GRIMY 1800s: Waste, Sewage and Sanitation in 19th Century

This is a book that you can hardly put down, opening up the mysteries of Victorian sanitation to the reader's fascinated and sometimes horrified awareness. The story is told through case histories of complaints made by residents and inspectors of insanitary conditions. During the 19th century the populations of some urban areas doubled, trebled, or even increased sixfold, with Birmingham growing from 84,711 in 1801 to 522,204 in 1901, and Bradford increasing from 6,000 to more than a quarter of a million. In 1835 local government was reformed to meet the new demand, and "Inspectors of Nuisances" were specifically appointed to investigate and act on sanitation. Conditions were gradually improved by running water and flushing toilets, but access for the poor was very slow. Outside privies remained the norm, with ash being used to cover faeces or "soil", which was shovelled into carts by the "night soil men" and often dumped in a nearby ditch or river, where it would pollute the water supply. Each chapter focuses on parliamentary bills for improvements presented by a municipal committee. In Horfield, Bristol, in 1887 a bill was presented for the construction of a water supply for 1200 houses, only 241 of which had access to wells, which themselves were not fit to drink from, while some streets only had one privy for all the residents. In Tyersal, sewage had been diverted to Bradford to accommodate the building of the railway, but was now being discharged back into Tyersal Beck, with an urgent need for a proper sewer. The author spares no detail about the manifold sources of pollution in these 50 fascinating case histories. 117pp, paperback, archive photos.