| Great Horwood History |
|
Fever Village: The Typhoid Epidemic of 1857-58
Clare Martin
For over a year from late September 1857, Great Horwood suffered a severe typhoid epidemic. By late June 1858 there had been 125 typhoid cases recorded in the village, not including the mild cases termed ‘Febricula’ (slight and short fever). The patients suffered high fever, gastric symptoms, sometimes delirium and, in the fatal cases, gastric haemorrhage. While some died quickly, most suffered for weeks before either recovering or dying. Nobody in Singleborough died but typhoid killed 18 Great Horwood residents within these first nine months. Winslow Board of Guardians were then so worried about the cost of the epidemic in extra poor relief and doctors’ fees that they sought help from Henry Wentworth Acland, Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford University and a noted public health expert.
Sir Henry Wentworth Acland, Regius Professor of Medicine, University of Oxford, 1874.
In early July 1858 Acland thoroughly inspected Great Horwood, assessing housing, sanitation and water supply. He published a report of his findings entitled Fever in Agricultural Districts. This publication brought the situation to the attention of newspapers around the country. Some branded Great Horwood ‘A Fever Village’.
Acland noted that the sanitary conditions, food, general state of the workers and so forth were no worse in Great Horwood than in most agricultural districts and had improved greatly within the last few years. Nevertheless, he found much of the village housing and sanitation in a state that seems appalling by 21st century standards. Acland described the dwelling where one set of typhoid cases occurred:
Acland noted that the sanitary conditions, food, general state of the workers and so forth were no worse in Great Horwood than in most agricultural districts and had improved greatly within the last few years. Nevertheless, he found much of the village housing and sanitation in a state that seems appalling by 21st century standards. Acland described the dwelling where one set of typhoid cases occurred:
It was an underlet tenement, and in some respects in a shocking condition. Some of the family slept in an upper room, large enough indeed, but dirty. The floor is old and bad; the ceiling below is not plastered: the area beneath this floor was nearly a foot deep in black stagnant water, into which from without, filth oozed. All who slept in the room over this swamp were taken ill, and three of the family died.
The tenants of this disgusting property were William Harrup, an agricultural labourer, his wife Mary, and their five children. Mary Harrup died in December 1857, followed in January 1858 by her ten-year-old daughter, Rhoda, and her eldest son, Grant, 21. William and son Luke also contracted typhoid and received poor relief during the two months that they were too ill to work but survived.
The Harrup family lived in part of the centre cottage of three virtually identical timber-framed cottages in Wigwell, just south of Spring Lane. Each cottage was divided into four or five tiny tenements. Acland noted that these cottages had every single unhygienic feature of an old cottage, including thatch, thin walls, porous floor tiles, doors and windows on only one side, low ceilings, inadequately opening windows, dormers on the floor of the bedroom instead of higher and a ladder to the bedroom rather than stairs. The privies were shared by several if not all of the families living in these cottages.
Most of the middle cottage, where these deaths occurred, still stands. With the dormers and upper floor removed, 24 Spring Lane is now a pleasant three-bedroom thatched single-storey house but it is only by looking it now that one can fully appreciate how small the floor space and low the ceilings were when the cottage comprised four two-storey dwellings, most inhabited by large families.
The Harrup family lived in part of the centre cottage of three virtually identical timber-framed cottages in Wigwell, just south of Spring Lane. Each cottage was divided into four or five tiny tenements. Acland noted that these cottages had every single unhygienic feature of an old cottage, including thatch, thin walls, porous floor tiles, doors and windows on only one side, low ceilings, inadequately opening windows, dormers on the floor of the bedroom instead of higher and a ladder to the bedroom rather than stairs. The privies were shared by several if not all of the families living in these cottages.
Most of the middle cottage, where these deaths occurred, still stands. With the dormers and upper floor removed, 24 Spring Lane is now a pleasant three-bedroom thatched single-storey house but it is only by looking it now that one can fully appreciate how small the floor space and low the ceilings were when the cottage comprised four two-storey dwellings, most inhabited by large families.
The Wigwell Cottages, early 20th century. The Harrup family lived in a small part of the cottage in the centre of the photograph.
The centre cottage, now 24 Spring Lane.
Acland also deplored a recently-built four-dwelling terrace in Nash Road, now 11 and 13 Nash Road. Agricultural worker Job Marks and his family had moved to this building from another tenement in the same Wigwell cottage that William Harrup’s family occupied. Being of brick and slate construction and in an elevated position, it should have been a healthier home but sadly proved equally lethal. Several inhabitants of this terrace contracted typhoid, including all of Job’s family. Job’s wife, Mariah, died in March 1858, Job in April, 18-year-old John in May and 25-year-old Alfred in June. The youngest son, Matthew, survived.
The terrace belonged to Samuel Gamaliel Aveline and his wife, Martha, of the Edwin family described below. They lived at 13 The Green and built this row of houses backing on to their orchard. Not wishing to be overlooked by their tenants, they built the houses without back doors or windows. Acland felt that the lack of a through draft made these houses dangerous.
The terrace belonged to Samuel Gamaliel Aveline and his wife, Martha, of the Edwin family described below. They lived at 13 The Green and built this row of houses backing on to their orchard. Not wishing to be overlooked by their tenants, they built the houses without back doors or windows. Acland felt that the lack of a through draft made these houses dangerous.
11-13 Nash Road
Acland found that most of the homes affected by typhoid had both poor ventilation and extremely unsanitary gardens, with privies overflowing and saturating the gardens with sewage, pigsties under bedroom windows and large heaps of putrescent rubbish piled up just outside the door, saved up as compost for their vegetable plots but used by the children for play. Acland even found one householder who was saving their own excrement as fertiliser:
Lately, I asked during a sanitary enquiry in a house ... where the privy was placed; the answer was “Mine ain’t a privy, it’s a tub!” The tub was among other articles of domestic use at the back door. The object was to collect the manure for the garden.
Acland argued that when fever entered a village, these were the sort of conditions that enabled it to spread. He did not find fault with the drinking water supply in Great Horwood as the water that came mainly from wells seemed clean.
The epidemic continued for a few months after Acland’s inspection. John and Hannah Roads and their sons lived in half of an old timber-framed cottage that stood in Singleborough Lane opposite The Cottage.
The epidemic continued for a few months after Acland’s inspection. John and Hannah Roads and their sons lived in half of an old timber-framed cottage that stood in Singleborough Lane opposite The Cottage.
The Roads family inhabited half of the building numbered 87 at the top of this section of the 1855 Great Horwood Estate Map. The building is no longer there. (The Green is the beige area in the bottom right corner.)
(Photo by kind permission of the Warden & Fellows of New College, Oxford.)
John Roads and his sons were agricultural labourers. One son, 24 year-old Emmanuel, had died of typhoid in March 1858 and the eldest son, also called John, followed in June. John senior and his remaining sons, Peter and James, died in July. They were buried on 26th, 27th and 28th July respectively. Hannah Roads had lost her husband and all four sons to typhoid, most of them within the space of a few days.
Death Certificate of Emmanuel Roads, 18th March 1858. (© Crown copyright 2017)
Better-off villagers also contracted typhoid. Farmer Joseph Young and his wife Ann of 2 Little Horwood Road were among the few bereaved who could afford a gravestone. Their son Edmund and daughter Harriett both died of typhoid. 21-year-old Harriett had married George Viccars less than a month earlier. Edmund and Harriett were buried together in St James churchyard. Another farmer, John Morgan of Stonecroft, Winslow Road, was one of the last to die of typhoid, in late September 1858.
Headstone in St James churchyard. It reads: In Memory of Edmund Young who died Febr 4th 1858 aged 23 years. Also Harriett Viccars wife of George Henry Viccars who died April 18 1858 aged 21 years. Son & daughter of Joseph and Ann Young.
|
Headstone in St James churchyard. It reads: To the memory of John Morgan who died Sep. 23 1858 aged 44 years.
|
Model Cottage
Henry Acland gave detailed advice about caring for the sick to promote recovery and prevent further infection, and guidance concerning healthier housing and better sanitation to prevent future epidemics. The New College archives contain the architectural plans of a hitherto unidentified pair of semi-detached dwellings built in Great Horwood in 1859. The plans are recognisably those of 5 and 7 Little Horwood Road. This building was originally called ‘Model Cottage’ because it was built as a model of how hygienic and affordable housing should be constructed. The design of Model Cottage followed Acland’s advice very closely, including brick and slate or tile construction, approximately 8ft ceiling heights, large fully-opening windows front and back, a pantry window, three bedrooms and the privy and pigsty of each house positioned as far away as possible from the water supply and the house. These two houses differed in every way from the Wigwell cottage tenements.
Henry Acland gave detailed advice about caring for the sick to promote recovery and prevent further infection, and guidance concerning healthier housing and better sanitation to prevent future epidemics. The New College archives contain the architectural plans of a hitherto unidentified pair of semi-detached dwellings built in Great Horwood in 1859. The plans are recognisably those of 5 and 7 Little Horwood Road. This building was originally called ‘Model Cottage’ because it was built as a model of how hygienic and affordable housing should be constructed. The design of Model Cottage followed Acland’s advice very closely, including brick and slate or tile construction, approximately 8ft ceiling heights, large fully-opening windows front and back, a pantry window, three bedrooms and the privy and pigsty of each house positioned as far away as possible from the water supply and the house. These two houses differed in every way from the Wigwell cottage tenements.
Little Horwood Road, early 20th century, showing ‘Model Cottage’ on the left.
Part of the architectural plans of 5-7 Little Horwood Road, 1859. (By permission of the Warden and Fellows of New College, Oxford.)
5-7 Little Horwood Road, 2012
Acland also urged the village to establish a proper sewage drainage system, which he felt would be easy in connection with the two streams flowing around the village. However, this was not done and existing properties were not improved. Tenants could not afford to make improvements themselves and landlords were often unwilling to pay for the necessary alterations to properties, as Acland observed:
“We can do no more,” said one admirable woman, “than keep clean that which we have. We cannot get our landlord to give us more air, or make the windows we have to open. ‘Women’, he said, ‘are best shut up.’”
Indeed many people were sceptical of what they viewed as ‘sanitary innovations’ and simply did not believe that better hygiene would prevent the spread of disease.
Typhoid Returns to Great Horwood
Acland’s lack of success in convincing the people of Great Horwood to abandon their filthy ways is evidenced by another typhoid outbreak in March 1905. This time, sewage matter had saturated the subsoil so much that it seeped into well water. The water analyst reported that the water in one public well in Nash Road was ‘a very bad specimen for drinking purposes, but would be of some value as liquid manure’. Sadly, 27-year-old Mary Whitehall died of typhoid in early July 1905, leaving husband Arthur and three young children. Thankfully, hers was the only death. The centre of the 1905 typhoid outbreak was the same Nash Road terrace where people had died during the earlier outbreak. This time, the building was condemned as unfit for human habitation because of the lack of ventilation and closed, although this proved difficult because the Marks family refused to leave their home. These houses no longer belonged to the owner of the plot behind, who refused to allow the installation of windows overlooking his orchard. Eventually, rear ventilation grilles were fitted and the houses were re-opened.
Winslow Rural District Council acted quickly to limit the spread of typhoid. Whereas in 1857-1858 a single ex-Crimean nurse tended the typhoid patients in their own homes, where the sick infected other members of their households, this time the patients were isolated and tended by two nurses in hospital tents. Notices were issued warning people against visiting the affected area and children with typhoid were excluded from school. The Bucks Herald commended the council’s efforts but noted, ‘it is a pity their efforts have not been better supported by the general public of the parish’. The council wanted a sewage system for the whole village but, with a lack of co-operation and consensus among the villagers, the installation of mains sewerage was a gradual, piecemeal process with a few properties still not connected to the sewer today.
Acland’s lack of success in convincing the people of Great Horwood to abandon their filthy ways is evidenced by another typhoid outbreak in March 1905. This time, sewage matter had saturated the subsoil so much that it seeped into well water. The water analyst reported that the water in one public well in Nash Road was ‘a very bad specimen for drinking purposes, but would be of some value as liquid manure’. Sadly, 27-year-old Mary Whitehall died of typhoid in early July 1905, leaving husband Arthur and three young children. Thankfully, hers was the only death. The centre of the 1905 typhoid outbreak was the same Nash Road terrace where people had died during the earlier outbreak. This time, the building was condemned as unfit for human habitation because of the lack of ventilation and closed, although this proved difficult because the Marks family refused to leave their home. These houses no longer belonged to the owner of the plot behind, who refused to allow the installation of windows overlooking his orchard. Eventually, rear ventilation grilles were fitted and the houses were re-opened.
Winslow Rural District Council acted quickly to limit the spread of typhoid. Whereas in 1857-1858 a single ex-Crimean nurse tended the typhoid patients in their own homes, where the sick infected other members of their households, this time the patients were isolated and tended by two nurses in hospital tents. Notices were issued warning people against visiting the affected area and children with typhoid were excluded from school. The Bucks Herald commended the council’s efforts but noted, ‘it is a pity their efforts have not been better supported by the general public of the parish’. The council wanted a sewage system for the whole village but, with a lack of co-operation and consensus among the villagers, the installation of mains sewerage was a gradual, piecemeal process with a few properties still not connected to the sewer today.
Sources:
Henry W. Acland, Fever in Agricultural Districts; Being a Report on Cases of Fever Occurring in the Parish of Great Horwood, in the County of Buckingham, John Henry and James Parker, Oxford and London, 1858.
England and Wales Census returns, 1851.
Great Horwood parish registers, MSS, Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies (CBS), PR108/1/4, PR108/1/6, PR 108/1/9, PR108/1/10.
Great Horwood Manor Court Book, 1776-1826, MS, NCA, 3951.
Plan for Two Cottages at Great Horwood, 1859, MS, NCA, 5606.
Stuart Reynolds and Andrew Howard, St James Church Great Horwood: Outline plan of Churchyard, MS, January 1988.
Winslow Union Minute Book, 1855-1866, MS, CBS, G/6/1/5.
Buckingham Advertiser, Buckinghamshire Advertiser and Aylesbury News, Bucks Herald, Cambridge Chronicle and Journal, Derby Mercury, Huddersfield Daily Chronicle, Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser, Norfolk Chronicle, Northampton Mercury, Morning Post, Oxford Journal, various issues.
Henry W. Acland, Fever in Agricultural Districts; Being a Report on Cases of Fever Occurring in the Parish of Great Horwood, in the County of Buckingham, John Henry and James Parker, Oxford and London, 1858.
England and Wales Census returns, 1851.
Great Horwood parish registers, MSS, Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies (CBS), PR108/1/4, PR108/1/6, PR 108/1/9, PR108/1/10.
Great Horwood Manor Court Book, 1776-1826, MS, NCA, 3951.
Plan for Two Cottages at Great Horwood, 1859, MS, NCA, 5606.
Stuart Reynolds and Andrew Howard, St James Church Great Horwood: Outline plan of Churchyard, MS, January 1988.
Winslow Union Minute Book, 1855-1866, MS, CBS, G/6/1/5.
Buckingham Advertiser, Buckinghamshire Advertiser and Aylesbury News, Bucks Herald, Cambridge Chronicle and Journal, Derby Mercury, Huddersfield Daily Chronicle, Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser, Norfolk Chronicle, Northampton Mercury, Morning Post, Oxford Journal, various issues.
© Clare Martin, 2012.