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Eradicating Filth: Public Health in Victorian Times In 1849 the Guardians also lodged a complaint against a local employer over pollution. "Fetid vapours" were said to be coming from his reservoir that was fed by the Bilston Brook.
One of the earliest enquiries into public health was the Royal Commision for the Inquiry on the Sanitary State of Large Towns & Populous Districts, 1844 (or the Chadwick Report as it was also known). In response to the Chadwick Report, Wolverhampton sent a petition to the General Board of Health signed by a tenth of the rated inhabitants of Wolverhampton, as required by the Public Health Act (1848), for an enquiry into the state of Wolverhampton, Bilston, Wednesfield and Willenhall. The result was the Report to the General Board of Health: 1849, written by Robert Rawlinson (L614). Rawlinson
took evidence from various people and also inspected the area.
Extract from Rawlinson Report, page 30 The extract
lists such things as: Drainage done badly
Mr John Dolan, Inspector of Nuisances, stated:
The extract lists such things as: 11 houses
with no privy
Robert Rawlinson also inspected Bilston:
Extract from Rawlinson, page 33
Extract from Rawlinson, page 33 The extract
lists such things as: Rawlinson was also concerned about industrial pollution:
Extract from Rawlinson, page 33 The extract lists such things as:
Steam
from a steam engine carried over houses
Houses built over the brook The brook being stagnant Dirty roads Robberies taking place in the area due to the lack of light
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