Fifty Years of Work without Wages: Laborare est orare

Born in Ancoats, a deprived industrial area of Manchester, Charles Rowley (1839–1933) witnessed what he saw as the degeneration of inner-city life in the second half of the nineteenth century. His family's picture-framing business, combined with his love of culture, brought him into contact with the ideas and personalities associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, notably William Morris. As a social reformer, Rowley was suspicious of organised charity and its tendency to patronise tho...