Chain Making - Mushroom Green Workshop

Cradley Heath in the Black Country was the centre of the 19th Century chain making industry. During the industrial revolution there was a high demand for chain for a wide variety of uses.

Heavy and medium chains were made by men in factories but lighter chains were made by women and children, often in extremely poor conditions. The women worked on a piece rate for middlemen who sold the chains on for large profits. The women's work was an example of ‘sweated labour’, long hours of toil for poverty wages carried out in unsanitary, often dangerous conditions.

More history and information is on the first text image.