Aims
This course investigates the causes, development and impact of the agrarian and industrial revolutions on the county of Yorkshire. It explores how changes in social structure, farming practices and population growth during the eighteenth century enabled the county of Yorkshire to industrialise and exploit its natural assets.
This course will also investigate how the necessary transport infrastructures were created, the development of major Yorkshire Industries and the impact of these changes. It will also consider the county of Yorkshire in the wider context of national developments in history.
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to:
- Demonstrate awareness of how historians have viewed the agrarian and industrial revolutions
- Understand and explain the key themes in the history of industrialisation
- Understand the major reasons why the county of Yorkshire industrialised in the late eighteenth century
- Evaluate the economic and social impact of the industrial changes on the county of Yorkshire
- Understand how national events impacted on the industrialisation of Yorkshire
- Develop skills in critical selection, reading, comparison and interpretation of the work of historians
- Critically analyse primary and secondary sources relative to the county’s history
- Select and organise a range of material to present a written argument
The Seminars
After week one, each session will begin with a class discussion of the key issues raised in the reading for that week. Then the key questions and themes of the reading for the next week will be introduced by the tutor.
- Week 1: Introduction: The Historic County of Yorkshire in the sixteenth century
- Week 2: The agrarian changes in Yorkshire; enclosures, crop rotation and selective breeding
- Week 3: Population movement and demographic change
- Week 4: The Textile Industry in Yorkshire: cotton, worsted and wool
- Week 5: Yorkshire’s heavy industry: mining, iron and steel
- Week 6: The development of the transport infrastructure: turnpike roads and canals
- Week 7: The introduction of steam power and railways
- Week 8: The impact of industrialisation on housing and working conditions: factory system and child labour
- Week 9: The 1832 Reform Act and the growth of municipal corporations
- Week 10: Protest, Revolt and Reform – Luddites and Chartists
- Week 11: The historical debates on the Industrial Revolution
Assessment
Formative assessment will be set around week 6, usually an essay plan, on which feedback will be given.
Summative assessment at the conclusion of the course: 2,000 word essay.
Suggested Initial Reading List
This list focuses on an outline of Yorkshire History. Other texts will be available on the course reading list.
- Burgess, J. 1993. A History of Yorkshire
- Griffin, E. 2010. A Short History of the British Industrial Revolution. London: Palgrave Macmillian
- Daunton, MJ. 1995. Progress and poverty: an economic and social history of Britain, 1700-1850 Oxford: Oxford University Press
- Hey, D. 2012. A History of Yorkshire: County of the Broad Acres
- More, C. 2000. Understanding the Industrial Revolution. New York: Routledge
- Mokyr, J. 1999. The British Industrial Revolution: An Economic Perspective. 2nd edition. Boulder, CO.: University of Colorado Press.
- Rawnsley, SL and Singleton, FB. 1995. A History of Yorkshire.
- Wrigley, EA and Schofield RS. 1981.The Population History of England 1541-1871: a Reconstruction. Edward Arnold