5b. Public Health
Was Shrewsbury a healthy place to live?
The new working class areas of Shrewsbury in Castle Foregate, Coleham, Abbey Foregate and Frankwell consisted of hovels of the lowest type. They were huddled together with little or no sanitation, ventilation or heating. There was little concern at all for the way in which the working class lived, but public health in general was not something that occupied the minds of many of the ruling classes.
It is hardly believable today that an Act of 1821 stipulated that all night soil and refuse must be thrown into the Severn. From the Middle Ages Gullet Passage had been an open brook known as the 'Gulph'. It ran from the Square down through Barker Street and emptied its contents into the Severn just downstream of the Welsh Bridge, and would be laden with night soil and the run off from the Butcher Row slaughter houses. When this self same water arrived at Coleham, one mile further on, it would become the washing and drinking water for the populations of Coleham and Abbey Foregate!
Such was the incidence of Typhus and Cholera that certain areas of the town, such as Coal Yard Square and houses in Castle Foregate, were known as 'Typhus Square' and 'Choler Row.'
A report on the town in 1854 revealed the mortality rates in the various social classes. It is hardly surprising that life expectancy was not much beyond thirty.
Mortality Rates and Life Expectancy - Shrewsbury 1854
[Shropshire Newspapers]
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Do you keep chickens on the stairs?
Sometimes the poor health of an individual was of his or her own doing. In one illuminating example, the wife of the vicar of St. Alkmunds visited one house where she described poultry roosting on the banisters. These birds would fly into the air upon a person entering and would leave their dirt and feathers on anything they touched. Apparently the smell inside was almost as bad as the smell outside in the filth-laden streets.
The 1821 Act mentioned above also recommended pavements, drainage and lighting, but these only related to the town centre. The working class suburbs were left to their own devices. When inspected in the 1840's Shrewsbury was one of the worst towns in the country in implementing health measures. The Public Health Act of 1849, made local authorities responsible for their areas, but progress was painfully slow in Shrewsbury. It was not until the turn of the 20th century that slums were cleared and sanitation and water supplies standardised.
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