{"id":3750,"date":"2018-06-30T09:18:49","date_gmt":"2018-06-30T09:18:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/schoolshistory.org.uk\/topics\/?page_id=3750"},"modified":"2026-04-27T09:35:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T09:35:09","slug":"sanitary-report-of-1842-the-bradford-woolcombers","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/schoolshistory.org.uk\/topics\/medicine-through-time\/public-health-in-the-industrial-revolution\/sanitary-report-of-1842-the-bradford-woolcombers\/","title":{"rendered":"Sanitary Report of 1842: The Bradford Woolcombers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bradford’s Woolcombers faced a wide range of risks to their health. Life expectancy and the standard of health was poor. This led to a series of studies of the conditions of the conditions in which woolcombers worked and lived. A Sanitary Report of 1842 was particularly influential in bringing about changes aimed at improving conditions for the Woolcombers.<\/p>\n

Sanitary Report of 1842: The Bradford Woolcombers<\/h2>\n

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

Mr. Smith of Deanston, in a sanitary report made about 1837, describes Bradford as being the dirtiest town in England. Mills abound in great plenty, and their number is daily increasing, while the town itself extends in like proportion. Bradford is essentially a new town. Half a century ago it was a mere cluster of huts: now the district of which it is the heart contains upwards of 132,000 inhabitants. The value of life is about 1 in 40. Fortunes have been made in Bradford with a rapidity almost unequalled even in the manufacturing districts.<\/p>\n

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

… As I have stated, the greatest part of the labour of male adults through the worsted districts consists in combing wool. In Bradford I was told, on good authority, that there are about 15,000 woolcombers. These men sometimes work singly, but more often three, four, or five, club together and labour in what is called a shop, generally consisting of the upper room or “chamber” over the lower room or “house”. Their wives and children assist them to a certain extent in the first and almost unskilled portions of the operation, but the whole process is rude and easily acquired. It consists of forcibly pulling the wool through metal combs or spikes, of different lengths, and set five or six deep. These combs must be, kept at a high temperature, and consequently the central apparatus in a combing room is always a “fire-pot”, burning either coke, coals, or charcoal, and constructed so as to allow three, four, or five combs to be heated at it; the vessel being in these cases respectively called a “pot o’ three”, a “pot o’ four”, or a “pot o’ five”. When coals are burned, the pot is a fixed apparatus, like a small stove, with a regular funnel to carry away the smoke. When charcoal is used, the pot is a movable vessel, without a funnel, the noxious fumes too often spreading freely in the room. Scattered through the chamber are frequently two or more poles or masts, to which the combs, after being heated, are firmly attached, while the, workman drags the wool through them until he has reduced it to a soft mass of filament-when he educes the substance as it were, draws it by skilful manipulation out of the compact lump into long semi-transparent “slivers”, which, after certain minor operations, are returned to the factory to be subjected to the “drawing machines”. The general aspect of a combing-room may therefore be described as that of a bare chamber, heated to nearly 85 degrees. A round fire-pot stands in the centre; masses of wool are heaped about; and four or five men, in their shirtsleeves, are working busily.<\/p>\n

Supplement to the Morning Chronicle, 22 Jan 1850<\/p>\n

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

The Babbage Report into conditions in Haworth found:<\/p>\n