From a review by Katrina Honeyman University of Leeds, published in Northern History,
of Angus Bethune Reach's 1849 reports on northern textile areas, edited by Chris Aspin

The lives and labour of those who created King Cotton, and the other major textile industries of the north of England, were investigated by Angus Bethune Reach in the late 1840s. His perceptive and elegant writings were published as a set of articles in the Morning Chronicle  (in the same series as the Mayhew writings on the London poor), then collected and edited by Chris Aspin in the early 1970s and now reprinted. The two volumes, which explore respectively the Lancashire and Yorkshire textile districts, provide unique insights into the full array of workplace experiences and labourers’ living arrangements.

Reach’s selection of subjects would not pass any statistical test of representativeness, nor is there justification for the lighter touch he applied to Yorkshire over Lancashire. Those researching the West Riding will be disappointed by its limited treatment. Yet Reach is careful to explain his choices and his approach is more objective than other equivalent contemporary investigations. His commitment to representing the workers’ side of the story is clear; indeed in some of his descriptions- of the squalid urban environment, for example-and in some of his opinions, such as overt criticism of married women workers- the echo of Engels can be heard. Yet Reach explicitly strives for a balanced perspective. By getting close to his subjects, observing them at home, where many still worked, and listening to their accounts of the work that they performed, the wages they received and the food that they ate, Reach is able to convey a clear sense of what it meant to be a textile worker in the mid-nineteenth century. He describes production processes and how these had changed over time, domestic arrangements, and leisure and educational opportunities.

The riches of his findings cannot be encapsulated in a short review but several elements stand out. The first is the evidence in the outlying villages of widespread domestic work, including but not confined to textile weaving, family labour and bi-employment all suggestive of a protoindustrial economy. In such communities Reach heard a common refrain of falling wages perceived as the outcome of mechanisation.

The second is the detail of the nature of work, and the type of labour used, in each of a range of textile production processes. Cotton spinning may have predominated but in Manchester and environs, wool, worsted, silk, calico and flax were all part of the structure. Equally, in Yorkshire, a region best known for wool and worsted products, the manufacture of cotton, silk and flax also contributed to output. 

In the third, a comparison of the cultures of different textile communities, Reach becomes less objective and more judgmental.  Women operatives attract more of Reach’s attention than men, especially in terms of health and their child care practices. Here Reach presents the research he conducted into the use of opiates- a discussion of interest and importance.

Reach’s studies of the north deserve recognition equivalent to those applied to Mayhew. The efforts of Aspin and the publishers in making the works widely accessible should be applauded.