Fareham health and the Public Health Act of 1848.

Malcolm Low

Prior to the introduction of the Public Health Act the townspeople of Fareham like those of most towns and cities lived in conditions which we can only imagine. Television programmes of the Victorian age, especially the scenes in the Charles Dickens plays such as ‘Oliver’ for instance, do their best to portray the conditions under which people lived, dirty streets and poor sanitation; it was for them an accepted way of life. There were the rich, the poor and those living in squaller, they all shared the common ground; the public areas of the town. It is not far from reality today, we only have to watch the news to have a glimpse of the conditions in which some of the people in the third world have to live. What we see is make shift shacks and tents, no running water except for a stream running down the centre of the encampment in which all manner of human waste is deposited. We see the pictures but do not experience the foul smell of the decay that contaminates the water; water which is used for washing and drinking; nor do we feel the flies crawling over faces and over the little food they have.

This may seem a long way from the living conditions the people of Fareham would have experienced in the years before the Public Health Act came into being, but it is not a million miles away from the way they would have lived. The elegant facades of the houses in which the wealthy lived usually hid behind them a rabbit warren of out-buildings where there was poor or non-existent sanitation. With the lack of proper sanitation and house waste being thrown onto the street, it was a breeding ground for disease and an added attraction to vermin.

There were no pavements to walk on except where shopkeepers, at their expense, would lay stones outside their shops. Down, or along each side of the street ran the open channels which were known as 'kennels' carrying the waste and effluent further down the street. The stench from horse manure and waste which covered the streets caused the more elegant of the people to carry nosegays with strong smelling herbs amongst the flowers.

It was not just the horse manure and waste that polluted the streets, market days added to the problem when animals; cows, sheep, pigs were herded through the streets too and from the cattle market, which often were just pens in the street. The animals sometimes adopted the unpleasant habit of entering tradesmen’s premises. In the market place was the parish pump, the main water supply not a particularly clean situation.

The Victorians were responsible for some very important social legislation which helped to make towns and cities more pleasant. It may not seem to us that these laws went far enough, but at the time these Acts were well suited for the conditions that existed. First came the Enquiries through Royal Commissions, and then little councils filled with people who must have struggled with the new regulations. We could identify their problems with many of the problems we are faced with today, for instance “Health & Safety” issues, “Child Protection” and “Housing for the Homeless”

The Public Health Act of 1848 was an Act of co-operation rather than an enforced law, and because of this it did not appear to have been acted upon with any degree of urgency. An Enquiry was held by Mr Robert Rawlinson, Super-intending Engineer to the General Board of Health on the 18th December 1848 in the hall of the Fareham Institution (Portland Hall), into the Sewerage, drainage and Supply of Water and the sanitary conditions of the inhabitants of the town and parish of Fareham. On the 5^th September 1849 the parish of Fareham was formed into a Urban Sanitary district and on the 18th September the government of the town was vested in a Board of Health consisting of nine members, with the chairman Richard Porter there were three merchants, three “gentlemen”, a brewer, a cooper, a basket-maker and a navel commander, these were invested to enforce the law. They were the Local Health Board to oversee the work.

Malcolm Low can be contacted on email: m.low1@ntlworld.com