Workforce of Howarth's Ordsall Mill, Salford (1900)

Workers of all ages emerge from a Salford mill.

The first workers to spill through the factory gates are the young girls - no doubt determined to make the most of their well-earned time off. The 19th century Factory Acts and Education Acts had helped curtail the worst exploitation of children by factory and mill owners, but the many young faces in this crowd demonstrate that child labour survived into the 1900s.