The early 1830s saw this strong movement grow up in Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire determined to persuade parliament to limit factory working hours to no more than ten a day. The leaders of this movement were Richard Oastler, an Evangelical Tory land agent, the Reverend Joseph Rayner Stephens, a Tory Wesleyan Methodist preacher, and John Fielden, a sympathetic factory owner. The Factory Act of 1833 had fallen short of their aims and a series of short term committees were organised to intensify their campaign. These were organised primarily by John Doherty, an Owenite trade union leader.

The movement to resist the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 also gained ground and was supported by the factory reformers. It was motivated by fear of the effect which the ending of outdoor relief would have on the vast majority of factory workers who might be thrown out of work by an economic recession and forced to take their families into a workhouse.