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From the information obtained from both the Trade Directories and the Health Report, two very different images of Blackburn in the mid nineteenth century begin to emerge.  This contrast between the two points of views is remarkable as both are polarised at either end of the spectrum with neither occupying the hazy middle ground.  From the view of the Health Report implying that Blackburn itself is little more than an open sewer comes an alternative opinion which makes Blackburn sound a very stylish place - two very clear-cut images: good or bad, black or white with no grey areas between.  Taking into account both of these two opinions, it is at this point assumed that both are to some extent over-exaggerated accounts of their own perception of conditions, done in order to instil their own opinions in an attempt to indoctrinate the minds of those who are happy to accept all that they read whether it be good or bad.  It is essential therefore to consider the motives of both the Health Report and Trade Directories.  Withers' observations were published in 1853 two years after Blackburn received the Charter of Incorporation creating the Borough of Blackburn.  There is little doubt that most of the conditions that were described in the Health Report must have existed in some shape or form in Blackburn, but only in certain parts of the town and not perhaps to the extent that Withers implies, otherwise the Trade Directories accounts could have been held up by observers as a complete fabrication of the facts which undoubtedly would have been so obvious to a potential trader as they entered the town, damaging the reputations of those highly respected journals.  As a consequence therefore further investigation it is vital to question those facts stated both in the Health Report and the Trade Directories in order to attempt to present an objective approach as possible as to what life was like in Blackburn during the 1850s and as a consequence fill the void which lies between these two points of view with this judgment.  But what is apparent at this stage is the fact that the Health Report tends to tackle conditions away from the centre of Blackburn, whereas the Trade Directories concentrate solely on the centre of town.  Both of these sources however need closer examination in order to see just how far their accounts were accurate.

 

Beginning with the subject of Withers and the severe overcrowding; it seems that the greatest problem of severe overcrowding is that of disease.  Starting with the incidences of death in Blackburn, the Health Report claims that the most prevalent diseases at that time were Scarletina and Typhus.  In the six month period between 5 May and 10 November 1852, Withers states that in Blackburn there were 74 deaths from Scarletina and 84 from Typhus (1).  Up to the 10 November 1852 an average of 12.3% and 14% deaths per month were due to typhus and scarletina respectively over this period, the year to that date having seen 1,438 deaths, therefore using the average figure per month, it would be assumed that during the full year 1852, there would have been 168 deaths from Typhus, 147 deaths from Scarletina with Wither's estimated mortality for that year to be 1,618 (2).

 

Before looking further in to these figures, it is worth looking at the two main causes of death in a little more detail.  Both typhus and scarletina are bacterial infections rather than viral ones.  The encyclopaedic definition of Scarletina is that it is an acute, infectious bacterial disease (3).  Typhus again is an acute infectious disease caused by a bacteria transmitted by lice, fleas, mites and ticks which is epidemic amongst people living in overcrowded conditions (4).  Therefore, the existence of both of these diseases is indicative of the presence of overcrowded conditions and a high incidence of overcrowding would in tend to indicated that there would be many cases as a result.  Looking at the overall mortality for 1852, the estimated figures for that year indicates that 9.09% of the deaths in Blackburn at that time were as a result of Scarletina and 10.38% of the deaths were from Typhus.  The figures themselves seem high yet in real terms there are considerably low.  By adding both together, this would account for just under a fifth of the causes of deaths in Blackburn during that one year.  Additionally by looking at the figures for the streets which Withers has detailed, these two diseases appear to be incredibly low with only five streets out of fifty eight having more than two deaths from typhus and only the work house recording six deaths which does somewhat lead to the question of just how widespread in Blackburn were overcrowded houses since this data would imply that it actually was minimal.  In the work house it would be expected that because of the high level of people crowded together, coupled with the poor conditions and the overall poor health of the inmates that such an institution would harbour, that there would be a higher than normal incidence, yet the Health Report does imply that it was not uncommon for there to be many people living within the same small house.  However one factor which should be acknowledged is the fact that the figures given only relate to the deaths that have been caused by these diseases and not to actual cases where sufferers actually got over the disease, but it can only be assumed that in those days before the advent of penicillin that survival rates for both of those these two very serious diseases would have been extremely low.  However that they appear to be relatively low in Blackburn would again tend to indicate that the problems which are caused by overcrowding do not appear to be as widespread as Withers' suggests.  Further, if these effects are not as widespread as would be expected after reading the Health Report then perhaps the overcrowding was neither as prevalent nor as appalling as the report implied.  As a consequence therefore, it is necessary to investigate further into these allegations of severe overcrowding to see just how widespread it was in Blackburn.

 

Beginning with data obtained from Peter Whittles' account of Blackburn in 1852, his figures, which in themselves are taken from possibly the most reliable source of them all, the census return, indicate that by 1851, the average number of occupants per house in Blackburn was 5.87 (5).  Even rounding this figure up to six does not indicate that there was the excessive overcrowding in Blackburn at this time that Withers implies.  However this is an average of all of the houses in Blackburn could distort the fact that in some areas the number of people living in one house could be far higher in than in others.  With this is mind therefore a good test is to look at the occupancy of houses in those streets that Withers lists and check the actual census schedules to see on average in how many people was there was per house and how far these numbers were away from the average.  To take this process one step further, those streets which Withers used as his basis the town have been allocated into eight districts to see if the proportion of people per house was higher in some parts of Blackburn than in others.  The town therefore has been divided into: Nova Scotia, Grimshaw Park, The Wrangling, Brookhouse, (incorporating the Daisyfield area), Lark Hill, Green Bank, Blakey Moor and Salford.  Each of these districts cover roughly the same sized area and are plotted on the map below.  The data which has been obtained from those named streets in those areas marked on the above map have been quantified producing the following table.

The above table shows those actual streets in their respective districts marked on the map, showing also the average occupancy per house and the number of cases of scarletina and typhus which occurred in the ten month period, as detailed in the Health Report.  As shown in the table above and illustrated in the graph below, there seems to be a greater concentration of people per house in The Wrangling district of Blackburn than in any other part, with the figure of occupancy per house being almost double the average in some streets. 

 

The reason for this may well be due to the fact that according to the 1848 Ordnance Survey 60 inch to one mile map, that the back to back houses which exist at Whalley Banks are depicted in the map above of having steps on the outside implying that within these houses there were cellars which acted as dwellings, therefore at Whalley Banks there are people living above and below one another, side by side and back to back.  Also, the above table shows that in this area there is the greatest number of deaths caused by typhus, prevalent in those places where overcrowding existed.  Additionally these houses are in close proximity of the River Blakewater, downstream from Salford Bridge, therefore it is possible that the accumulation of all the filth and debris and poisonous exhalations that both the Health Report and Whittle mention are concentrated in this highly overcrowded area, giving rise to the higher than average death rate caused by typhus.  Not only is there overcrowding in those houses in Whalley Banks, but also in houses in Livesey Little Street, Livesey Back Street, Richard Street, Back Richard Street and Back King Street.  In each of these streets there is an average of seven and more people living in the same house.  The houses in all of these streets are back to back type and in Livesey Little, there is again a sizeable number of deaths due to the occurrence of typhus.

 

By investigating the houses in this district of town using the census returns from 1851, it appears those people who live in such conditions are those employed in some of the lowliest of trades such as labourers.  Additionally, it appears that in many of these overcrowded dwellings Irish immigrants are housed and throughout Blackburn, wherever there is severe overcrowding, there is a tendency for the occupants of these houses to be Irish Labourers.  Over the town of Blackburn as a whole, the number of Irish per house averages out at 10.63, and it is not unusual to find as many as fifteen and sixteen people living in two roomed dwellings. In a house in the Cockcrofts, narrow streets near to Blakey Moor were there was a high density of Irish immigrants and of 45 houses there are thirteen with occupancy over sixteen people crowded into the same house and six of these with more than twenty occupants per house.  Returning to the Wrangling, another striking feature which the above table highlights is the actual number of deaths caused by typhus in the area.  The figure illustrates that within a ten month period, 33.3% of all cases of typhus occurred in the Wrangling district and so this clearly illustrates that the incidence of typhus went hand in hand with that of severe overcrowding.

 

In the midst of all this disease and overcrowding in the Wrangling, there is however an anomaly, namely Richard Street and Back Richard Street.  In the period that Withers' covers, there are no cases of either scarletina or typhus in either of these two streets.  In order to ascertain why this might be so, the table below was produced comparing some of the other streets in the Wrangling district with the two Richard Streets to see if any conclusions could be drawn from the fact that those two named diseases were not found in the two Richard Streets.