Reading skills - INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND

     Formerly England was chiefly an agricultural country where thousands of farmers grew corn and produced other foodstuffs for the population. Industry was very poorly developed. There were only small factories scattered over the country, near the places where the raw materials were found in plenty, and along the rapid rivers that provided power. The discovery of coal lying side by side with iron-ore, the invention of the steam-engine and its general use in industry, caused a revolution that made England the workshop of the world. The larger towns in old times lay in the fertile plains of the South and of the East, and these today are beautiful, quiet, rich in fine buildings and various works of art which tell the history of their past. Canterbury, York, Durham, Lancaster, have been famous, but are now just villages in comparison with the huge towns that are gathered round the tall chimneys with columns of smoke rising to the sky.

    People came to cities, leaving the country. In the field and meadows, where sheep once quietly grazed, or where the farmer used to drive his plough, one could only hear the deafening din and shriek of railway engines, the clang of steam-hammers, the rumbling of spinning-mules and looms. Cheap coal, cheap iron and steel from numerous blast-furnaces and smelting works led to a rapid development of industry. A large network of railways covered the country and carried passengers and goods quickly to the most distant places, while numerous ships brought in raw materials and took them away in the form of manufactured goods.

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