2000s

"Really have one break per day. It will be a one-hour break just for you to have your lunch and just relax and have a cup of tea and read the paper for a bit."

Young Steel Worker at Lunch

1950s

"We had five, five canteens with cooks, waitresses, we had three gaffers’ dining rooms. That’s, first stop when you started a job..."

Steelworks Canteen From the 1950s

Victorian Times

"I found that in the grinding wheels worked by steam power, the engine stops at dinnertime for an hour but not on Saturday. Martin Herefry, aged 11 said 'we never worked at meal times the man was very kind to us, I have to live badly and if I had no dinner he always gave me a bit. I worked in the crinoline factory once. There we worked in our breakfast half hour and in our dinner hour and we were forced to whether we liked it or not."

Two Victorian children eating

Questions

• Which young steel worker do you think might have to work during their lunch break?
• How long do you think is a fair time to have a lunch break?
• If you were a steel worker, in which time period would you like to have a lunch break?