The Cinderella Movement was a late nineteenth century

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

movement to provide food and entertainment for poor children. Individuals formed "Cinderella Clubs", named after the

fairy tale A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic, enchantments, and mythical or fanciful beings. In most cult ...

character

Cinderella "Cinderella",; french: link=no, Cendrillon; german: link=no, Aschenputtel) or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a folk tale with thousands of variants throughout the world.Dundes, Alan. Cinderella, a Casebook. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsi ...

, to address specific problems associated with children's welfare.

History

Towards the end of the nineteenth century conditions in many cities had become truly appalling. Poverty, disease, overcrowding were widespread despite the fact that Britain was undergoing a period of unprecedented prosperity. The division between classes was marked at all levels but that between manual workers and

white collar worker A white-collar worker is a person who performs professional, desk, managerial, or administrative work. White-collar work may be performed in an office or other administrative setting. White-collar workers include job paths related to government, ...

s was vast. Many people debated and discussed the problems at length and various movements began to end this problem by a variety of social and political reforms. A few people took positive action and endeavoured to make practical immediate changes. One of these was

Robert Blatchford Robert Peel Glanville Blatchford (17 March 1851 – 17 December 1943) was an English socialist campaigner, journalist, and author in the United Kingdom. He was also noted as a prominent atheist, nationalist and opponent of eugenics. In the early ...

. Blatchford was a

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

based in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...

, co-founder and editor of the '' Clarion'' Newspaper. He saw the poverty that existed among mill-workers and the existence that many of them lead and he resolved to do something about it. He started by writing articles encouraging like-minded readers to join him in the formation of groups who would provide food and entertainment for the children forced to live in industrial slums. They quickly became known as Cinderella Clubs after the popular

pantomime Pantomime (; informally panto) is a type of musical comedy stage production designed for family entertainment. It was developed in England and is performed throughout the United Kingdom, Ireland and (to a lesser extent) in other English-speakin ...

character who is transformed from a child drudge. Julia Dawson was the first National Secretary and she made a significant role in managing the clubs, which provided food and entertainment to children in poverty. On hearing about Blatchford’s activities or reading his articles in other papers many formed their own Cinderella Clubs. Some members went further and helped the infant

Independent Labour Party The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse working-class candidates ...

to become established, others tackled educational problems but all had the core belief in an end to the deprivation suffered by tens of thousands of working class children.

Today

Little remains of that vast surge of benevolence but its effects are still around. There is still one city, Bradford, with an active Cinderella Club.

References

Clarion Scout, Vol. 1. No. 1 March 1895

External links

The Bradford Cinderella Club
{{Cinderella Cinderella Movement