Eradicating Filth: Public Health in Victorian Times


Willenhall

Willenhall is situated some 2½ miles (5km) east of Wolverhampton. According to the 1841 census the population was 8,695.

Willenhall was a place of coal mining, iron production and the manufacture of metal goods, chiefly lockmaking,

"Willenhall's smiths were given the order to make all the locks required by Elizabeth I's government departments".*

*Staffordshire Encyclopaedia, page 663

Other products made in Willenhall included guns, bolts, files, traps, screws and hooks

Click on the image to enlarge
Map of Willenhall c. 1850 (Map 88)

St Giles Church, Willenhall (WIL/E1/STG/E2/ Willenhall)

One of the earliest enquiries into public health was the Royal Commision for the Inquiry on the Sanitary State of Large Towns & Populous Districts, 1844 (or the Chadwick Report as it was also known).

In response to the Chadwick Report, Wolverhampton sent a petition to the General Board of Health signed by a tenth of the rated inhabitants of Wolverhampton, as required by the Public Health Act (1848), for an enquiry into the state of Wolverhampton, Bilston, Wednesfield and Willenhall.

The result was the Report to the General Board of Health: 1849 written by Robert Rawlinson (L614)

In the report Rawlinson stated:

Extract from Rawlinson Report page 31

The extract lists:

No general system of sewers or drains
Stagnant ditches
Middens and Pig Sties are common throughout the town.

In the area of Willenhall known as Portobello:

Click on the image to enlarge
Map of Portobello c.1850 (Map 151)

Extract from Rawlinson Report page 31

The extract lists that:

Portobello consists of about 2,200 people, chiefly miners and their families
There are no effective drains or sewers
Many cottages without proper conveniences
Stagnant ditches, pools of filthy water, dung heaps
A household with all of its members suffering from fever
A child dying of fever in another house

However there was cause for optimism:

One block of cottages with a neat and clean appearance Each house having a proper convenience
The surface of the yards covered with local blue bricks
An indication of what could be achieved

As for the water supply:

Extract from Rawlinson Report page 43

The extract lists:

Due to mining operations water was scarce
Surface water was vitiated
Water drawn from ditches and a small brook
Brook choked with refuse, even dead dogs
Water had to be carried large distances
Water had to be left to settle before use

However by 1862 things had started to improve:

On 26th February, 1862, the Management Committee of the Bilston and District Provident Society heard an application for a mortgage by Mr Thomas Emery of New Road, Willenhall for £200 to build ten new houses in Brickkyln Street, Portobello, presumably for poorer members of the community to rent.

Extract from Bilston and District Provident Society General Minute Book
1861-1875 (D-SO-44/1/1)

Click on the image to enlarge
Map of Portobello, 1887 Ordnance Survey Map Staffordshire, Sheet LXII.12

Since 1966 Willenhall has been part of Walsal. For further information concerning the history of Willenhall please contact Walsall Archives.
The area of Portobello remained part of Wolverhampton.