British Social History - Season 1

First aired: 9/20/1981 5 episodes

A new series of five programmes that looks at important topics from our history 1760-1851.

Episodes

1. Richard Arkwright and the First Factories

Aired: 9/20/1981

The first in a new series of five programmes that looks at important topics from our history 1760-1851. Today's programme examines the earliest powered cotton mill set in a leafy Derbyshire valley.

2. The Poor Weaver

Aired: 10/4/1981

The historical drama for schools takes a closer look at Glasgow in 1834, when the city filled with Highlanders, Lowlanders and Irish people, all looking for work.

3. Shame

Aired: 10/19/1981

A new play about the Workhouse Act of 1834. An old cottage is the home of Cathy's aunt and uncle. It may be cosy and comfortable now, but once it witnessed terrible things - which have left their mark.

4. Man Made the Slave

Aired: 11/8/1981

Set in the Midlands in 1840, this edition tells the story of Thomas Cooper, a leading member of protest movement the Leicester Chartists.

5. The Railways

Aired: 11/22/1981

Railways - 'A device for making the world smaller'. Keith Chegwin visits the Liverpool to Manchester line and looks at ways in which the railways changed the 19th century.