{"id":3722,"date":"2018-06-30T08:19:19","date_gmt":"2018-06-30T08:19:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/schoolshistory.org.uk\/topics\/?page_id=3722"},"modified":"2026-04-27T11:03:59","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T11:03:59","slug":"health-in-bradford-in-the-1890s","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/schoolshistory.org.uk\/topics\/medicine-through-time\/public-health-in-the-industrial-revolution\/health-in-bradford-in-the-1890s\/","title":{"rendered":"Health in Bradford in the 1890’s"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bradford in the 1890’s<\/strong><\/h3>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Things to consider:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Do these two sources provide an accurate portrayal of the way in which Public Health had been tackled?<\/p>\n

What factors other than government legislation affected the development of Public Health provision in the city?<\/p>\n

What evidence of change is there in these two sources?<\/p>\n

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

Plague, cholera, smallpox and typhus were frequent visitors and a government official, visiting the place in 1843, described it as \u2018the most filthy town I visited\u2019.
\nUp 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.
\nMill and other muck went straight into numerous becks and streams which turned black, smelt vile, and spread disease.
\nTelegraph and Argus<\/em><\/p>\n

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

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Margaret McMillan<\/em><\/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 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… <\/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-3722","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