Tickhill in the late 1940s
Having looked at the report on Tickhill in 1925 from the Medical Officer of Health in the Autumn Newsletter, this piece uses a report from the MOH up to 31 December 1948 to find out to what extent living conditions here had changed. The population had increased slightly to an estimated 2390, said to be 17 less than the previous year. Tickhill district was mainly agricultural and residential but some miners from neighbouring collieries still lived in the town.
There had been a good increase in the number of houses, from 518 in 1921 to 715 in May 1949 (presumably the
1948 report was not written until June 1949). Between 1935 and May 1949 76 houses had been built by the Council with 8 bungalows for older residents. Over the same period private contractors had built 59 houses. A further 32 houses were under construction by the Council which were expected to be completed by December 1949.*
A considerable improvement was noted in what were called sanitary circumstances: 646 houses were now on the public water supply, leaving 47 houses not on the public supply, possibly relying on wells. (The total amounting to 693 properties does not quite coincide with the 715 houses recorded in the previous paragraph.)
The district was satisfactorily ‘sewered’ except in the Lindrick area, said to be too low to be drained into existing sewers. 49 houses here were not connected to sewers in 1948. Overall, some 7 houses relied on pail closets and 50 on privvies. The schools were not specifically mentioned suggesting that they were connected to both the water supply and sewers, a considerable improvement since the 1920s.
Waterways were kept clear by the Trent Drainage Board. These waterways draining into the River Trent were Paper Mill Dyke, the River Torne, Goole Dyke and Dadsley Wells stream. Drains leading into the streams were connected to the sewers where possible. Collections for the disposal of waste were carried out by Tickhill UDC’s own workmen. The waste was disposed of by ‘destruction, tipping and by farmers’.
Milk was still provided by cows kept in 20 cow sheds which were described as generally satisfactory in terms of cleanliness and ‘methods of production’. There were 13 registered cow keepers all of whom had been inspected. Four farms produced milk of the ‘accredited’ grade. Butchers shops were inspected and were perfectly clean and hygienic, with meat delivered ‘unsoiled and fresh’. Slaughter houses were no longer mentioned. The only failing was that some tinned foods were condemned as unfit for human consumption due to decomposition causing ‘hand swell’.
One of the greatest changes since the 1925 MOH report was the creation of the National Health Service by the 1946 Act. There was now a county ambulance service run by the NHS with a main ambulance depot at Bentley and a sub depot at Rossington open 12 hours a day, six days a week. The district had its own health visitor, Nurse B. Hill, employed by the West Riding County Council and a district nurse cum midwife, Nurse E. Hawksworth, who lived at 5 Common Lane, also employed by the WRCC under the 1946 Act. There were still no child welfare or ante natal clinics here, the nearest centre being Bawtry, but any mothers needing ante natal supervision could obtain it from the family doctor.
By the end of 1948 385 local children aged from under 5 to 13 had been immunised against diphtheria. This represented almost 64% of the child population. Only 12 infants were vaccinated. The district was comparatively free of infectious diseases apart from a measles epidemic which saw 100 children affected. (The MMR vaccine was not introduced until 1988 having been used in the USA since 1971.) Four children also caught whooping cough.
As in 1925, legitimate and illegitimate births were still recorded separately: 44 legitimate and 1 illegitimate. There were no still births and no deaths of children under one year of age. A total of 32 people died, heart disease being the major cause followed by respiratory illnesses. A 24 years old woman caught tuberculosis. Scarlet fever, of such concern in 1925, was not mentioned.
Unlike in 1925 when the local GP was the MOH, by 1948 the MOH was based in Doncaster at Nether Hall. Dr A Penman was also the divisional MOH for the WRCC. The sanitary inspector/surveyor and the meat inspector were both based at Worksop. A total of 273 inspections were made for nuisances, 14 being found in 1948 with 5 outstanding by the end of 1948. No summonses or legal proceedings were necessary.
A copy of this Tickhill UDC Report can be found online at: archive.org/details/b30187229
*For more information about Tickhill Urban District Council’s house building and the priority waiting list for council houses in 1948 see John Hoare’s 2014 article ‘Tickhill U.D.C. 1946-1974’ on our website under Local Government and Services in the Articles menu. See also Chapter 7 in Carol Hill’s Tickhill: discover its past, TDLHS, 2014.