I'fi W M m Mjy 1 , ' '^ :


m H


ANDFINALLY nig by Gerald Searle W^M Flexible


St. Mary’s College Degree


Applied Social Sciences Sport and Health English Literature and Language Education and Inclusion


iRepiaymehtis W rnM m ie ia s


memories of tippling. Even to a strict teetotaller like


I


myself, there seemed little wrong with taking an occasional drink after work. Then I realised, to my great


shame as a Lancastrian, that we were discussing something I had never heard of-a tippler! Apparently this was the county's


version of the old outside toilet, otherwise called "the long drop", where the water from the scullery was used to flush away human waste. Certainly I was aware that the


very first water closet was produced at the end of the 16th Century by Sir John Harrington, the godson of Queen Elizabeth I. How's that for a genuine claim to the throne! In a similar vein, although Louis


Xlli preferred not to be seen eating, he was quite happy in company to use the toiiet built into his throne! I even knew that it was a


Yorkshireman who patented the first practicai lavatory in 1778, The Bramah Water Closet, which was a brand leader for almost a century, and that Thomas Crapper made his name by inventing - you guessed it - the ballcock!


■ GLORIOUS However, when I tried to work out


how the contents of such devices were actually dispersed, like so many pre-20th Century generations, I had very littie to go on!


Many glorious, hot summers in


my eariy years were spent working on a market garden near Blackpool. Every week we filled a wagon with all the detritus from the pigsties and battery hens, before adding the contents of the outside "two- holers" used by family and staff alike. This was then dumped in piles around the perimeter of the vegetable fields that grew the produce for sale on Blackburn market. I never questioned where the


7$


pungent piles went when summer - and I - ended our annual visit. However, sitting precariously on the edge of the wooden cart during the foul process of transporting it has remained vivid in my memory for over 50 years, one occasion especially. We had just dumped one


particularly steamy load when my mate remembered where he had left his old work jacket! When he set about the spreading morass with a spade, in surprise I asked if he thought his effort was really necessary. "Course it is," he grunted, "my


lunch is in the pocket!" Possibly the first reliable survey


mm^ 22 the Valley / / / Primrose Lodge today, (s)


of sanitary conditions in Clitheroe was completed by Benjamin Herschel Babbage for his report to the General Board of Health in response to the Public Health Act of 1848, which entitled local residents to demand an official inspection. It was in a period that was plagued by outbreaks of such deadly epidemics as measles, scarlatina, typhus, diarrhoea and cholera. Around Christmas 1849, Babbage surveyed a squalid town with a population of around 8,000, some sleeping 12 to a room, 36 drinking dens, an above average mortality rate, a considerable annual rainfall, but minimal drainage and sanitation. Thus, everything from the eastern side of town ran through Mearley Brook into Primrose Lodge and all the rest down Henthorn Brook, with Low Moor's contribution flowing directly into the Ribble. Not surprisingly, therefore, 22% of Clitheroe's deaths were attributed to "imperfect sanitary arrangements". The worst areas were Salford


and Bawdlands, especially the houses which were built with cellars. These were often rented as separate dwellings and, as Salford was so low, they were undrained, so that residents were allowed to live rent-free in months when they were flooded! The cellars in Bawdlands were


little better, because though they were drained, locals saw them fit for use only as coal cellars, whereas


: itinerant Irish families had little choice but to live in them, even though access to a privy was


remote. The resulting filth, inside and


out, caused Babbage to report: "In these haunts of wretchedness I found everybody toned down to the same dull round of dirt, foul air, and damp, and all the better feelings long extinguished, unable to exist in


such an atmosphere." /Although almost 1,000 yards of


drains had been laid in the town, it ________________


had been done piecemeal, with houseowners simply removing the overflow of their cesspools, mainly into Mearley Brook, which meant that in summer, the solid matter not only lined Primrose Lodge but also was clearly visible with a most offensive smell. Not perhaps on the scale of


London, where the "Great Stink" of summer 1858 from the Thames caused the closure of the Houses of


■ Parliament, but still totally alien to modern Clitheroe! It was believed that the public


and private wells around the parish church were polluted by both the adjacent cesspools and the run-off from decomposition in the graveyard. Elsewhere, open gutters ran with


a mixture of human waste and the blood and guts from the slaughterhouse and skinners' yard. Even the kitchen of the celebrated Rose and Crown was permanently damp and noxious, as it shared a party wall with the neighbour's cesspool!


PRIVIES "With very few exceptions the


privies in Clitheroe have open shallow cesspools attached to them, where the night-soil mixed with the drainage from the pigsties and the refuse from the houses, is left to decompose for weeks and months together," wrote Babbage. Fortunately, human manure was


a highly saleable item, as farmers recognised its value in substantially increasing crop yields. Many mill bosses, businessmen and property owners made special arrangements with local farmers, which no doubt improved the quality of life for what became known as "night-soil men".. In 1844, the Health of Towns Commission had stated that medically there was "no injury resulting from taking night-soil through the streets in the middle of the night, when everybody is in bed with their windows closed". - It may not have been


everybody's choice of occupation, with its permanent nightshirt, but, perhaps not surprisingly, it developed a taste for strong liquor and even stronger food, with workers being particularly partial to highly salted boiled beet, pickled cabbage, mustard and raw onions. It was even believed that it provided immunity from fatal diseases like cholera and was definitely a step up from eking out a living as a "pure finder" - collecting dog excrement for use in tanneries! Babbage concluded his report


with three major recommendations. First, all cesspools should be


abolished and a new set of glazed stoneware pipes should be laid. Secondly, a three branch sewer


should be constructed to take waste from the west side of town down to tanks at Brungerley bridge for controlled distribution as manure. Finally, to serve the east side, a


much more complex system of pipes should be laid to collect everything in Mill Lane at the bottom of Henthorn, again in specially constructed tanks, which would collect solids for manure and allow only the occasional liquid overflow to enter the Ribble. His detailed estimate of the cost


of this sewage and distriblition system was only £6,245, so next month we will look at why, over 30 years later, the Preston Guardian printed a letter which included the following criticism of "our stagnant little borough". "Here it is a whilom purling brook


converted into an open sewer, there it is a long row of not'linked sweetness long drawn out', but stinking latrines, and in another place a crowded graveyard which openly defies every rule laid down by the Privy Council, and which Dr Holland would ruthlessly condemn to immediate closure, malgre Mr Fielding's unclean suggestion of making tea from a cold infusion of departed parishioners."


■ THIS crossword is just for fun - no prizes are given. The solution will be in next month's issue of The Valley.


ACROSS 1. As lately burnt by students? (8,3)


9. Look at the old boy kick off at tennis! (7) 10. Does it tell one when to keep a look-out?


(5) 11. More of a complex tradition (5) 12. It falls at the end of the action (7) 13. She puts an end to progress (6) 15. It's little Susan making material (6) 18. How policemen operate? (2,5) 20. She features in the declaration (5) 22. Nothing in firm to save (5) 23. The actors played first and made a move on the chess-board (7) ZA. Very angrily took food to excess (11) DOWN


2. Piece let in dress of with-it group? (5) 3. Is the foregoing neither lady's (7) 4. Sound oil from the Mediterranean (6) 5. Wrote about a feature of a church, perhaps(5) 6. Crying raggedly? (2,5) 7. Leave the darkness to be revealed (4,2,5) 8. Come into different ownership and get fresh workers (6,5) 14. Curb the chorus (7) 16. One of the teeth in which a cutting remark might be thrown back? (7) 17. Stormy spot for drinkers? (3-3) 19. See the wrinkle in Bridget's brow (5) 21. Assign everybody to return (5)


SOLUTION TO JUNE'S CROSSWORD Across: 1 Cower; 4 Learned: 8 Upright; 9


Noted; 10 Test; 11 Bearably: 13 Cord; 14 Race; 16 Assisted; 17 Brag; 20 Talon; 21 Silence; 22 Redhead: 23 Press. Down: 1 Court disaster; 2 Words; 3 Rage; 4


Letter: 5 Abnormal; 6 Notable: 7 Daddy-long­ legs; 12 Presence: 13 Castled; 15 Ceased; 18 Range; 19 Clap.


____


For information and news online


'24 hours a day,


seven days a week -visit our website


vwyw.clitheroe advertiser.co.uk


the Valley 23


SUPPOSE what started it all was a chance comment from a highly respectable colleague about


Fun Crossword O D © . .


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39