors - started at 7.45 am + often finished past midnight
labourer’s avg wage of 20-30 shillings a week
streetsellers - 30,000 in London, sold things like clothes, fried fish, ginger
mudlarks - both sexes, all ages, thigh deep into toxic thames mud to retrieve anything they could sell
collect cigarette butts for £2 a week
prostituion common as the only way of making money without awful conditions but STDs made this difficult, very few beds in the ‘foul ward’ or sweatshops where pay was low

Question 9

living conditions of working class

Answer 9

a working woman could learn French at a working women’s college
if a man had enough energy after a long working day, could attend evening courses on scientific subjects
workhouses provided work for those who were physically weak, convicts. eg breaking granite rocks the pauper received £4 a week, food enough to keep them from starvation

Question 10

what regional differences were there in Britain?

Answer 10

dialects seemed like foreign languages eg Wales

cultural differences eg religion

Question 11

what made the regions more united?

Answer 11

railways - massively reduced travelling time
improved accessibility of remoter regions
telegraph systems - transport messages within mins
the country now worked at the same time

Question 12

why was the design of the workhouse so important?

Answer 12

split up into 4 sections - men, women, children + disabled
rooms for punishment
some rooms for deserving poor where couples could have a separate room

Question 13

what was less eligibility?

Answer 13

conditions had to be worse in workhouses so that they would stop wanting relief

Question 14

did workhouses reach the principle of less eligibility?

Answer 14

yes, 
uniform -> felt like a prison 
no talking was allowed during working times
very little breaks 
very strict + conditions were poor

Question 15

why was the period of prosperity 1851-73?

Answer 15

food prices fell, real wages for majority of Br people increased

Question 16

evidence of growing prosperity

Answer 16

• no. of people in service increased from around 750,000 in 1851 to 1,200,000 in 1871
• taking an annual holiday holiday became a key sign of prosperity, + spa towns + seaside resorts grew
• expenditure by the middle + upper classes grew much more quickly than the increase in the costs of goods

Question 17

what conditions did workers experience for housing ?

Answer 17

• a quarter of their wages spent on rents
• in countryside there was a very limited housing
• govt attempts to improve housing made it too expensive
• poorly built accommodation, bad sanitation

Question 18

what conditions did child labour involve?

Answer 18

extreme heat working in the potteries, moving huge weights in the brickyards, inhaling soot while cleaning chimneys, spending hours in the cold and wet in the field scaring birds or working as part of an agricultural ‘gang’.