{"id":3711,"date":"2018-06-30T08:12:58","date_gmt":"2018-06-30T08:12:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/schoolshistory.org.uk\/topics\/?page_id=3711"},"modified":"2026-04-27T10:48:48","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T10:48:48","slug":"1868-first-sewage-works-in-bradford","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/schoolshistory.org.uk\/topics\/medicine-through-time\/public-health-in-the-industrial-revolution\/1868-first-sewage-works-in-bradford\/","title":{"rendered":"1868, First Sewage works in Bradford"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sewage works in Bradford<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In the modern world it is common knowledge that dirt and disease are linked. In the early phases of the Industrial Revolution though, this was not a proven and accepted scientific fact. Until Pasteur developed and proved his Germ Theory, all that campaigners could do was make links and offer suggestions based on statistics. These were questioned by some and dismissed by others. Therefore dealing with sewage wasn’t something that was always a priority. Rapidly constructed abodes and overcrowded city slums compounded this fact and led to a sanitation crisis in many towns and cities. This was eventually dealt with by Health Boards, though not until the latter stages of the 19th century in many places.<\/p>\n

These sources look at sewage and sanitation in Bradford during the 19th century.<\/p>\n

Source 1<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1868, six years after the first sewage works, a private citizen sued Bradford Corporation for polluting the River Aire. But nobody knew what to do. Then, in 1874, work began on a sewage purification plant at Frizinghall. It worked, but wasn\u2019t able to keep up with the rush. 20,000,000 gallons of effluent a day was too much for a 38-acre processing site.
\nSomething, clearly, was needed on a grander scale. It was found in 1906. After long negotiation, the Corporation bought the Esholt estate of 1,900 acres and began to learn a new science and art – that of sewage and sanitation – to deal with what was acknowledged as some of the most difficult waste in the world at that time. There was also a major piece of civil engineering required – a tunnel to link Frizinghall with Esholt. Work on the boring started in 1913 but was interrupted by the First World War. It resumed afterwards but was a slow process.
\nTelegraph and Argus<\/em><\/p>\n

Source 2<\/strong><\/p>\n

Corporation takeovers took place in Manchester (1847), Leeds (1852) and Bradford (1854). The Edinburgh Water Company was superseded by a Water Trust for the city and district in 1869. The Nottingham Waterworks Company remained in private hands until 1880, when it was compulsorily purchased under the 1879 Improvement Act. The nine London water providers remained in place, despite frequent debate about buying them out, and it was not until 1902 that London\u2019s water finally passed into the hands of the Metropolitan Water Board. http:\/\/www.lboro.ac.uk\/well\/resources\/Publications\/Briefing%20Notes\/BN%20Learning.htm<\/a><\/p>\n

Source 3<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the course of last week I have visited some of the most filthy and wretched abodes that the mind of man can conceive, in which misery of the lowest description was personified. In a portion of this town called the Leys,there are scores of wretched hovels, unfurnished and unventilated, damp, filthy in the extreme, and surrounded by stagnant pools, human excrement and every thing offensive and disgusting to ‘sight and smell’. No sewers,no drainage, no ventilation. Nothing to be seen but squalid wretchedness on every side, and the features of the inmates show a perfect and unmistakable index of their condition: all this is to be seen in the centre of this of this wealthy emporium of the worsted trade.
\nBradford Observer 16th October 1845<\/em><\/p>\n

Source 4<\/strong><\/p>\n

A letter to the General Board of Health in London, dated 5th December 1851<\/em>, written about Bradford, states:<\/p>\n

“The inhabitants have for sometimes past been greatly injured in the matter of health, as well as seriously inconvenienced by a want of water, and the drains and sewage are in a sad state.”<\/p>\n

Public Health in the Industrial Revolution<\/a><\/h4>\n

Impact of new machines<\/a> – Workhouses in Bradford and Leeds<\/a> – Typhoid outbreaks 1830 – 1836<\/a> – Cholera, 1831 Outbreak<\/a> – Poor Law Commission [1834, Report 1837]<\/a> – Poor Law Commission 1835<\/a> – Bradford Woolcombers Report, 1837<\/a> – Report on the conditions of workers in Leeds, 1842<\/a> – Report on the sanitary Condition of the Labouring Classes, Chadwick 1842<\/a> – Health of Towns Association, 1844<\/a> – Health in Bradford in the mid 1840’s<\/a> – Health in Manchester, 1844<\/a> – Public Health Act, 1848<\/a> – Working Conditions in Bradford, 1850<\/a> – Census figures: UK Population statistics 1831 – 1851<\/a> – John Snow’s work on Cholera, 1854<\/a> – Nightingale School of Nursing<\/a> – Bradford Sewage Works, 1862<\/a> – Louis Pasteur: Germ Theory, 1865<\/a> – Second Reform Act [External]<\/a> – Royal Sanitary Commission, 1869<\/a> – The Public Health Act, 1872 [External]<\/a> – Public Health Act, 1875 [External]<\/a> – Artizans and Labourers’ Dwellings Improvement Act, 1875 [External]<\/a> – Tuberculosis Germ identified by Robert Koch, 1882<\/a> – Cholera Germ identified, 1883<\/a> – Health in Bradford, Margaret McMillan’s Report, 1890<\/a> – Report into the health of Children in Bradford, 1907<\/a> –\u00a0Timeline of Public Health over time<\/a> –\u00a0Medicine and Treatments c1350-2018<\/a> –\u00a0Themes in Medical History<\/a><\/p>\n

Medicine Through time<\/a><\/h4>\n

Resources for Medicine Through Time<\/a> –\u00a0Prehistoric Medicine<\/a> –\u00a0Ancient Egyptian Medicine<\/a> –\u00a0Ancient Greek Medicine<\/a> –\u00a0Medicine in the Roman Empire<\/a> –\u00a0Medieval Medicine<\/a> –\u00a0Renaissance Medicine<\/a> –\u00a0Public Health in the Industrial Revolution<\/a> –\u00a0Fight against infectious disease<\/a> –\u00a0Modern Medicine<\/a><\/p>\n

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Sewage works in Bradford In the modern world it is common knowledge that dirt and disease are linked. In the early phases of the Industrial Revolution though, this was not a proven and accepted scientific fact. Until Pasteur developed and proved his Germ Theory, all that campaigners could do was make links and offer suggestions… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":3709,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"off","neve_meta_content_width":100,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3711","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t