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When Cholera came to Kent Print E-mail

Researching the Osborne family took us back to Mary Jane Smitherman (later married Charles Osborne, great-grandfather of Nigel Osborne).
In 1871 on census day, she was 11 years old, living with her parents, three brothers and two sisters in a tiny cottage at '3 See Ho Square' just off Tonbridge High Street.
See Ho Square no longer exists, but was approximately where River Walk is today, between the High Street and the River Medway.
On looking it up on the internet, we found the following fascinating reference, indicating it was a serious site of cholera some years before the Smitherman family took up residence.


Between 1831 and 1866 there were a series of epidemics that terrified the population of Kent. The disease was cholera and it was caught from contaminated water..

What frightened people about cholera was the speed at which it struck the victim and brought about a painful death. The first symptoms were watery diarrhoea and sickness. These symptoms of dysentery were very common and experienced by many people every year in late summer. What frightened people about cholera was that the first symptoms were like those for dysentery but within twenty four hours the cholera patient would be dead. There was no cure for cholera and although the disease did not kill as many people as other infectious diseases it caused panic..

Cholera also highlighted the terrible state of public health in the early Victorian towns of Kent. Most towns had a poor contaminated water supply and few sewage facilities. The result was the spread of diseases like cholera. The doctors and those responsible for public health had no way of discovering the cause of the disease nor did they posses a cure. They had to rely on observation and experience. As each epidemic swept through the county analytical reports recorded the details. The outbreak in Tonbridge was typical of those in the middle of the nineteenth century. The details that follow are from a report by Alfred Dickens who inspected the town after an outbreak of cholera in 1854.

"Whittakers cottages or Tudey's Row.
These are the cottages referred to by Mr Gorham, surgeon, in his evidence.
There could hardly be a stronger instance of the expensive results arising from the want of sanitary regulations. Mr Gorham states that the cholera visited this place with such violence in 1849, that all who were able to leave did so. From that time to this (the time of my visit) these wretched places have been empty.
The cottages are eleven in number; in no instance are the windows whole. Tramps occasionally take possession of them at night, and are too glad to escape from them in the morning. The floods occasionally have been known to rise to the level of the ground floor.
The privies are within a yard of the back doors, and their smell is most horrible, making the narrow back yards absolutely unbearable.
.
Wingate's Yard.
All the houses are very miserable and in an exceedingly bad state. They let at 2s per week, most of them comprise one room downstairs, and two above.
The floors of the lower rooms are about two feet below the level of the yard, these rooms are consequently damp and dirty. Some of the windows do not open.
One of the tenants complained to me, in the course of conversation, of the wretched state of her dwelling.
She said her children had been very ill. Her husband was out of work, having hurt his hand. The pitiable child she was nursing was then ill of fever.

Whittaker's Cottages.
The cholera completely decimated the inhabitants in 1849. The panic caused thereby induced all who were able to leave the place, and now the wretched cottages are completely deserted.
Cholera was worse during the recent visitation. In Wlngate's yard, and Barden road Hayesden village was in a very bad state. The cholera attacked many people there. There were several fatal cases. Before It broke out privies had been emptied, and the contents left exposed to poison the atmosphere.
I have not the slightest doubt that with better sewerage and drainage a large amount of disease would disappear. Such disease is very costly to the parish.

I received £30 pounds extra pay from the parish during the recent outbreak of cholera. My brother officers also received additional pay; and Dr Wilmot, who was appointed Medical Superintendent for the time, received upwards of £100 for his remuneration."

 



A plan of See-Ho Square from the Dickens Report

Despite the cholera epidemics the authorities in Tonbridge were unable to agree about what should be done and who should do it. It took an outbreak of smallpox in the early 1870's to persuade those in charge of local government in the town to cooperate and sort out a workable water and sewage system.


 
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