{"id":3717,"date":"2018-06-30T08:16:01","date_gmt":"2018-06-30T08:16:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/schoolshistory.org.uk\/topics\/?page_id=3717"},"modified":"2026-04-27T09:41:49","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T09:41:49","slug":"bradford-health-in-the-1840s","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/schoolshistory.org.uk\/topics\/medicine-through-time\/public-health-in-the-industrial-revolution\/bradford-health-in-the-1840s\/","title":{"rendered":"Bradford: Health in the 1840’s"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bradford: health in the 1840’s<\/strong><\/h3>\n

This page looks at several indicators of the way that health changed in Bradford during the Industrial Revolution. Starting with a famous commentary by George Weerth it addresses the negative aspects of industrialisation. This sort of comment is worth exploring in more depth, by analysis of housing conditions and the life expectancy statistics. Examples of these are provided in the second source which provides information about the numbers of Woolcombers who died in a number of age brackets. Taken in isolation these provide but a snapshot of what life expectancy truly was, so they are followed with some more general statistics about life expectancy to help you place them into context. The fourth source in this section provides a clue as to the cause of the low life expectancy figures and the reasons for Bradford becoming a place in which the poor toiled hard and died young.<\/p>\n

Things to think about:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Is this a balanced picture of what Bradford was like during the 19th century?<\/li>\n
  2. How does Bradford compare with other towns?<\/li>\n
  3. What reasons are there for these conditions?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n

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

    Every other factory town in England is a paradise in comparison to this hole. In Manchester the air lies like lead upon you; in Birmingham it is just as if you were sitting with your nose in a stove pipe; in Leeds you have to cough with the dust and the stink as if you had swallowed a pound of Cayenne pepper in one go – but you can put up with all that. In Bradford, however, you think you have been lodged with the devil incarnate. If anyone wants to feel how a poor sinner is tormented in Purgatory, let him travel to Bradford.<\/p>\n

    George Weerth, 1846<\/em><\/p>\n

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

    Deaths of WOOLCOMBERS in BRADFORD in 1844<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
    <\/td>\n…under 5<\/td>\n5-21<\/td>\nabove 21<\/td>\nTotal<\/td>\nAverage at death<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    West Bradford<\/td>\n79<\/td>\n15<\/td>\n39<\/td>\n133<\/td>\n17 years<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    East Bradford<\/td>\n106<\/td>\n14<\/td>\n41<\/td>\n161<\/td>\n14 years 2 months<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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

    Average age of death in the West Riding of Yorkshire 1844<\/p>\n

    Average of death in the West Riding……………..25 years 11
    \nmonths
    \nAverage age of death in Ripon…………………….36 years 3
    \nmonths
    \nAverage age of death in Leeds…………………….23 years 4
    \nmonths
    \nAverage of death in BRADFORD………………..20 years 3 months<\/p>\n

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

    From a contemporary source:<\/em><\/p>\n

    These towns have been built by small speculators with no interest for anything except immediate profit. A carpenter and a brick-layer club together to buy a patch of ground, and cover it with what they call houses. In one place we saw a whole street following the course of a ditch, in order to have deeper cellars without the cost of excavations.The streets are unpaved, with a dunghill or a pond in the middle; the houses are built back to back without ventilation or drainage.<\/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

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Bradford: health in the 1840’s This page looks at several indicators of the way that health changed in Bradford during the Industrial Revolution. Starting with a famous commentary by George Weerth it addresses the negative aspects of industrialisation. This sort of comment is worth exploring in more depth, by analysis of housing conditions and the… <\/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-3717","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