Eradicating Filth: Public Health in Victorian Times


Wolverhampton | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |

The Health of Towns Committee laid down certain requirements.
These included regulations stating that:

• No new houses to be built without a water-closet or privy
• Filth, manure, etc, from any stable, house, etc should be removed
• laws concerning pig keeping, contents of water closets, cesspools to overflowing should be carried out
• slaughter houses should be regulated

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Extract from Borough of Wolverhampton Report of the General Purposes' Committee - Streets and Sewerage Committee, 1850 (CMB-WOL-C-STR/2)

The Streets and Sewerage Committee laid down further requirements including regulation of the following:

• The width and levels of new streets
• The making, repairing and cleansing of sewers
• No new houses to be built without drains, New drains to be constructed where possible to old houses
• To give from time to time an estimate for the flagging rate

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Extract from Borough of Wolverhampton Report of the General Purposes' Committee - Streets and Sewerage Committee, 1850 (CMB-WOL-C-STR/2)

Following Rawlinson's report a number of schemes for sewering the borough were produced, though it was Mr T Curley, the Borough Engineer for Hereford, whose scheme was eventually accepted. Details of his scheme are shown below:

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Extract from Curley Report 1863 (L628)

Further improvements to the town were made in 1855 when Mr Rose of Liverpool was given the contract for the removal of night soil from the town for five years at the sum of £1,896 pa. The contract was re-let in1863 to the Wolverhampton Manure Company for fifteen years; this contract was soon passed to R Deans & Son, who held it until 1868 when it was taken over by the council.

For the next few years the Streets Committee, which was responsible for drainage, and the Sewerage Committee, which was responsible for the removal of sewerage, sat back and congratulated themselves and other members of the council on a job well done.

However, they were in for a shock when they received a report from a Dr Ballard entitled: Report to the Local Government Board on the Sanitary Condition of the Municipal Borough of Wolverhampton: 1874.

He reported that despite some moderate improvement to living conditions in the town, there were still problems, particularly in the older parts of the town where housing was irregular and overcrowding remained. He writes of numerous courts and alleys crowded with small houses, and courts with narrow maze-like entries. Rough Hills, an area on the outskirts of the coalfield, was singled out in his report as particularly irregular, with colliers living in very poor conditions.

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Extract from Ballard Report (L628)

Ballard also reported on the continued use of the midden privy, where refuse was left in a pile. He found that this was still common in the town. In some houses the only way to empty the privy was to carry the contents through the house!

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Extract from Ballard Report (L628)

Other complaints in the Ballards Report included the lack of systematic inspection of nuisances according to the Sanitary Act: 1866, pigs being kept close to dwellings, slaughter house inspections not being carried out in the proper manner and bake houses not being inspected at all.

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