Many modern factories are on the edge of a town or city. In the past they used to be in the middle. Why have things changed?

The first factories started towns and cities. Before the factory age people made things in small workshops scattered in villages as much as towns. But a factory uses power to make goods faster and more cheaply than they can be made by hand. It also uses machines.

The first machines were run by steam, and the steam was produced by burning coal in boilers. The coal was brought to the factory by barges on newly-built canals. The houses for the workers were built around the factories.

In those early days people walked to work. When railways replaced barges and canals, little changed. But when a factory is built first, and houses afterwards, the factory has no space to grow, so the only thing for many factory owners was to move. And the place where there was space to grow was now on the edge of a town of city.

So, in a way, towns have turned themselves inside out since they were founded. However, this has left many city-centre areas with lots of little houses and no nearby places for people to work.

Right from the start, factories (and later on warehouses and offices) have taken up space. They also have always had special needs. For example, a factory might need lots of goods delivered to it so that it can make its products. Then it might need those goods to be taken away. The people who work at the factory will also need to come and go each day. We saw how canals and the railways were once used for this. Now it is more likely to be trucks for goods and cars and buses for people. Trucks cannot get to a city centre easily without clogging up the roads.

Because many modern factories need space and good connections, they are on the edge of a town or city. Quite often factories are grouped together in special areas near to main roads. These are called industrial estates. However, people now have to come from inside the city to work on these outskirt areas. Whatever the case, a town or a city is filled with commuters each day partly as a result of industrial estates.