“The rich man in his castle,
The poor man at his gate.
God made them high or lowly,
He ordered their estate.”

Even if this now controversial verse from the hymn ‘All Things Bright and Beautiful’ summed up what some Victorians thought about the social order when it was published in 1848, the seeds of change had already taken root. Complacent members of the upper and middle classes might have considered that status in the world was bestowed at birth, but riches-to-rags stories demonstrate that a prosperous family could fall from grace. It was equally possible for the child of an impoverished family to rise above the apparent limitations imposed by their lowly origin. It is not unusual for a working-class family tree to have at least one branch that began to grow away from the haunting threat of poverty towards economic security and social betterment.

For some poor people the Industrial Revolution offered a route to a better life. While the early decades of industrialised manufacturing were characterised by a multitude of exploited and impoverished workers living in squalor, mechanisation also needed a few workers with the practical understanding of how machinery worked, in order to install, maintain and repair it. Employers in the factory economy, unless they had these skills themselves, needed to hire some technical expertise.

For interested workers who also had aptitude and motivation it became possible to translate this into practical skills and hence into earning power. Beginning in Scotland, the early 19th century witnessed the birth of mechanics institutes, where a worker could attend scientific or technical lectures. Although local arrangements differed and some institutes charged users a small fee, others were supported by a local philanthropist.

Mechanics institutes were just one part of a patchwork of ways that developed for a 19th century working man and his adolescent children to learn some practical skills. Day or evening classes were available in some places. In 1836, the Board of Trade provided its first grant to support a school of design. Stimulated by the success of the Great Exhibition of 1851, and recognising that Britain needed to ensure a steady supply of workers with the skills and knowledge needed by a modern industrial economy, further grants from the government became available.

This was a period when the concept of self-improvement struck a chord with some aspirational individuals, whatever their social status. Its principles of thrift, self-reliance and perseverance were enunciated in the book Self-Help, which was written by Samuel Smiles in 1859. The book taught by example, providing studies of men who had achieved success because of their hard work.

By 1868, schools and colleges which taught practical skills other than design became eligible for grant funding and workers’ associations began to provide education for their members. Despite the rhetoric of self-help, for those in the lower reaches of society, the road was strewn with obstacles. Taking advantage of what was on offer could be difficult for a youngster from a poor family. Although elementary education had been made available to all children in 1870, the curriculum in elementary schools was little more than a basic grounding in reading, writing, ’rithmetic and religion. A greater barrier was the fact that a child could leave school aged ten. Once earning their bread, as many ten-year-olds from poor families were obliged to do, anything beyond on-the-job instruction was not usual. Some employers though, realised that bright youngsters could be valuable to the business in the future and kept a lookout among the droves who poured into their factories and mines for ones who showed technical or practical skills that could be honed.

Interviewed in the 1930s, Joseph Cauldwell, a carpenter and lay preacher, recalled his poverty-stricken childhood in Barnsley in the 1870s. Aged nine, he was given special permission to leave school before legally allowed, in order to earn a few coppers at the pit to help support his family. His first role was in the lamp room, but a few years later he was transferred to the carpentry workshop, where the wooden props which supported tunnel roofs were prepared. He worked as a carpenter at the colliery for over 40 years and rose to a responsible role within his trade. When Joseph and his wife Sarah hosted the wedding of her youngest sister in 1908, a newspaper’s description of the reception reveals them to be a working-class couple who were far from wealthy, but certainly in comfortable circumstances. Their economic situation and social standing continued to improve for another three decades and, in addition to his church duties, Joseph took on further voluntary roles on the local council and as a magistrate as well as being elected to a paid post as president of the local co-operative society. He was the only member of the Cauldwell family whose fortunes improved in this manner, and his brothers remained manual labourers.

Old or heavy industries were not the only ones which needed a variety of practical skills. The expansion of trade, commerce and retail, and the growth of some professions, created a demand for workers who could read, write, deal with figures and perhaps even understand a foreign language. Innovations of the late 19th century included the widespread adoption of the telegraph, the telephone, the typewriter and motor vehicles, and these all needed operators with some practical skills. Standards were introduced into the construction industry to reduce the diseases which were caused by bad sanitation. By the end of the 1880s, it was widely accepted that entrants to some occupations needed a preliminary grounding in their subject, and from 1889, local councils could levy rates to support technical or practical instruction.

For some, self help lay in self-employment. In the mining industry, experienced colliers often worked on their own account, contracting to bring an agreed quantity of coal to the surface for a fixed price. A few made the transition to employer. The report of the Children’s Employment Commission which was published in 1842, reveals that an industrious and thrifty collier could save enough money to lease a parcel of land and sink his own mine shaft. Ebeneezer Healey, a teenage miner from New Mill who was interviewed by the Royal Commission, became the owner of a colliery in 1873. Local newspapers reveal him as a litigious man, who on one occasion took three teenage boys to court for absenting themselves from their work at his pit. An interesting question is how much security his venture actually provided the family, as the 1881 and 1891 censuses reveal that his teenaged children had jobs in the local woollen mills.

Successful self-employment was often linked to the availably of a lump sum in order to make a start. Apart from work and saving there were several ways to obtain this. As 19th century life expectancy was low, a small inheritance might be received at an opportune moment. Newspapers contain stories of individuals who won damages or compensation in a court of law and used it to generate an income in the future. One Arabella Redhead invested her damages from a breach of promise case in some cottages to rent out, while a Miss Drage negotiated an out-of-court settlement which she used to set up a hairdressing salon.

Other ventures included buying a property on the coast to take advantage of the growing tourist industry, or close to a university or college, where rooms could be let out to scholars, or on a route used by travelling salesmen. For those with good practical skills and an eye for new opportunities, capital could be used to set up a business to sell or service bicycles or those newfangled motor cars.

Although many training institutions provided some scholarships for poorer children, these tended to be limited in number, and plenty of parents preferred a child to bring in a wage as soon as was legally permissible. This meant that luck played its part in determining whether a child could improve its life prospects, but for a motivated minority who possessed a particular aptitude, or seized an opportunity, the bonds of the class system loosened. There was no parallel of the Great American Dream and self-improvement was infrequently evidenced by spectacular achievements in a single generation. More usual were gradual increases in standards of living, which came about over two or more. Nevertheless, by 1914, when Joseph Cauldwell heard ‘All Things Bright and Beautiful’ sung in church, he must have realised that any link between birth and social status had been fractured.