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Eradicating
Filth: Public Health in Victorian Times
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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 about which Mr Matthew Frost, surveyor of the turnpike roads, stated
Extract from Rawlinson Report, page 30 The extract
lists such things as:
Mr John Dolan, Inspector of Nuisances, stated:
The extract lists such things as:
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:
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