The House of Lords Parliamentary Report
REPORT TO THE GENERAL BOARD OF HEALTH
ON THE PRELIMINARY INQUIRY INTO THE SEWERAGE, DRAINAGE AND SUPPLY OF
WATER, AND THE SANITARY CONDITION OF THE INHABITANTS
of the town of WHITEHAVEN
by
ROBERT RAWLINSON - Superintending Inspector
1849
under the Public Health Act of 1847/48
The full report makes terrible reading as the living conditions described are almost unbelievable when read in the 21st century.
Below I quote a selection of paragraphs to give the reader a feel for the reports’ contents.
At one level the Inspector saw fit to record what he saw in individual tenements visited during his inspections; a small selection follows:
1. Nicholsons Lane - A lodging house kept by Edward Marshall in which there are seven beds in one room, with no adequate ventilation. There were two beds in another room with hangings; these we were told were for married people; the beds are within two feet of each other; the seven beds in the public room have no separation by curtains or otherwise.
2. Peter’s-court, in Peter’s street - A common stair with separate rooms on each floor let off. These rooms are of the most miserable character, little light or ventilation; the beds are straw or a mere bundle of rags on the floor; for the top room they pay 6d. per week; some pay 9d., and some 1s.; they have little or no furniture. There were seven inhabitants in the top room - father, mother and five children.
3. Birley-court, in Duke-street - A cellar occupation; one room, damp and very dark, occupied by a family of six persons. There was only one bed there for the six people; the furniture of a meagre kind; the rent 9d per week.
4. Nicholsons Lane: There was a room here in a most wretched condition; at the back part of this room there is a confined place in which pigs are kept; and the drainage from the stye runs under the floor of the living room out upon the surface of the street.
At the end of this section the inspector states, “I have, however, refrained from using the terms - no drains, no water supply or no privy, in every place; but where they do exist, they are especially mentioned.” Such a mention was hard to find.
The Districts
The comments in the District section of the report are no better:
1. In which is given “A List of Places where Endemic, Epidemic, Contagious, and Infectious Diseases prevailing in Whitehaven and Preston Quarter, considered the worst in character, provided by the Relieving Officer, John Mawson.”
Whitehaven town - Charles-street, Mount Pleasant (the whole), part in Whitehaven and part in Preston Quarter, Scotch-street above George-street, Queen-street above George-street, and below say Robinson-fold and Todd’s-court, Nicholson-alley, Caledonia, Swing-pump-lane, Ribton-lane, and Harmless-hill, Bardy-steps, Brow-steps, Peter-street, Birley-court in Duke-street, and town and neighbourhood about the Fish-house, Catherine-street, including Solomon’s Temple, Hamilton-lane, Gale-lane, and Heslop-court, West Strand from Custom House to West Pier, Littledale-lane, Swinburne-court, George-street including Bank’s-lane, Strand-street including Marlborough-street, and Mark-Lane, Tangier-street including Hick’s-lane and Kelswick Lane, Brackenthwaite, Michael-street, White’s-lane, Senhouse-street (a family now in fever in a cellar, bad air, and but little light) & finally Newtown (a few fatal cases of small-pox, measles, &c.)
Preston Quarter - New houses (latterly typhus very prevalent, Ginns and Preston street (typhus, and fever generally, has prevailed, but not very fatal). Very many of the families in these places sleep on the damp floors, with no other bedding than filthy straw and a few rags swarming with vermin.
Mount Pleasant - is a congregation of most wretched dwellings, situated on the side of a hill, and they are principally approached by steps much worn, broken, and in a ruinous condition; dangerous in daylight and summer, and necessarily much more dangerous in winter during the long, dark nights and frost. Many of the tenements cannot be called rooms, they are so dreary, black, and loathsome; some of them were formerly used as nail-maker’s shops, and without any alteration or cleansing from that time. They have been let off as tenements at a low rental, of 6d. or 9d. a week; in one instance to an old couple, recipients of out door parish relief. There are about 1825 inhabitants in Mount Pleasant, without any form of privy accommodation, or any regular supply of water. There are no public or private lamps throughout the year.
Solomons Temple - is a ruinous pile of buildings let off into room tenements there is a confined yard behind covered with human refuse; pigs are kept in the cellars as are not occupied by tenements, and for years the attics were made a receptacle for all the ashes of the place and refuse from the children. Latterly a public privy and ash-pit has been erected in front; but like, most other public privies, it is the filthiest spot about the place in as much as it is totally unfit for use, and serves merely to concentrate the former nuisance.
Harmless Hill - is an open yard on sloping ground, as its name “hill” denotes; it is bounded by cottage tenements, the windows from which look over it; the yard accommodates a congregation of pigs, in sties ranged round or near the cottages, and over its surface are open middens, the liquid refuse from which drains down against the walls of the houses, and into them.
Rosemary Lane - is a narrow lane in which are many tenements without privy or water supply; the confined yards at the back are covered with human dirt, and the odour of the whole place is most abominable.
Amidst these scenes of utter destitution, misery, and extreme degradation in Whitehaven, there are, however, instances of a desire for cleanliness, even in some of the worst places; and it is most painful to contemplate the hopeless position of such persons, who are generally English, and have known better times and happier days, confined in narrow courts or crowded rooms, and surrounded with dirt and neglect, striving to keep their own particular place clean and neat.
It is far otherwise, however, with many of the Irish residents, their only care appears to be, as much as possible, to block up all means of ventilation and light. The odour of their rooms is most peculiar and offensive. When I have spoken about the dirt and confined rooms to one of these families, I have had a string of complaints from the mother as to the rent being demanded for “sitch a dog-ole, your honour;” I have asked, what rent do you pay? “ten-pence a-week, your honour, for this.” Why don’t you keep it clean? would be answered by a peculiar smile and shrug, and the question “How would I do that your honour?” and this I felt, under the circumstances, I could not fully explain.
ACCOMODATION
The housing found in the town was classified as follows: -
HOUSES AND COTTAGES LET OFF SINGLY
The houses let off singly as cottage tenements are in much the same condition as those in other places which are without water and drainage, excepting that I found a greater want of yard and privy accommodation. It is in the cellar and room tenements blind-courts, and confined yards, that Whitehaven is worse than any place I have visited.
CELLAR TENEMENTS:
There are about 281 cellar tenements, 89 of which were unoccupied at the time of my visit, 192 being tenanted; 12 of these have their ceilings below the level of the street, in one instance as much as 2 feet, and there are many level with the street, or only a few inches above it. Few of these places have the means of ventilation other than by one fire-place; that which was a window originally, rarely contains any remains of its glass, but is either stuffed full of rags and straw, or blocked up with a shutter or boards; if there is a second cellar, there is seldom any opening out of it, either in the form of a fire-place or window, but it is as true a dungeon as ever was formed, 715 persons, were residing in these places having either beds or furniture which can be said to have any money value; a few broken chairs and stools, a crippled table and bedstead, was all that I found in the best furnished; but very many have no form of furniture, and rotten straw and dirty rags form their only bed.
I visited many of these places at night, and the confined atmosphere was most offensive. Some of the inhabitants complain of this state of things, which they say they cannot help; they have no water supply, privies, or convenience for ashes, but they get rid of their refuse as best they can, most frequently immediately in front of their door. Some of these places are most difficult to get into, they are so confined, steep, and low. 152 pigs are kept, some actually in the cellars, but the principal portion in the immediate vicinity, so that the refuse runs close past them.
SMALL ROOM TENEMENTS.-
There are 325 room tenements, 298 have beds, 85 have nothing better than rags and straw; 264 rooms have no proper means of ventilation, 49 are tolerably clean, 276 are very dirty; there is an average of about 4 persons to each bed, but there are several instances of 7 persons to one bed, as also of 6 and 5. Nine persons live in one room without bed of any kind, in several instances, and 8, 7, and 6, are common numbers to be so situated. Many of the persons occupying these tenements take in lodgers. The inhabitants are chiefly Irish, and if they have more than one room in the house they will let it off to another family, or take in single men, such as railway Labourers, or persons employed about the docks and shipping; men, women, and children will all sleep in one room, irrespective of age or sex. Fever generally prevails in these houses.
COURTS AND PASSAGES IN CONFINED PLACES
There are 937 houses in courts and passages, more or less confined; most of them are entered from the street by a covered passage, seldom more than 3 feet wide, and 7 feet in height, frequently not more than 2 feet 9 inches wide. There is then a second passage round a block of houses erected in what was a court and this I have measured and found did not exceed, in some instances, 2 feet 9 inches in width. It was quite impossible for the sun to shine into many of these places, and as the upper ends are generally blocked up with an ash-midden, there can be no proper ventilation; if a strong wind should blow over the place it spreads the fine dust from the refuse heap through the houses; during wet, the ashes and dirt are washed down over the surface. In some of these places I found privies, curiously contrived under stairs and bedrooms, and close adjoining the living rooms; but, in a vast majority of instances, such a place does not exist. There is no water supply but from fountains at a distance and pumps in a few instances, most of which were broken or otherwise out of order. About 6000 persons inhabit these courts and passages.
VAGRANTS’ LODGlNG-HOUSES.
There are 24 houses of this class, which have in the whole 68 rooms and 120 beds. There are 7 beds in one room, and 4, and 3, in others; 117 are very dirty, and there are 3 which may be described as clean. These lodging-houses are in most towns the worst form of residence to be found in the district; but in Whitehaven it is not so, here they can only take rank with the better conditioned room tenements. They are, however, crowded, dirty, and ill-ventilated; 12 cases of fever were taken to the fever house in three months from one lodging-house in Harmless-hill. Fever is common in all of them. These houses are not under local inspection or control; vagrants and improper characters resort to them; the beds are let off at 3d. per night to each person, or 6d. per bed; but I have seen 7 persons in one bed, and 9 beds in one room: men, women, and children, frequently strangers to each other, are crowded into the same room, and there is not the slightest attempt at privacy or division betwixt the beds; the persons in one may lay their hands upon those in the bed adjoining, with ease.
NEWHOUSES.
These cottages stand on the outskirts of the town, on sloping ground, and at an elevation considerably above the low part of the town; they were erected by a former Lord Lonsdale, for the use of his miners and labourers. They are built on the side of a hill, and form three rows or streets, the roofs at the back being, in many instances, level with the roadway of the houses behind, and the roofs of the highest run full against the hill side. There are no sewers or drains, and consequently the roads and houses are damp.
On the front row there are 77 tenements and 5 ash-pits; on the Middlerow 111 tenements and 9 ash-pits; on the Back row 78 tenements and 7 ash-pits, total number of houses 266; total number of ash-pits 21. There is not a single privy belonging to the whole property. The ashes are taken away every week by the Earl of Lonsdale’s carts for agricultural purposes. The water supply is very inadequate. It is not uncommon to see 20 women waiting at the stand-pipe for water. In the summer months this frequently fails, and the inhabitants are then obliged to fetch their water for domestic use more than a mile; or they resort to any other nearer place if it can be obtained, even when of inferior quality.
Many of the tenants on the front row complain of the ash-pits belonging to the middle row, as these being on a level with the roof of their houses behind, the refuse sinks down into their back kitchens, and causes a very bad smell through the whole house; the wind also blows the dust and dirt about. Pigsties and stagnant water in contact with the houses are common. These houses are very seldom clear of fever. The whole surface around the houses and roads is covered with human dirt; and on Sundays, 10 or 12 men may be seen exposing themselves at one time; with the children, this is the case throughout the week.
This property might be perfectly drained, and provided with water-closets, at a cost not exceeding £3 per house, or £798, which might be made into an annual rent-charge of 3/- a-year for each house, or less than 1d. a-week rental.
In these 266 houses, there is a population of about 6 persons to one house, or in the whole, 1,596 inhabitants, men, women, and children.
FACILITIES
The following information was furnished by the Surveyor to the Commissioners, Mr. Piele, chairman of the trustees of the Town and Harbour, stated :-
THE SEWERS
There is no general system of sewers; such as exist are cleaned by hand: there are no traps on any of them. There is no power in our Acts to compel parties to use the sewers for house refuse.
There are no sewers or drains in the streets generally; sometimes, in hot weather, the channels become very disagreeable.
The Rev. Henry Lowther stated ” The present drainage of the town is quite ineffectual, and, to speak correctly, there is no general system of drainage.”
This evidence is from gentlemen who opposed the Inquiry on the plea that the Public Health Act was not needed in Whitehaven.
In my personal inspection I found most painful evidence of the want of sewers and drains; every square yard of confined surface is more or less covered with refuse, and the privies and cesspools which exist are generally in the filthiest possible condition from the same cause. The town, from its peculiar position, rising on two sides of a valley, is well placed for efficient drainage, at the least cost most of the streets have a good fall, so that drains of a minimum size will answer. Several plans for new sewers have, from time to time, been proposed ; but merely as an addition to those which are at present so imperfect and objectionable.
THE SUPPLY OF WATER
Whitehaven has several forms of water supply, as detailed in the evidence furnished by Mr. Piele and others; and it is worthy of consideration, that a town may have, as here, artificial and natural means of supply, and yet suffer the greatest possible inconvenience and privation, because it is given at isolated points, in stand-pipes, which are here termed fountains, and from pumps.
I examined a reservoir which supplied some of these fountains, and found it situated in the centre of a garden in High-street; it was divided by a rubble wall into two areas, the dimensions of one 123 feet by 36 feet, the other 39 feet by 36 feet. The ground on one side sloped towards the reservoir at an angle of about two and a half to one, commencing from the coping, so that all the surface, in fact, all the drainage, must pass into the reservoir ; there were several cart-loads of manure laid in a heap on this side at the time of my visit, not two yards from the water ; it was raining, and the liquid, in dark-coloured rills, was trickling into the water, the whole of which had a dirty muddy appearance, and in this state, unfiltered, it passed to the “fountains” for use.
Mr. W. Miller, one of the Harbour Trustees, gave his evidence on this Water supply as follows:
“I consider the want of water one of the greatest evils. The reservoir from which the water is supplied to the fountains is in a very bad and filthy condition in summer, and I think much of the sickness and disease amongst the poorer class arises from this.”
These fountains are upwards of a quarter of a mile from some of the crowded districts, and all are liable to fail in a very dry summer.
The present supply of water has been brought from springs in the neighborhood, without charge, by Lord Lonsdale. The quantity supplied is about 40 to 50 gallons a minute when the spring is full, but in the latter summer there is a scarcity felt, the springs run off during dry weather.
Lord Lonsdale has reserved to himself the right to this water, and he has taken it for use in the pits when the water has been very scarce. The present Lord Lonsdale has brought another supply into the town, but it is reserved for his own use if he should require it. This is also about 40 to 50 gallons a minute.
There is not a private house or cottage supplied with water, the water supply is at present very defective
The pumps are situated generally in confined yards; few have water fit for use, as it is either hard or vitiated with surface and cesspool refuse. But most of them are broken or otherwise out of order
The Ginns District, comprising a population of 865 people, or thereabouts is equally unprovided with water, only four pumps were met with, and these were private property. There is no fountain in the neighbourhood, and the poor have a long way to fetch their water.
In Mount Pleasant District, containing 108 houses, with a population of upwards of 500 people, there are no pumps, and the water has to be brought from a considerable distance, and at great inconvenience to the poor people, up a long range of steps from the fountain in Quay street.
In looking over the entire town, comprising a population, along with that part in Preston Quarter, of about 16,000 people, we find there are only 11 public fountains; and, during the dry seasons, all classes of the inhabitants have frequently to remain waiting at them for a scanty supply of water to very untimely hours; indeed, in times of great scarcity, which do not in-frequently occur, parties may be seen at the fountains waiting for their turn to obtain a supply all night long.
REPORT CONCLUSIONS
Whitehaven, from some cause or other, is overbuilt, that is the cottages are crowded together, without due consideration as to ventilation, light, or privy convenience. The cellars and room tenements also afford, from their apparent low rental, facilities for overcrowding. In many instances, courts were originally constructed with an open area or yard, say of 10 yards square, betwixt the fronts of the houses, but a demand for cottages arising, the owners built up blocks of them on these confined spaces leaving mere passages betwixt the houses. These secondary passages are entered by a covered passage from the street: many of these places have been converted into room tenements.
I made particular inquiry as to the reason of this fearful overcrowding, but could not obtain any satisfactory answer. The land surrounding the town was said to belong to Lord Lonsdale, and there was also said to be a difficulty in purchasing it. But it is more probable the overcrowding has arisen from the thoughtless cupidity of owners of cottage property, and the want of power and disposition in the town authorities to control it.
The late condition of Liverpool, its confined and crowded courts and cellar tenements, may he taken as a parallel case. Here it was not any difficulty in the purchase of land, but the cupidity of landlords and the apathy of local authority. A local Act has emptied the cellar tenements, and instituted a controlling power in the construction of streets and courts ; and the health of the inhabitants is materially improved in consequence.
In many of the cellar tenements space has been obtained under the passage to the courts and yards. These have been arched over, and are added to the cellars but as the surface water and drainage of the courts and yards must find its way over the surface down the passages, and as the channels are frequently broken and out of order, the wet percolates through into the vault beneatb, keeping it in a constant state of damp, the smell from which is most offensive, because all the liquid refuse of the court houses is mixed with the rainfall. Yet in these vault-recesses human beings sleep, either on wretched beds, or on mere filthy rubbish and straw.
The overcrowding of houses in a town is most injurious to all parties, and to none more than to the owners of the property; for a degraded and wretched tenantry are the consequence, from which the rent is with difficulty obtained; the property soon becomes ruinous, and sinks with the occupiers into the fearful state detailed. The nominally low rental of”sixpence,” “nine pence,”
” one shilling,” and ” one shilling and sixpence” a week is in reality extravagantly dear to the unfortunate occupiers, as every feeling of self respect is deadened, the constitution weakened, disease engendered, which ends in loss of work, from inability, and ultimate pauperism.
His concluding paragraph reads:-
“That therefore the application of the Public Health Act is not only imperatively necessary, but will be of the greatest advantage, morally, physically, and pecuniarily, as the benefits will be reaped like by rich and poor. The labourer will be relieved from much preventible sickness, poverty, and despair; the health of all classes will be improved, and the present oppressive rates reduced.”
I have the honour to be,
My Lords and Gentlemen,
Your most obedient Servant,
ROBERT RAWLINSON.
The full report can be read in either the library of the House of Lords or there is a copy in Whitehaven Record Office.
Nev.Ramsden, April 2009