Health in Bradford in the 1890’s

Bradford in the 1890’s

By 1890 there had been a number of Public Health Acts, and other acts of parliament that were aimed at improving the lot of ordinary people in towns and cities. As such it ought to be the case that things have improved in bradford quite substantially. These sources provide some clues as to the impact of these acts of Parliament. The first reminds us of what Bradford was thought to be like slightly earlier, in the 1860’s whilst the second is an account by the famous Margaret McMillan in the 1890’s.

Things to consider:

Do these two sources provide an accurate portrayal of the way in which Public Health had been tackled?

What factors other than government legislation affected the development of Public Health provision in the city?

What evidence of change is there in these two sources?

Plague, cholera, smallpox and typhus were frequent visitors and a government official, visiting the place in 1843, described it as ‘the most filthy town I visited’.
Up to 1862, when the first sewage works was built, human waste and refuse was dumped into narrow cobbled streets and oozed its way to what is now Forster Square and into what was then the Bradford Canal.
Mill and other muck went straight into numerous becks and streams which turned black, smelt vile, and spread disease.
Telegraph and Argus

We arrived on a stormy night in November. Coming out from the entrance of the Midland station, we saw, in a swuther of rain, the shining statue of Richard Oastler standing in the Market Square, with two black and bowed little mill-workers standing at his knee.

Next morning we awoke in a new and quite unknown world. It was a Sunday, and the smoke cloud that usually enveloped the city had lifted. Tall dark chimneys reaching skywards like monstrous trees, made dark outlines against the faint grey of the sunny morning. On weekdays these big stone monsters belched forth smoke as black as pitch that fell in choking clouds.

Margaret McMillan