Workers Leaving Textile Factory in Patricroft (1901)

Grinning textile workers head through the factory gates, another shift completed.

Patricroft, then in Lancashire (now in Greater Manchester), was a key inspiration for Friedrich Engels' book The Conditions of the Working Class in England, which highlighted the dreadful conditions of the working class in the mid-19th century. Some 50 years later, these workers look cheerful as they stream through the gates of an unidentified factory.