Charles Hindley was an English cotton mill-owner and Radical politician who sat as Member of Parliament for Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire from 1835 until his death in 1857. He was active in the Factory Reform movement, in the opposition to the New Poor Law, and in opposition to state involvement in religious and educational matters, but was rarely prominent in them, being more sought after as a chairman of meetings than as a speaker at them, and too inclined to moderation and compromise to be accepted as a reliable leader. He was the first member of the Moravian Church to be a British member of parliament. A portrait of Hindley is in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, London

The Factory Acts were a series of acts passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom beginning in 1802 to regulate and improve the conditions of industrial employment.