CHANGING LIFE IN SCOTLAND AND BRITAIN
SECTION A: KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING
(Note: for this answer you should write a short essay of several paragraphs
including an introduction and a conclusion.)
1.
To what extent was the increase in Scotland’s population from the 1750s to the 1850s
due to:
EITHER
(
a
) improvements in diet and food supply?
OR
(
b
) improvements in medicine and medical care?
SECTION B: ENQUIRY SKILLS
The issue for investigating is:
Study the sources carefully and answer the questions which follow.
You should use your own knowledge where appropriate.
Source A
is from the New Statistical Account for the parish of Lochwinnoch, 1846.
Source A
2.
How useful is
Source A
for investigating how improvements in technology in the
textile industry affected the Scottish people?
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CONTEXT A: 1750s–1850s
The population of Scotland increased between the 1750s and 1850s.
The population has increased rapidly since 1791. The chief reason for this was the building of
cotton mills and the boost this gave to every other kind of business. The cotton mill employees can
afford to live and dress well. A new mill stands on the banks of the River Calder. It employs 345
workers. Those employed in the mills work twelve hours a day, five days a week, and nine hours
on Saturdays. The high temperatures in the mills weaken the body and damage the workers’
health.
Improvements in technology in the textile industry brought
benefits to the Scottish people.
Source B
is from “Change in Scotland, 1750–1850” written by the historians Wendy Doran and
Richard Dargie, published in 1991.
Source B
Source C
was written by the parish minister of Kilmadock in the 1790s about the Deanston
cotton mills.
Source C
Look at Sources A, B and C.
3.
What evidence is there in the sources to support the view that improvements in
technology in the textile industry
brought benefits
to the Scottish people?
What evidence is there in the sources to support the view that improvements in
technology in the textile industry
did not bring benefits
to the Scottish people?
4.
How far do you agree that improvements in technology in the textile industry brought
benefits to the Scottish people?
You must use evidence
from the sources
and
your own knowledge
to reach a
balanced conclusion
.
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The first new machines speeded up the spinning of thread. To begin with, handloom weavers were
delighted as their skills were in great demand. Up to the 1820s they earned high wages. They
could work as much or as little as they liked and many took an afternoon off each week. By the
1830s however, many factories were using Cartwright’s power loom. This meant less demand for
the handloom weavers. As a result, their wages slumped. More and more weavers were reduced
to living in terrible poverty.
Higher wages at this mill attracted workers. As a result, the local population has increased. What
was worst of all was that servants became cheeky, disobedient and careless. The heat necessary
in preparing the cotton kept workers constantly in a sweat. There were many departments in the
Deanston Mill. The noise of the machinery led to many of the workers becoming deaf. Constant
use of the eye in watching the threads weakened the workers’ sight.
[
END OF CONTEXT IA
]
UNIT I—CHANGING LIFE IN SCOTLAND AND BRITAIN
SECTION A: KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING
(Note: for this answer you should write a short essay of several paragraphs
including an introduction and a conclusion.)
1.
To what extent was the increase in Scotland’s population from the 1830s to the 1930s
due to:
EITHER
(
a
) improvements in diet and food supply?
OR
(
b
) improvements in medicine and medical care?
SECTION B: ENQUIRY SKILLS
The issue for investigating is:
Study the sources carefully and answer the questions which follow.
You should use your own knowledge where appropriate.
Source A
is from the memories of Mrs Belle Lindsay, who started work on a farm in
Midlothian in 1910.
Source A
2.
How useful is
Source A
for investigating how improvements in farming technology
affected the Scottish people?
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CONTEXT B: 1830s–1930s
The population of Scotland increased between the 1830s and the 1930s.
When I left school I went to work on the farm. I worked from six o’clock in the morning till six o’clock
at night, just like my father. I worked six days a week for just a few shillings. I often felt like I could
run away. The first job I had was sowing turnips. The horse-drawn machine made this a light job.
You just had to walk up and down and fill the machine with seed. Harvest time was exhausting, it
was hard work forking the sheaves up. In those days there was no such thing as summer holidays,
not even a single day.
Improvements in farming technology brought benefits to the
Scottish people.
Source B
is from “Agrarian Britain 1700–1980” written by Simon Masson.
Source B
Source C
is from David Kerr Cameron “The Cornkister Days – A Portrait of a Land and
its Rituals”.
Source C
Look at Sources A, B and C.
3.
What evidence is there in the sources to support the view that farming technology
brought benefits
to the Scottish people?
What evidence is there in the sources to support the view that farming technology
did not bring benefits
to the Scottish people?
4.
How far do you agree that improvements in farming technology brought benefits to the
Scottish people?
You must use evidence
from the sources
and
your own knowledge
to reach a
balanced conclusion
.
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Many farmers bought or hired machines like reapers or steam threshers believing they could save
money. It was more expensive to employ workers using sickles and scythes. It took one farm
labourer two and a half days to cut, sheaf and stack an acre of corn. A mechanical reaper could
do the same job in half a day. Between 1838 and 1880 farm production rose by 70%. However,
not all farmers embraced the new machines. Even by the end of the nineteenth century, many of
the old ways survived in some areas. There was little change in dairy farming.
The binder was a superb innovation. It could do all that the reaper did as well as automatically
tying the sheaves before ejecting them onto the harvest field. Men were ecstatic in their
appreciation of what it could do. Yet, the nightmare of breakdowns haunted their sleep. There
were still areas in Aberdeenshire, as late as the 1930s, where people were forced to continue old
ways as they could not afford the third horse required for the binder. Here, the sheaf binders were
the farm’s women folk. They were less subject to breakdown.
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