Page:History and characteristics of Bishop Auckland.djvu/73

 52 HISTORY OP BISHOP AUCKLAND. Then let us aJl, both great and small. In gas cess ne'er repine, oh ; For we have night turned into day, So cheerily pay the rhino. And let us sing, long live the King, And his administration ; And may they keep us from a tax On gas illumination. In the year 1852, a petition, duly signed by more than one-tenth of the rated inhabitants (rf the united townships of Newgate, Borough, and Bondgate, forming the Township of Bishop Auckland, was presented to the General Board of Health, praying that a government inspector might be directed to visit the township, and make the requisite inquiries preparatory to an application being made for applying the Public Health Act to the town. Thomas Webster Rammell, Esq., superintending inspector, was, consequently, appointed, and that gentleman held an inquiry at the Shepherd's Inn, Bishop Auckland, on the 22nd and 23rd of September, 1852, the following gentlemen being present, viz., the Rev. G. E. Green, incumbent of St. Andrew's ; R Bowser, Esq., solicitor; Wm. Trotter, Esq., solicitor; J. Jobson, Esq., surgeon; R A Douglas Gresley, Esq.. J. P., secretary to the Bishop of Durham ; Wm. Hodgson, Esq. ; Mr. John Lee, land surveyor ; Mr. Wnt Thompson, architect ; Mr. R Joplin, registrar of births, &c. ; Mr. Green well, relieving officer ; Mr. Charlton Elliott, Mr. J. H. Bainbridge, &c. The following, amongst other particulars were elicited : — From a statement furnished by the Superintendent Registrar, it appeared that the total number of births, from 1845 to 1851 inclusive, was 1,306, or a mean rate for each year of ISGy. The deaths in the same period were 897, averaging 128} per annum. Assuming 4,500 as the average number of the population during the period referred to, the mortality had been after the enormous rate of 28 '6 in 1,000. The deaths from epidemic, endemic, and contagious diseases were 141, averaging 20}. The annual mortality under this head was after the rate of one to every 225 inhabitants ; and in one year (1846) these comparatively preventible diseases killed 37 persons, being more than 1 in 120 of the then existing population, assuming it to be about 4,400. The deaths of children under five years of ' age were 43 per cent, of the whole number. On the subject of drainage, it was observed that though, upon the whole, the natural conditions of this district of country are healthy, the situation being high, and the conformation of the country offering great facilities for drainage, and for the discharge of surface waters, yet that the public drains of the town are very limited in extent, and rudely and imperfectly constructed. They had been laid down by the surveyor of highways, assisted by a general subscription. With few exceptions, they are not low enough to drain the cellars of the houses, many of which are flooded after heavy ahowers, when the water Bas to be pumped out. In some parts of the town there are no drains ; and where they have been constructed in new streets they have, as yet, no outlet. Tan-yards, slaughter-houses, pig-sties, chandleries, and other nuisances, are numerous. The Poor-law Guardians, it was stated, had enforced the powers of the Nuisances Removal Act, and, for a tune, some advantage was gained ; but the improvement was only temporary, the Board having no power to prevent a nuisance. The rental of the majority of the cottages occupied by the working classes varies from j£4 to £6 per year. There is a larger description of cottage, which lets at a rental of £7 a-year. The practice of taking in lodgers prevails to a considerable extent, particularly amongst the Irish, and there is much overcrowding in consequence. The cottages are mostly divided into separate tenements, and a single Irish family rarely occupies more than one room. Indeed, as many as three or four families are sometimes crowded into a single room, and without a bed, chair, or table. A few stones are put in a circle round the fire for seats, and straw or shavings will serve them to lie upon. The parts of the town generally so occupied are certain portions of Back Bondgate, Townhead, and Newgate, being principally back yards. In 1852, in Townhead, 37 rooms contained 130 inhabitants, and in Back Bondgate 29 rooms were occupied by 156 inhabitants. There are 29 lodging-houses in the town, which, it was stated, were about to be registered under Lord Shaftesbury's Act. All of these houses are the most miserable places which it is possible to conceive, as the abode or resting-place of man. Three of them are a little better than the rest, and, indeed, are the only ones that can be considered at all decent. The keeper of one of these latter, it appears, contracts with the Union oflScers for the night accommodation of the casual poor, a practice which it is impossible to approve of, tending, as it does, alike to promote vagabondage and immorality, and to spread the seeds of infectious disorders. The sanitary condition of the town, judging from the above representations, could not be considered very satisfactory, and the outbreak of Asiatic cholera, which took place shortly after, further confirmed the necessity of adopting m^easures to improve it. The result of Mr. Rammell's Digitized by Google