\paperw3360 \margr0\margl0\ATXph16380 \plain \fs20 \f1 \fs22 Certain large employers in some of the smaller factory towns provided housing and other facilities for their workers.
And a few exceptional entrepreneurs such as Robert Owen at New Lanark and Titus Salt at Saltaire actually developed complete industrial communities. By and large, however, most larger towns and cities grew in an unplanned muddle. Utter poverty inevit
ably gave rise to infectious disease, and it was this that really spurred on the 19th century reformers. Improvements in municipal government, together with the rapid growth of \ATXnt901 charitable institutions\ATXnt0 , helped to focus attention on the
worst areas of neglect. The Municipal Corporations Act of 1835 reformed and standardised borough councils, obliging them to control borough property and provide an adequate police force, street lighting and market facilities by raising rates to defray t
he costs. Then in 1848 the Public Health Act contributed to a huge drive to pave streets, build sewers, provide better water supplies and demolish unsanitary housing. Prior to this the factory movement had fought to prevent the employment of children u
nder the age of 9 and to limit the working day of those under 11 to 9 hours. Moreover, in 1833 slavery was abolished throughout the British Empire. Philanthropic bodies arose in great number to address the task of educating and improving the urban poor
. These included domestic missions, visiting societies, voluntary and Sunday schools, sanitary associations and so on. By the 1870s, British towns had become healthier places to live in, although slum housing and the extreme poverty of the inner cities
