On the 12th and 13th September 1849, George Thomas Clark, Superintending Inspector to the General Board of Health, visited Sherborne and carried out a preliminary inquiry into the town’s sewerage, drainage, water supply, and sanitary conditions. The Report, which was published by the General Board of Health on 27th March 1850, provides a unique insight into what living conditions were like in Sherborne in 1849, and resulted in what J.H.P. Gibb described in The Book of Sherborne (1981) as ‘the most far-reaching change in the town’s government’ , with the setting up in September 1851 of the Sherborne Local Board of Health comprising twelve members elected by all rate-payers to carry out reforms and levy rates to pay for them. The Sherborne Local Board of Health remained the town’s main organ of local government until the formation in 1895 of the Sherborne Urban District Council.
REPORT TO THE GENERAL BOARD OF HEALTH ON A PRELIMINARY INQUIRY INTO THE SEWERAGE, DRAINAGE, AND SUPPLY OF WATER, AND THE SANITARY CONDITION OF THE INHABITANTS OF THE PARISH OF SHERBORNE.[i]
By Geo. T. Clark, Superintending Inspector.[ii]
London: Printed by W. Clowes & sons, Stamford Street, for Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1850.
NOTIFICATION.
The General Board of Health, hereby give notice, in terms of Section 9th of the Public Health Act, that on or before the 6th May next written statements may be forwarded to the Board with respect to any matter contained in or omitted from the accompanying Report on the Sewerage, Drainage, and Supply of Water, and the Sanitary Condition of the Inhabitants of the Parish of SHERBORNE, or with respect to any amendment to be proposed therein.
By order of the Board, HENRY AUSTIN, Secretary.
Gwydyr House, Whitehall, 27th March, 1850.
PUBLIC HEALTH ACT (11 and 12 Vict., cap. 63).
Report to the General Board of Health, on a Preliminary Inquiry into the Sewerage, Drainage, and Supply of Water, and the Sanitary Condition of the Inhabitants of the Parish of SHERBORNE, in the County of Dorset. By GEORGE THOMAS CLARK, Superintending Inspector, 1849.
Wimborne Minster, 2nd October, 1849.
MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN,
In obedience to your instructions I have inspected the parish of Sherborne, in the county of Dorset. After notice given as directed by the Public Health Act, I held public sittings in the town hall there on the mornings of the 12th and 13th September last, and employed the remainder of those days in collecting materials for the Report which I have now the honour to lay before you.
2.The inquiry took place upon petition from the PARISH OF SHERBORNE, numerously and respectably signed, and headed by the Vicar [Rev. John Parsons[iii]]. The proceedings were supported by Mr B. Chandler, Jun.[iv], solicitor; Mr W. Babington[v]; and by Mr J.Y. Melmoth[vi], Clerk to the Board of Guardians, the Magistrates, and the Turnpike Commissioners, and Superintendent Registrar: the inquiry received also very general support in the town.
3.The above gentlemen had each made themselves intimately acquainted with a certain district, and from them I received a general report upon its state. From these documents I derived material assistance, and was enabled to obtain far more accurate information as to the condition of the town than would otherwise, in the same time, have been within my reach. I obtained also from Mr Melmoth, as vestry clerk, a map of Sherborne, and from Mr W. Peniston[vii], civil engineer, a plan of the existing sewers. I am bound to state that I have nowhere found a more earnest desire to have the whole circumstances of the place laid open, nor have I inspected any town in which there appeared to me to exist better materials for an efficient Local Board.
4.GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Sherborne, a very ancient town, and once the seat of an episcopal see, the parent of Salisbury, Bath and Wells, Exeter, and Bristol, stands in the fruitful valley of the Yeo, upon the right or northern bank of the river, and upon a gentle slope. The church[viii], one of the most celebrated in the county, is placed in the midst of the town, which extends from north to south about 1,000 yards, and from east to west about 1,320 yards. The streets, though irregular, are for the most part if tolerable width, and the town contains an unusual extent of garden ground and open space favourable to the salubrity of the atmosphere.
5.The suburbs of the town are open, and on the whole extremely beautiful. On the west are the rich meadows of the Yeo. On the south and south-east the opposite slope of the valley forms Lord Digby’s[ix] beautiful park, and the domain of the ancient castle of Sherborne. On the north, within a mile and a half of the town, is the escarpment of the oolite, the view from which includes the rich vale of Taunton Dean, and extends as far as Glastonbury, the Mendip Hills, and the distant mountains of Glamorgan. Few towns can boast equal natural advantages, or are capable of being rendered clean and healthy at so small an expense.
6.The Yeo at Sherborne marks nearly the junction between the fullers’ earth beds and the inferior oolite. The cutting of the Dorchester Road, near the town, intersects successively the cornbrash, forest marble, Bradford clay, and fullers’ earth. The town is built upon the inferior oolite, excepting near the river, where there is a tract of silt and loam, and other alluvial deposits.
7.Sherborne, though in an agricultural district and county, is chiefly supported by its manufactures of silk. There are four silk throwing mills in the town. A good deal of “gloving” is also taken in from Yeovil. There is a weekly market for agricultural produce.
8.GOVERNMENT
The town of Sherborne has no separate or legally defined existence. It is contained in the parish of Sherborne, with the exception of a small portion of its eastern extremity, which is in the parish of Castleton. There are no LOCAL ACTS.
9.The government is parochial. For the parish of Sherborne there are two churchwardens, two overseers of the poor, four surveyors of highways or waywardens, and five gas inspectors appointed under Lord Portman’s Act. For Castleton there are two churchwardens, two overseers, and on surveyor of the roads. Certain main roads are vested in the Turnpike Road Trustees. The want of an efficient town government is felt to be a very serious evil. The interests of the farmers and the townsmen are placed in opposition, the former complaining of the injustice of being taxed to light, pave, or sewer the town, and, not unnaturally, employing their influence in vestry, to check or overthrow all plans for its exclusive benefit. The powers vested in the existing authorities are quite unsuited for the government of a town, and the Nuisances Removal Act, though efficient for the temporary correction of evils, does not provide a permanent remedy for them. Here, as elsewhere, I found that those persons who are anxious for the application of the Public Health Act, are those who have laboured most diligently to carry out the provisions of the existing law.
Mr Chandler observes,
“From there being in the town no corporation, local commissioners, or Improvement Act, it is impossible that any improvements can be carried out, both because there are no adequate authorities to do it, and no funds available for the purpose. This inconvenience is particularly felt from the parish being extensive, and the farmers, not unnaturally, being opposed to those town improvements which ought to be carried out, but the moiety of the rates to effect which, would be paid by about 11 persons, and those the individuals who would derive the least benefit from them, and the parish has no power to make a town district, which should be exclusively rated for town purposes.
Castleton, which is a separate and very small parish, adjoins Sherborne, and would, it is conceived, be properly brought within the boundaries of the part to be subject to the Act.”
10.FINANCE
In 1847 the rated rental of Sherborne parish was £23,204.; that of Castleton £500; and of the town, probably about £9,000. The rates are as follows. It will be observed that their produce is considerably less than the real rated portion of the rental.
| Sherborne | s. | d. | In the pound, producing | £ | s. | d. |
| Poors’ rate | 3 | 4 | 2,830 | 14 | 1 | |
| Church rate | 0 | 2 | 141 | 5 | 11 | |
| Highway rate | 0 | 4 | 282 | 11 | 11 | |
| Gas rate (chiefly on the town) | 0 | 7 ½ | 346 | 18 | 9 | |
| TOTAL | 4 | 5 ½ | 3,601 | 10 | 8 |
In Castleton, the Poors’ rate is 1s. 8d. in the pound, and the highway rate 7d. in the pound.
So that the existing annual burthens of which the town of Sherborne bears a part are:
In Sherborne parish 4s. 5 ½ d. in the pound.
In Castleton parish 2s. 3d. in the pound.
11.POPULATION AND MORTALITY
The area of Sherborne parish is 6,467 acres, and the population in 1801 was 3,159; in 1811, 3,370; in 1821, 3,622; in 1831, 4,075; and in 1841, the population was 4,758, dwelling in 930 houses. The area of Castleton is 54 acres, and the population in the same periods was 125, 123, 174, 186, and 113, dwelling in 30 houses. The present population of the town of Sherborne is probably about 5,000 dwelling in about 1,000 houses.
12.I have received from Mr Melmoth, Superintendent Registrar, the following statement:
Deaths registered in the Sherborne district, in the years ending:
| 30th June 1843 | 138 |
| 30th June 1844 | 109 |
| 30th June 1845 | 115 |
| 30th June 1846 | 98 |
| 30th June 1847 | 117 |
| 30th June 1848 | 104 |
| 30th June 1849 | 105 |
| TOTAL | 786 |
Giving an annual average of 112 2/7, and an annual mortality, taking the population of 1841, of 23.9 in the 1,000; or, upon the computed mean population of the seven years, 22.9 in the 1,000. The town mortality, will of course be somewhat higher than this. In the tables of the Health of Towns’ Association, calculated from the returns of 1841, the mortality of the Sherborne and Dorchester district, including 28, 363 persons, was 23.8 in the 1,000, shewing it to be the least healthy district in the county.
13.INSPECTION OF THE TOWN
In this part of the inquiry I was accompanied by Mr B. Chandler, jun., Mr W. Babington, Mr Melmoth, Mr Falwasser[x], Mr Williamson[xi], Mr W. Highmore[xii], Mr H. Coate[xiii], Mr R.J. Withers[xiv], Mr Ruegg[xv], Mr G. Gent[xvi], Mr Poyner[xvii], Mr J. Talbot[xviii], and several other rate payers.
14.Acreman Street has a good fall to the south, is of fair width, and the houses along it are by no means crowded together; and on the west side, however, are numerous cottages with bad premises, very narrow, and rendered damp by the rising ground behind them. They are badly supplied with privies, and such as there are discharge into offensive cesspools. The house drains are open in the face of the retaining wall of the footpath, above an open gutter, and much of the house refuse is cast into the road. At the upper end a farmyard discharges its fluid manure into the road. The state of this street was much complained of by the residents, especially by Mr Falwasser.
Mr Babington, who lives in Westbury, states:
“In the upper part of Acreman Street, commencing at Cornhill, there is no drain, but only a gutter running in front of the houses. This gutter is covered here and there superficially for a few yards, but is, generally, open. It receives the drainage of the various houses, which is sometimes emitted from the height of a foot or more above the surface of the road. It may be well supposed, therefore, that the gutter is generally in a most filthy state, and the effluvia most offensive. Moreover, there is no supply of water to diminish the nuisance.
In the lower part of Acreman Street the drain commences opposite to a barn belonging to Mr Ensor[xix], and receives not only the contents of the gutter above-mentioned, and the drainage of the various houses by which it passes, but also the overflowings of Mr Rawlings’[xx] pond, which lies on the eastern side of the drain, and which generally affords a good run of water. The drain is covered, but generally by large flagstones, which emit the effluvia between their joints. It continues thus covered nearly as far as a house in Westbury occupied by Mr McRae[xxi].”
The Union House[xxii], in Horsecastle’s Lane, is well built and arranged. The water closets are in good order, with well-built cesspools, and overflow drains. The drain discharges into an open gutter in Westbury, and is no slight nuisance there. Since my visit to Sherborne I have received a recent report from the Society for the Relief of Distressed Travellers, from which I extract the following passage:
“In presenting to the subscribers the Twenty-ninth Report of the above Institution, the manager has not only to account (as usual) for the money committed to his care, but to announce to the public that a new feature has arisen in the Society, which has materially raised it in importance, and rendered it one of the most useful Institutions that exists in the whole neighbourhood. Whilst the distribution of the funds was confined to its original object, namely, the supply of food and lodging to the distressed traveller, who from necessity was passing through the town in a state of destitution, and who by the Society’s timely aid was prevented from begging alms from door to door, the work of the manager was comparatively easy and simple, – the detection and punishment of the sturdy and trading beggar being the only variation to the contrary. But the hordes of Irish families which spread themselves throughout the whole of England during the last winter months, made it imperative that their claims should be met here, as elsewhere. Without extraneous help it was impossible for the manager to afford, even the most scanty supply of food for the numbers that applied to him. The Guardians of the Sherborne Union very soon felt that they should be compelled to open the workhouse doors for those poor, miserable, and half naked vagrants, unless every parish in the Union would come forward and help the funds of this Institution. They did this immediately and effectually, and it would be difficult to say what amount of expense, of filth, and of disease has been thus averted from the Sherborne Union house, which is noted for its order and cleanliness. It is not improbable that the same painful cause may, before the expiration of two months, give rise to the same necessity; and if so, the policy as well as the duty of coming forward again must be obvious to every rate-payer and to every Guardian within the Union. The necessity of erecting some additional building at the Union house, will, without doubt, arise unless this Institution be maintained.”
Mr Highmore and other persons pointed out to me the great want of a proper place in the Union house for the reception of persons whether parishoners or vagrants, suffering under contagious disease.
16.Westbury, the entrance to the town from Dorchester, contains some filthy courts and back premises. In Newman’s Court, the contents of a privy ooze into a dwelling room, and the well is tainted and rendered useless. Near this is a cottage, with a privy without a floor, and a large and most offensive pit, filled with soil.
Mr Babington observes:
“In Westbury the drain has hitherto been square and covered. From this point it become a V drain, and uncovered. It is about 15 inches deep, and between 3 and 4 feet wide at the top. It runs by the side of the road, opposite to the houses, as far as a house occupied by William Jeffry[xxiii], nearly at the southern extremity of the town, where it is covered, and crosses the road, and enters a field, through a portion of which it is covered, but is open through the remaining part, which passes along the end of the pleasure grounds belonging to J.P. Willmott[xxiv], Esq., and then passing through a tunnel under a piece of water attached to the same pleasure grounds, empties itself into the river in the fields beyond.
This ditch receives the drainage of the various houses along its course, and also (which is especially deserving of notice) the overflowings of the cesspools of the Union workhouse. It is always in a most filthy state, and, being made a receptacle for all kinds of rubbish, and being also purposely dammed up, in various places for the sake of the water, by workmen and others, the impurities it ought to carry away have no means of escape, and are most fetid and noxious.
So long as the ditch remains open it will always be in this shameful state. It will require daily supervision to prevent the wantonness of boys and others from impeding its proper current. A weekly cleansing would be insufficient; but several months have hitherto been allowed to elapse between one cleansing and another. At the present moment it is in a comparatively fair state, having been just cleansed, but another week or two will probably render it as bad as ever.
The drains from the houses which communicate with this ditch are either too flat or ill-constructed, for they are continually choked up.
The privies along the whole course of Acreman Street and Westbury for the most part retain their deposits in cesspools; numbers of them at the present moment are quite full, and in a most shameful state.”
17.With reference to Half Moon Street, Mr Dingley[xxv] states:
“In this street there is no sewer whatever. The only drainage from houses occupied by Mr Rogers[xxvi], Mr Gosney[xxvii], Mr Way[xxviii], Mr Rex[xxix], and others, behind these respectively, is a small gutter, about 12 to 15 inches below the surface. This gutter, without any regular flow of water, goes through the premises of William and Samuel Dingley[xxx], and at certain times the stench is intolerable. At two distinct periods have complaints been lodged with the Board of Guardians, but no remedy has been effected. This gutter empties itself into an open drain leading through the Half Moon Inn[xxxi] premises, which goes out into the field.”
18.In Market Street [South Street], near the back of the Mermaid[xxxii], is a large, close, and offensive manure depot, at the back of a stable. There is a sewer, very loosely covered, under the footway of this street. On the south side, and behind the street, is a long, open, and most offensive ditch, into which the adjacent privies discharge, which is much complained of. Opposite Mr Penny’s[xxxiii] is a very dirty yard, badly paved, and with an open gutter running through a close passage. As usual, the privy discharges into a cesspool. Mr Penny, who resides here, observes:
“There is a pigstye adjoining and close to my garden, which occasionally smells most offensively, so that neither I nor Mrs Penny can walk there at such times with safety to our health. It is on the western side, and might, I should consider, be removed much further away, or much lower down, as there is plenty of room in those premises. Considerably higher up than the back part of my house there is an open gutter, which, I am informed by persons who live close to it, is sometimes very offensive, and there is a cesspool, partly uncovered, which belongs to a privy very near the back of my house, that is also very objectionable; these, I am informed, are cleaned out about once in a fortnight or three weeks, by a person whose garden they adjoin, whereas probably twice or three times every week would be requisite.
The butcher’s killing house[xxxiv], nearly opposite the Mermaid Inn, and the stable above and adjoining the stable of that inn, you are also aware of, having inspected them in going through the street. The common sewer passes through the street, in the centre, and a deep covered gutter under the footwalk on the western side, which latter often requires to be thoroughly cleansed by a stream of water running from a pond in the Abbey; it should be done for two hours every evening, after six o’clock, but it scarcely ever is properly cleansed by a full and powerful stream therefrom, except on Saturday evenings, and then but seldom thoroughly.”
19.In Cornhill Row, the cottages are very badly off for privies, and the back premises are rendered dark and damp by the steep hill side. The landlord of the Crown Inn[xxxv] complains of a very offensive open gutter in front of the house, and there is also a sewer from Greenhill, which drains into the premises where Mr Ffook’s waterworks[xxxvi] are set up.
20.Greenhill, with an excellent fall, is very dirty. The house drains discharge through the retaining wall of the raised footpath into the gutter, and the house refuse is thrown into the road. Willis’s Cottage[xxxvii] here has a very filthy pigstye and dung heap, the smell is a general subject of complaint.
21.In the Bristol Road is a row of cottages without any privy at all, and in other respects in a bad condition. In George Yard [George Street] are five cottages with only one privy, a badly paved yard, and an offensive dung heap, producing a very offensive smell. The people are badly off for water.
22.At the upper end of Newland, Mr Cox[xxxviii] stated that great benefit has been derived by a supply of water laid on from Mr Ffook’s works. In Bishop’s Yard[xxxix] is an open ditch, into which a privy from an adjacent livery stable discharges, and is a great nuisance. In Thomas’s Court[xl] the houses are without back windows. In Sansom’s Cottages the want of water was much complained of, and the privies were very offensive.
23.Miles’s Court[xli] is built without back windows, and a privy is placed above the row of cottages. This part of Newland is without main drains, or any means of removing the filth from the courts. The whole south side of Newland is closely built up with cottages in courts, badly supplied with privies, undrained and without water.
24.The Rookery[xlii] is a crowded nest of courts, with two privies to 24 houses, paying from 1s. to 1s. 6d. a week each, and very badly off for water. Adjoining to a part of this place is a very offensive open pool of night soil, which oozes through the wall. The back premises are narrow, and the place likely to be visited by cholera. There is here no main drain and no water. Opposite, William Coffin[xliii] has a remarkably clean and neat cottage, but with very close and dirty back premises belonging to himself and his neighbours, which all complain of, but are unable, without proper main drainage to amend.
With reference to the district of Newland, Mr Robert J. Withers states:
‘Drainage – Partial and very imperfect. No main sewer between Cheap Street and Mr Williamson’s, a distance of some two hundred yards. An open drain leads from Bishop’s though an opposite garden, into the Fair Field, through an open ditch immediately behind Dr Williams’s[xliv] house, in Cheap Street, and is very offensive. Several other houses also empty themselves into the same. At the commencement of the street, three private houses, at an aggregate rental of £86 a year, have a separate privy to each, but joining one another, all three immediately over one common cesspool, consequently everything that transpires in one is heard in the other, and this, to good houses, is particularly offensive and indecorous. Between Mr Williamson’s and Mr Ensor’s, a distance of 250 yards, there is a common sewer, into which all the house drains lead. This drain from thence leads immediately into Long Street; there is then no common sewer for the remainder of the street, about 300 yards longer.
Privies – the privies all throughout are provided with cesspools, and none lead into drains. There are not above one or two water closets in the whole length of the street. The courts and poor cottages are ill supplied with these necessaries, and on an average, there are six families to one privy. In ‘Ellis Rookery’[xlv], upwards of 20 families have only two to their use, while other courts are nearly as bad, and all the refuse from this, and adjoining cottages are emptied into the street, from there being no drains to carry it off.
Water – a few houses on the west side are supplied from Mr Ffooks’s, but the generality have to fetch it some distance. About the middle of Newland is one pump, and excepting Castleton, they have no other supply.
Paving and Lighting – the paving, towards the east end, especially on south side, is very bad, in other places it is passable. The lamps are few and far between; the first is 100 yards from Cheap Street, and affords no light whatever to those living between them.”
25.Mill Lane, in Long Street, suffers from a very offensive open ditch, by which its sewerage reaches the river, and there is a similar one behind Mr Ffooks’s brewery[xlvi], and a third in Half Moon Lane.
26.Cheap Street is narrow and winding, the footways are very badly paved, and the back premises rather crowded. In Hound Street are some excellent cottages, known as Windsor Court[xlvii]. Here are seven houses, well built, clean and neat, with a yard, paved and gravelled, the gardens having been removed. There are four privies, of which two are kept locked, and a dust bin. The rent is about 5l. per annum, a smaller sum is paid for some of the worst houses in the town, and the property is stated by the owner to pay well. I dwell upon these cottages because the effect of the application of the Public Health Act will be to enable every cottage proprietor in Sherborne to put his cottages into as good a state as these, at a moderate expense, and with the important addition of a water supply. Near these are other cottages, without back windows, and in a much inferior state.
27.Cold Harbour, which with Newland possess the finest sites in the town, contains a number of cottages very ill provided with water, privies, or drainage.
28.There are four slaughter houses[xlviii] in the town, which it seems very desirable to remove out of it.
29,I find, in Sherborne, many circumstances which are by no means common in towns, and which, if taken advantage of, would render it unusually clean and commodious. Most of the streets are airy, some, as Newland, particularly so. Many of the cottages are built in the best situations. Most of the yards and courts are open on one side to the country, or to the gardens, of which the town contains a great number, and proper drainage, privies, and water supply alone are wanting to make the dwellings extremely comfortable.
30.These remedies, however, are very much needed, and for want of them the poorer classes almost everywhere throughout the town are forced to live in a state of filth and discomfort, the effect of which is almost equally injurious to their moral and physical condition.
31.SEWERS AND DRAINS
The state of the sewerage is so intimately connected with the health and comfort of the town, that I feel called upon to dwell with some minuteness upon it, which, as the following statements put in as evidence into my hands will show, has received close attention on the part of the promoters of the inquiry.
Mr B. Chandler, jun., observes:
“The sewerage of Sherborne is of the worst possible description, being laid down without any reference to system; and in many even of the principal streets, no drains are to be found for considerable distances, the inhabitants making the private arrangements they think best adapted to answer their own ends.
The drains are for the most part badly constructed, being built in the ground with earth bottoms and dry wall sides, which from their roughness aid the accumulation of deposit. There is, however, one on a better principle, being round.
No control is exercised over the town drains, each person opening or altering them in any way thought best. But the greatest defect is that there is no arrangement for conveying any considerable quantity of water through them, except when it rains, and therefore the only way in which they get cleaned is by being opened and the soil taken out.
In one street of very considerable extent the drainage from all the houses, including the Union workhouse, runs into an open gutter, which at times is most offensive, and would be still more so if a stream of water did not run through it, though even with this important aid it is most objectionable, more especially as it is found impossible to prevent persons making dams for the sake of obtaining water for various purposes. Another objection to this gutter is from its being on the surface, and on one side of the road, in consequence of which the house drains on crossing the road have no sufficient fall, and are therefore liable to get choked.
Many of the drains are allowed to fall into common open ditches, and thereby become the depositories of the most filthy accumulations, which it is impossible with the greatest care to keep clean.
The sinks, which convey the water from the surface of the streets are of the rudest description, and all of them without traps, except a few just put in.
From the want of sewers it is impossible for many of the cottages to have anything but surface drainage, the owners not being inclined or able to go to the expense of making sewers of the necessary length to carry it off; and from the same reasons the privies are obliged everywhere to be formed by vaults without outlets, which at most times are objectionable, and when full have to be emptied by buckets.”
33.The Abbey watercourse[xlix], after receiving the contents of the privies of some cottages, and the almshouse[l], actually flows in a culvert across the chapel of the hospital, and in part below the communion rail, on each side of which is a large wooden trapdoor in the floor opening into this sewer. There is a third trapdoor just outside the chapel in the public street.
34.The Cheap Street sewer seems to be the only efficient one in the town. It is four feet high, egg-shaped, and has a good fall. The others are constructed of dry walling with earth bottoms and upright sides, upon no general system of levels or dimensions, with large untrapped gutter-grates; no record is kept of their course, dimensions, or cost. Many streets are, however, without even these.
35.The sewers are under the waywardens, who may be changed annually, and are not professional surveyors. There is no system of cleansing, or rather the sewers are only cleansed when they become choked up.
36.A most objectionable system prevails here of laying the sewer under the footpath and covering it over with rough Sherborne flagstone, with open joints, so that the smell rises in front of the houses.
37.The privies, where there are any, either discharge into cesspools, the overflow and offensive soil from which escape into the street sewer, or the open gutter, or they discharge into an open ditch, only cleansed by the occasional shower of rain.
38.For some months past, under the dread of cholera, and very recently in expectation of the present inquiry, considerable exertions have been made to cleanse the town, and I observed almost everywhere indications of the removal of dung heaps and other ancient nuisances. Nevertheless a great part of the town remains in a very filthy condition, and even the measure of cleanliness, such as it is, which has been attained, is the result of a degree of activity due entirely to temporary circumstances, and which cannot in the nature of things be expected to be long continued.
39.WATER SUPPLY
With reference to the existing supply it was stated:
“The supply of water is exceedingly defective in many parts of the town, particularly in those most thickly inhabited, the poor having often to fetch from a considerable distance that which they both wash with and drink.
The only waterworks which exist are the private property of Mr Ffooks, and they are upon a very small scale extending over a very short distance, though there would be no difficulty in getting an ample supply.
There are six public pumps or fountains[li] (one of which is dry for some months in the summer), viz.:
Newell Water.
Bishop’s pump, Newland.
Mr Hoddinott’s pump, dependent on private liberality.
Acreman Street pump.
Conduit.
Castleton well.”
The principal deficiency is in the upper part of the town, in which the springs lie very low. At Castleton one spring supplies rather a large district. The water of the rivulets in and below the town is very impure.
40.Mr Ffook’s waterworks are composed of a waterwheel which drives a single barrel pump of 3 inches diameter and 8 ½ inch stroke, making about 10 strokes per minute. It supplies, by pipes, about 60 houses at a charge of about 21s per annum. The neighbouring poor have free access to this water at certain hours.
41.HIGHWAYS
There are about 11 miles of road in Sherborne parish, which are now maintained by contract at £9.10s. per mile per annum. The contract is for three years, and the material employed is partly oolite-limestone, and partly gravel brought from a place about 5 miles distant. This limestone is very inferior material, and wears very badly. The roads, though on the whole in good repair, are badly formed, and the centres being hollow, and often lower than the side gutters.
42.The footways are very unequal, owing to the want of power in the waywardens to compel flagging. The waywardens, acting for the parish, will only incur the expense of Sherborne flags, a rough and very inferior stone, costing, when laid 4d. a superficial foot. Where the house owner will bear half the expense the waywarden will lay down Keinton lias flags, at a cost of 6 ½ d. a foot, which though very inferior to York paving, are very superior to the local flags.
43.This want of power to compel flagging operates very much against the comfort and appearance of the town. In various streets, as in Westbury, part of Long Street, Hound Street, the Parade, Half Moon Street, and Castleton, lengths of lias flagging have been laid down, and have a very neat appearance, and form a clean dry walk: but here and there intervene patches of rugged filthy pavement, opposite to the houses or shops of those who refuse to pay their share. About £240 is annually laid out upon the maintenance of roads, streets, and ways in the parish, of which sum about £120 is paid by the town.
44.LIGHTING
The town is lighted under the provisions of Lord Portman’s Act, by arrangement with a private gas company. There are 74 public lights, for each of which is paid £2.10s. The lamp posts are repaired by the company, the lamps by the parish. The charge by meter is 10s. per 1,000 cubic feet. The price of coal delivered in the company’s yard is 18s. 4d. per ton.
45.The period of lighting, from October to April inclusive, is short, and the number and brilliancy of the lights by no means sufficient for the wants of the town; however, on the other hand, the area to be lighted is considerable for the population, and a proper system of lighting would no doubt cost rather more than in most towns.
46.Under the Act the gas rate is levied upon houses and land, and although the latter is rated at about one-third of the former, the farmers object to pay what would, collectively, amount to a larger portion of the whole cost of lighting the town. To avoid this, I understand that, in practice, the gas company pay the rural rates, and of course indemnify themselves by charging a somewhat higher price for gas, which, however, is stated to be barely enough to cover the expense of manufacture. This is a complex and inconvenient arrangement.
47.BURIAL GROUNDS
Sherborne contains three burial grounds, all within the town; of these, two are attached to Independent and Wesleyan chapels; they are small, and but seldom used. The parish churchyard[lii], though spacious, is very full, and an addition recently made to it is also nearly full. On the whole, though none of the burial grounds can be said to be a nuisance, or dangerous to the public health, it is no doubt highly desirable that they should be closed, and a proper general cemetery provided without delay outside the town. A field on the hillside south-east of the town, next the Dancing Road, has been pointed out to me for such a purpose, for which it appears to be very suitable in all respects. On this subject Mr Melmoth states:
“The burial grounds require enlargement. The one attached to the church is much overcrowded in the old part, and a portion recently added is now almost full.”
REMEDIES
48.The remedies of which Sherborne stands in need, and which can be secured to it by the Public Health Act are, principally, a definite town boundary, a local government elected by the rate payers, and invested with the powers of regulating what may be called the engineering expenditure of the town, and of compelling the landlords of cottage tenements to provide them with sufficient accommodation.
49.These are, principally, a sufficient supply of water, and an efficient system of sewerage for the town at large, and where practicable, for each house, a proper water closet (such, for example, as are already introduced at the Union House), a dust bin, a yard and house drain, and a service and water pipe cock.
50.The particulars of the two most important of these remedies, the water supply and sewerage, will be stated in the following sections, together with their estimated cost. In the Local Board will be vested the management of the sewers and roads, and they will have power of purchasing land for burial grounds, of paving, and cleansing, and widening the streets, of regulating slaughter houses, lodging houses, and a variety of other matters affecting the health, cleanliness, and comfort of the town.
51.During the course of the inquiry I heard much concerning the self-election and non-responsibility of the administrators of funds held in trust for certain purposes in the town of Sherborne, but into which it was obviously beyond my province to inquire. The objections were brought forward before me in most cases from a notion that the Local Board, under the Public Health Act, would be similarly constituted. This, those who will take the trouble to consult the Act, will see is not the case. The rate payers will in the first place elect, and afterwards from time to time exercise the direct check of re-election upon those who are invested with the power of taxation, and the administration of the finances of the town, and thus those who are impressed with the evils of the self-elective and irresponsible administration of their charities, will have it in their power to show in practice the merits of an opposite system, and to set an example which, if successful, cannot long be resisted.
52.WATER SUPPLY
The future water supply of Sherborne will be ample in quantity, in quality of 15-04◦ of hardness, simple in the required arrangements, cheap, and it will have a natural pressure sufficient to command the highest houses in the town. The water source is in the valley upon the Sandford Orcas Road, about a mile north of the town. At this point rises one of several springs feeding the rivulet which supplies Mr Ffooks’s waterwheel and the silk mill[liii]near the church. On the east side of the road, in a natural hollow, should be formed a reservoir capable of holding a two months’ supply for the town at the rate of 13 gallons a-head daily. The feeder of this reservoir should flow over a gauge board, so as only to enter it when the main stream contained more than the quantity needed for the mill below. This arrangement the two months’ storage would render practicable.
53.From this reservoir an earthen conduit pipe will lead the water by a gentle descent, along the side of the hill, to a point near the Golden Ball toll gate[liv], where it will terminate in a service reservoir, containing a two days’ supply. This service reservoir will command the highest houses, and from it a main pipe should be laid into the town, giving off branches to the various streets in its passage.
54.By this means a copious supply of water, at a high pressure will be secured, and when the pipes are once laid down, the expense will not be materially augmented, however great the quantity used.
55.The estimate provides branch pipes into every street or public passage, and fire plugs 50 yards apart in all the principal streets.
56.Upon the course of the above-mentioned stream is a mill, near the church, upon which the tenant has expended considerable sums, and in working which this water is employed. This mill, however, derives, a large portion of its water from springs below the site of the proposed reservoir. I apprehend, therefore, that the abstraction of the water in wet seasons, from the highest tributary, will not be injurious to the mill; but as this point must of course be determined when the survey with reference to the execution of works is in progress, I only indicate the quarter from whence it appears to me that the town supply may be best derived with the least, or with no injury to individuals.
57.SEWERAGE
The disposition of the ground on which Sherborne is built is highly favourable for its efficient sewerage. The principal sewers should descend from north to south, falling near the lower part of the town into other and larger sewers, which should descend, though with a less rapid fall, from east to west. All these sewers will be within the dimensions for which stoneware tubes are suited.
58.These sewers should finally terminate in a main culvert of somewhat larger diameter, which should be formed between the town and the river, and which would discharge nearly the whole sewage of the town at a point below the Dorchester Road bridge[lv].
59.In a report upon a preliminary inquiry only, it would be premature to attempt to enter into the details of the course of these sewers. This can only be settled after a proper survey and sections shall have been prepared. There should be a sewer near to each street or row of houses, and all openings should be trapped and grated, so as to prevent the ascent of gasses, or the descent of solid matter. Advantage should be taken of the existing sewers and gutters to direct the rainwaters at once, by the shortest routes, into the river.
60.HOUSE IMPROVEMENTS
Under this head are classed all those improvements, the cost of which is charge upon the owners and occupiers of house property. These include the construction of privies, or water closets, the filling up of cesspools, the erection of dustbins, the paving and draining back yards and premises, the laying down house drains and sinks, and the service pipes for the conveyance of water from the mains into the houses. In the case of all new houses, a proper privy or water closet will be an imperative addition; and the Local Board will have the power of directing such in case of old houses, where it is possible to obtain sufficient space.
61.Wherever improvements of this nature have been carried out, it has been found that they raise both the condition of the tenant and the value of the property; and the landlord who persists, as many do, in refusing to his cottage tenant the ordinary appendages of a cleanly-paved backyard, a proper privy, or water closet, a well arranged drainage, and a sufficient supply of water, is as deficient in attention to his own pecuniary interests as he is wanting in feeling for those persons who have the misfortune to be in a great degree in his power.
62.SEWAGE DISTRIBUTION
The value of the town refuse as manure, so well-known and acknowledged in various parts of England and Scotland, does not here appear to have been at all attended to by the farmers. The circumstances of Sherborne are, however, highly favourable for its use. Below the town is a large tract of rich meadow land, which it would be easy to supply with fluid manure by irrigation. These meadows extend a long distance below the town, so that the inhabitants could not be annoyed by any offensive smell that might attend the employment of the manure.
63.BOUNDARY
The area to which I recommend the application of the Act is shown in the map annexed to this Report.
64.CHARGES
The remedies of water supply, sewerage, and house improvements, proposed to be supplied to Sherborne, will be paid for by three distinct rates. Of these the water rate will be a rate chargeable upon those houses only which are supplied with water. In the present instance, I am of opinion that the supply may be given for a penny a week on the average of each house.
65.The sewer, or general district rate, is a general rate, and chargeable upon all houses and lands within the area, but upon the latter in the proportion of one-fourth only of the former. In the present instance, a rate of one penny per week upon house under £5 rated rental will cover the whole expense of sewerage.
66.The private improvement rate, is a private rate, paid only by those owners of house property whose tenements need the remedies already pointed out, and only in the proportion in which they may be supplied to each. This also will amount to an average charge of about 1d. weekly on each house.
67.REMARKS
The Public Health Act, if applied to Sherborne, will secure for it a local government, with powers quite sufficient for the general regulation of the town, powers of levying and expending money, and by distributing the outlay over 30 years, or a generation, of so lightening the cost of the remedies, as to bring them within reach of the poorest inhabitant. As the members of this government will be elected by those among whom they live, whose affairs they manage, and whose money they disburse, there is a fair probability of their possessing the confidence of the community, providing that they direct their exertions to the improvement not only of their town, but of the dwellings of their poorer townsfolk. The Local Board cannot make labour plentiful or bread cheap, but if they carry out their powers without fear or favour, or a spirit of party, they may oblige the cottage landlords to provide water, drainage, and proper domestic convenience for their tenants, and by distributing the cost, reduce the current charge to a very small amount. A man with such a house as is to be found in too many of the back courts of Sherborne, can hardly be blamed if he gives up in despair all attempts at cleanliness, and seeks in the public house a more comfortable shelter than his own landlord provides for him. It is a mistake to suppose that it is cheaper to lodge a tenant in a hovel than in a decent cottage. Setting aside the indirect cost of sickness, and of pauperism, from drunkenness induced by discomfort; as a mere matter of rent, the cottages in Windsor Court, already described, are a more lucrative property, and yield better and more regular rentals than those in the Rookery, or Westbury or Acreman Street. The Local Board will have the power to introduce effective and cheap improvements, and if, having the power, they neglect to exert it, a heavy moral responsibility will lie upon each member.
68.SUMMARY
I have to state, by way of recapitulation –
- That although the mortality of the registration district is low, and that of the town probably by no means high, yet that in certain localities inhabited by the poorer classes a very disgusting state of filth prevails, to an extent which must be prejudicial to health, as it undoubtedly is to comfort and decency.
- That Sherborne is at present not distinguished in its government from the parish at large, and that considerable inconvenience is felt in the town from the want of an efficient local and responsible governing body.
- That the town is very imperfectly sewered, stands much in need of a proper water supply, and is very insufficiently supplied with privies, and other house accommodations.
- That these remedies may be perfectly supplied for a public or a general rate of 2d., and a private rather of 1d., charged weekly upon each house, on the average.
- That this proposed outlay, by increasing the comforts of the cottage houses, will induce provident conduct and reduce sickness, and so tend to produce a diminution of existing expenses.
- That no credit is taken for any revenue to be derived from the sale of the town refuse as manure.
69.RECOMMENDATIONS
I have therefore to recommend –
- That the Public Health Act be applied to the area marked out in the annexed map, which includes a part of the petitioning parish of Sherborne, and a part of the contiguous parish of Castleton, from which there is no petition, but which forms a part of the town of Sherborne.[lvi]
- That the Local Board of Health, to be elected under the said Public Health Act, shall consist of 12 persons, and that the entire number shall be elected for the whole of the said district. [lvii]
- That one-third in number of the said Local Board shall go out of office on the 25th of March in each year, subsequently to that in which the said election takes place.
- That every person shall, at the time of his election as a member of the said Local Board, and so long as he shall continue in office, by virtue of such election, be seized or possessed of real or personal estate, of both to the value or amount of not less than £500, or shall be rated to the relief of the poor of the parish of Sherborne or Castleton, within the said district, upon an annual value of not less than £20.
- That powers for levying a lighting rate, and for lighting the town within the proposed area, be added to the Provisional Order.
- That powers vesting the appointment and regulation of a police force to included in the Provisional Order.
I have the honour to be,
My Lords and Gentlemen,
Your obedient Servant,
GEO. T. CLARK.
The General Board of Health.
Further reading:
Mary Hickman, The Transformation of Nineteenth Century Sherborne: From Filth and Disease to Clean Water and Health (Sherborne Museum Abstracts, no.1, 2009)
R. Pountain, Castleton Pumping Station: Sherborne. A History (Castleton Waterwheel Restoration Society, n.d.)
Llanelli’s Board of Health Report 1850, by John D. Phelps
The following footnotes have been compiled by Rachel Hassall & George Tatham, July 2020:
[i] ‘The most far-reaching change in the town’s government was brought about by the Public Health Act of 1848 which created a central Board and Inspectorate to deal with problems of drainage and sewerage, water-supply, paving and lighting of streets and regulation of offensive trades. It had powers to inspect any community with a death rate of more than 23 per 1000 (Sherborne’s during the 1840s was 23.9), and to set up a local board of 12 members elected by all rate-payers to carry out reforms and levy rates to pay for them. The Sherborne Board of Health virtually became the main organ of local government until the Urban District Council was formed in 1895 to take over its functions and that of a number of order ad hoc bodies.’ [from J.H.P. Gibb, The Book of Sherborne (Buckingham, Barracuda Books Ltd., 1981), pp.126-127]
[ii] George Thomas Clark (1809-1898), engineer and antiquary. Born in London on 26 May 1809, the son of George Clark, a chaplain of Chelsea Hospital, and Clara Dicey. He was educated at Charterhouse. He worked under Brunel on the Great Western Railway and for a time in India. Later, becoming inspector under the short-lived General Board of Health, and afterwards one of the three commissioners. As one of the trustees of the will of Sir Josiah John Guest, he was from 1852 to 1897 controller of the Dowlais iron works where he was also concerned with social welfare, opening a school and erecting Dowlais hospital. In 1843, he helped found the Royal Archaeological Institute, and was closely associated with the Cambrian Archaeological Association. His publications include Land of Morgan (1883), Medieval Military Architecture (1884), Limbus Patrum Morganiae et Glamorganiae (1886), Cartae et Alia Munimenta quae ad Dominium de Glamorgancia pertinent (1910). He was an authority on medieval military and domestic architecture and was the first to undertake a scholarly analysis on the remains of Sherborne Old Castle, which was published in the Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society, Vol. 20, pp.20-34 (1874). He died on 31 January 1898 at Talygarn, Glamorganshire. For further information see Dictionary of Welsh Biography
[iii] Rev. John Parsons (1780-1854), Vicar of Sherborne 1830-1854. Son of Rev. Francis Crane Parsons, Vicar of Yeovil. Attended Sherborne School 1791-1797. Attended Worcester College, Oxford, 1798; BA 1802; Fellow 1802-1814. Curate of Sherborne 1803-1811. Rector of Oborne and Perpetual Curate of Castleton 1811-1854. Sherborne School Governor 1805 & Warden 1808, 1820, 1837, 1848. Chief Magistrate of Sherborne. He died on 1 July 1854 at the Vicarage, Sherborne: monumental inscription in Sherborne Abbey.
[iv] Benjamin Chandler (1818-1896), solicitor, Cromwell House, Long Street, Sherborne. Born on 17 December 1818, son of Benjamin Chandler snr (1784-3 February 1853), a banker in partnership with the firm of Pretor, Chandler, and Co., and Mary Chandler (nee Whitty) (1793-1874), daughter of Samuel Whitty (1760-1833), banker, of Sherborne. He was baptised on 22 April 1819 at Carey Street Independent Chapel, London. He attended Sherborne School (left in 1833) and in 1836 was articled to James Livett of Bristol, attorney. On 29 July 1845 he was married by the Rev. Richard Keynes at the Independent Chapel, Blandford, to Elizabeth Worsley (1817-1879), eldest daughter of Richard Worsley, surgeon, and Elizabeth James, of Blandford. He went into partnership with Mr W.N. Alford, who afterwards retired from his practice in favour of his partner. Benjamin Chandler practised as a solicitor in Sherborne, with an office at Cromwell House, Long Street, and lived at the Old Bank House, Long Street. He owned Windsor Court in Hound Street which was singled out in 1849 by George Clark as an example of the standard of workers housing that could be achieved in Sherborne. ‘Upon the introduction of the Public Health Act into Sherborne, chiefly through Mr Chandler’s efforts, he was elected [in September 1851] first chairman of the Local Board of Health – a position which he occupied for very many years, during which he undoubtedly did a large amount of public work, not without, however, exciting much opposition.’ He was a prominent member of the Congregational Church in Long Street, and in 1852 brought a successful action against the Governors of Sherborne School to assert the right of children of dissenting parents to be exempt from religious instruction. In 1870 he proposed to Sherborne UDC that Duck Street in Sherborne should be renamed South Street. By February 1890 he was being pursued by his creditors and on 27 April 1891 an auction was held at the Digby Hotel in Sherborne of his freehold and leasehold dwelling houses, garden ground, land, life policies and shares, which included his office [Cromwell House] and his home The Old Bank House in Long Street, Sherborne. He died on 10 December 1896 at Cromer House, Park House Road, Highgate, the home of his daughter Mary Elizabeth Haslam (1856-1934).
[v] William Babington (1790-1854), Westbury, Sherborne. He was born in 1790 at Cossington, Leicestershire, the son of William and Elizabeth Babington. He married Catharine Ravencroft. He served as Chief of the Baggage Warehouse Department in the service of the East India Company. In 1841 he was living at Millbrook in Hampshire but by 1847 he was living in Westbury, Sherborne. He died at Sherborne on 13 September 1854 and was buried at Castleton, Sherborne.
[vi] John Young Melmoth (1806-1876), solicitor and attorney, of Acreman Street, Sherborne. He was born at Sherborne on 14 October 1806, son of James Proctor Melmoth (1784-1844), attorney, and Eliza Tomkyns Burge (1788-1861). He attended Sherborne School (c.1816). In 1825 he was articled to his father and practised in Sherborne as a solicitor and attorney. On 24 January 1850 he was married at Stockwell to Harriet Cleaver (1818-1899) and in c.1861 built Grosvenor Lodge (now Westcott House) in Horsecastles, Sherborne. He served as Clerk to the Sherborne Bench of magistrates, coroner for the Liberty, clerk to the Local Board of Health, Board of Guardians, Assessment Committee, Turnpike Commissioners, Highway Board, Burial Board, and Vestry clerk. He was Steward and Brother of Sherborne Almshouse (elected on 6 May 1845 in the place of Peter Batson, deceased), a Governor of Sherborne School (elected 1845, Warden 1851 & 1865), and Steward to Mr Drax, MP, of Holnest House. He died on 20 March 1876 at Grosvenor Lodge (Westcott House), Sherborne and was buried in Sherborne cemetery on 24 March 1876.
[vii] William Michael Peniston (1816-1869), civil engineer, of Yetminster. He was born in 1816 at Salisbury, son of John Peniston. He trained under Timothy Bramah, CE, and was employed as resident engineer on the Bristol to Exeter Railway (10 years), and then as Resident Engineer on the Wiltshire, Somerset and Weymouth Railway. He was married in 1841 to Louisa Joanna Fisher. In 1844 he was engaged by the Bridgwater Corporation to prepare plans for a horse tramway linking Bridgwater Station to riverside quays. He was appointed Resident Engineer on the Wiltshire, Somerset and Weymouth Railway in 1845. In 1848, he superintended the lowering of the West Hill approach to Sherborne and the building of West Bridge. By 1849 he was living in Yetminster. He briefly served as Surveyor of Roads to the Sherborne Turnpike Trust, April-October 1852. On 5 April 1854 he was declared bankrupt, and in around 1858 he went to Brazil as Resident Engineer on the Pernambuco and San Francisco Railway, and in 1868 gave evidence to a Parliamentary Commission on railways in Natal. He died on 28 May 1869 at Beere, Central Provinces, India. For further information see Grace’s Guide.
[viii] The Abbey Church of St Mary the Virgin. At the Dissolution in 1540 the monastic property, including the abbey church, was purchased by Sir John Horsey of Clifton Maybank, who then sold the church to the town. The town elected to retain the abbey as their parish church and to demolish All Hallows church. The nave and transepts of the abbey were restored in 1849-51 by R.C. Carpenter; and the choir was restored in 1856-8 by William Slater.
[ix] Edward Digby, 2nd Earl Digby (1773-1856), of Sherborne Castle. The son of Henry Digby, 1st Earl Digby (1731-1793) and Mary Knowler. He succeeded his father in 1793 and took his seat in the House of Lords on his 21st birthday. He served as Lord Lieutenant of Dorset from 1808 to 1856. He never married and on his death in 1856 the earldom became extinct.
[x] John Frederick Falwasser (1807-1878), County Magistrate, of New Well House, Sherborne. He was born in 1807 at Maidenhead, Berkshire, son of Elizabeth and John Falwasser. He studied at Wadham College, Oxford. In 1830 he married Rosetta jane Shewell, and seven of their sons attended Sherborne School between 1846 and 1868. He served as a Governor of Sherborne School, and as Vice-President of the Sherborne Mutual Improvement Society (later the Macready Institute). He died on 15 March 1878 at 40 Harley Street, Cavendish Square, London.
[xi] John Williamson (1803-) of Newland, Sherborne [lived next door to W.C. Macready at Sherborne House, possibly at the Manor House]. He was born in 1803 at Bath. In 1830 he married Madeline Hill and five of their sons attended Sherborne School between 1848 and 1859. By 1871 the family were living at Portsea, Hampshire.
[xii] William Highmore (1816-1883), MD, MRCS, physician and surgeon, of Greenhill, Sherborne. Born on 25 January 1816 in London, son of William Highmore. Attended Sherborne School c.1827. Studied at St Andrews University. In 1840 he married Elizabeth Bowen Rivers. In 1841 he was appointed assistant surgeon to the Dorset Yeomanry. He served as a School Governor and Warden at Sherborne School and in 1860 presided at the laying of the foundation stone of School House by the Earl of Shaftesbury. In 1866 he was elected the first Honorary Physician at the Yeatman Hospital. He died on 28 August 1883.
[xiii] Henry Coate (1819-1882), farmer, of New Well Water, Sherborne. Born on 4 March 1819 in Lyng, Somerset, son of William and Nancy Coate. He was married in Edinburgh in 1856 to Sarah Lucinda Seymour. He died at Sherborne on 8 June 1882.
[xiv] Robert Jewell Withers (1824-1894), architect. Born on 2 February 1824 in Shepton Mallet, son of John Alexander Withers, solicitor’s clerk, and Maria Jewell. In 1839 he was articled to Thomas Hellyer of Ryde, Isle of Wight. From c.1847 to 1850 he commenced in practice in Sherborne, where his parents had moved in 1839. While in Sherborne he obtained a series of commissions (St Nicholas’ Hilfield, St Martin’s Lillington, Poyntington National School, St Andrew’s Trent, and possibly Turner’s Almshouse in Trent), but was not happy in Sherborne. In 1848 he was admitted ARIBA and in 1873 FRIBA. In 1850 he moved to London where he worked for the Improvement Commission with his brother Frederick Clark Withers who was also an architect. In 1854 he opened an office at 6 John Street, Adelphi, and in the same year married Catherine Mary Vaux. He died on 7 October 1894 at 40 Schubert Road, Putney, Surrey. For further information see Architects of Greater Manchester.
[xv] Louis Henry Ruegg (1822-1905), editor and publisher, and from 1858 proprietor of the Sherborne Journal newspaper, Long Street, Sherborne. Born on 23 March 1822 in Greenwich, son of John Henry Ulrich Ruegg and Jane Stanes. In 1844 he married Ann Vincent. Author of A History of a Railway (1878), which tells the story of the Salisbury and Yeovil Railway in which Ruegg was a shareholder. He died on 18 February 1905 at Sherborne and was buried on 21 February 1905.
[xvi] George Gent (1798-1885), auctioneer and broker, Cheap Street, Sherborne. Born in 1798 at Sherborne, son of Samuel and Mary Gent. Married in 1824 to Sarah Burge. On 3 February 1861, George Gent was admitted to Sherborne Almshouse, where he died in 1885 and was buried in Sherborne on 4 November 1885.
[xvii] Robert Poyner (1812-1896), Surveyor of Roads, Newland, Sherborne. Born in 1812 at Ombersley, Worcestershire. Married in 1833 to Jane Harding. Surveyor of Roads to the Sherborne Turnpike Trust, c.1834-1851. By 1861 he was living in Long Street, High Ham, and working as a labourer. He died in 1896 and was buried on 9 September 1896 at High Ham, Somerset.
[xviii] Mr J. Talbot?
[xix] Henry Ensor (1816-1893), farmer at Barton Farm, Cornhill, Sherborne. One of the first twelve members elected to the Sherborne Local Board of Health on 19 September 1851 (chairman 1859, 1865). He was one of the masters and brethren of the Sherborne Almshouse, a director of the Sherborne Gas Company (in which he held two of the largest shares), and one of the trustees of the old Savings’ Bank. He was a Guardian of the Poor and vice-chairman of the Board. He was also churchwarden at the abbey during the ‘war of the candlesticks’ when ‘Ritualism threatened to be in the ascendant in Sherborne’. He died at Barton Farm on 19 September 1893 and was buried on 22 September 1893.
[xx] Joseph Broadribb Rawlings (1813-1872), silk throwster at the Abbey Mills, Sherborne. He was born in 1813 at Wallingford, Berkshire, and died on 18 September 1872 and buried at Oborne on 21 September 1872.
[xxi] Possibly the former home of Charles MacRae (1793-1845), stockbroker, of 57 Moorgate Street in the City of London and Newland, Sherborne. He was married in 1824 to Jane Fellowes (c.1793-1853), who bequeathed to Sherborne School a portrait of the Rev. John Gaylard, M.A., Headmaster of Sherborne School 1733-1743. Charles MacRae died in 1845 and was buried in the vault of St Stephen’s church, Coleman Street, City of London on 12 April 1845
[xxii] The Union Workhouse in Horsecastles was built in 1842 and remained in use until 1929. It was demolished in 1938.
[xxiii] William Jeffry of Westbury?
[xxiv] John Percival Willmott (1804-1858), silk merchant and silk throwster, Westbury, Sherborne (in 1851 employing 500 hands). One of the first twelve members elected to the Sherborne Local Board of Health on 19 September 1851. He was born at Sherborne on 9 November 1804 and buried in the churchyard at Sherborne on 16 January 1858.
[xxv] William Dingley (1798-1883), draper and outfitter, Half Moon Street, Sherborne. One of the first twelve members elected to the Sherborne Local Board of Health on 19 September 1851. He was born at Linkenhorne, Cornwall in 1798, and moved to Sherborne in 1822 where he set up in partnership with James Bowditch the firm of Dingley & Co., linen drapers. In c.1830, his brother Samuel Dingley joined William in business as ‘W & S Dingley’. He was a leading member of the Wesleyan Church in Sherborne, and president of the Yeovil Sunday School Union. He was one of the original promoters of the Sherborne Gas and Coke Company, and for many years a managing director. He was one of the trustees of the savings bank and a life governor of the Yeatman Hospital. He died at Sherborne on 13 December 1883.
[xxvi] John Rogers (1788-1855), chemist and druggist, Half Moon Street, Sherborne. Born in 1788 at Bath. He was buried in Sherborne on 11 April 1855.
[xxvii] George Gosney (1811-1879), grocer and tea dealer, Half Moon Street, Sherborne. He died at Sherborne on 7 September 1879.
[xxviii] John Way, butcher, Half Moon Street.
[xxix] Mr Rex, Half Moon Street?
[xxx] William Dingley (1798-1883) and Samuel Dingley (1807-1892) were brothers, born at Linkenhorne, Cornwall. William moved to Sherborne in 1822 and from c.1830 he was joined in business by Samuel, as ‘W & S Dingley’, drapers and outfitters, Half Moon Street, Sherborne. William died on 13 December 1883, and Samuel died on 18 January 1892.
[xxxi]The Half Moon Inn in Half Moon Street, Sherborne was in 1851 run by William Sherwood (1793-1877).
[xxxii] The Mermaid Inn in South Street (formerly Market Street), Sherborne was in 1851 run by James Whittle (1824-1871).
[xxxiii] William Webb Penny (1799-1888) was the eldest son of Elias Penny (1773-1846) and Eliza (née Guppy) (1775-1846). Elias Penny was a bookseller and publisher who ran a bookshop, library and reading room in Half Moon Street, Sherborne. Like his brothers, William was probably educated at Sherborne School. In 1848, he was married at Downton in Wiltshire to Harriet Shuckburgh (1802-1887). William and Harriet lived in South Street (formerly Market Street or Duck Street), Sherborne. In June 1824, William purchased Charles Langdon’s shares in the Whig-leaning newspaper the Sherborne Mercury newspaper and in 1829 he became sole proprietor. In 1828, his brother, John Penny (1803-1885) acquired the Sherborne Journal, which was considered to be a more reformist paper than the Sherborne Mercury. William sold the Sherborne Mercury in 1842 to Joseph and William Guise Brittan. William was a Commissioner of Assessed Taxes, a churchwarden at Castleton church, and a proprietor of houses and lands. Harriet died at Sherborne on 13 June 1887 and William died at Sherborne on 7 July 1888.
[xxxiv] Butcher’s killing house, South Street (formerly Market Street). There were four slaughterhouses in Sherborne – in Cheap Street, on the Parade, and at the junction of Half Moon Street and South Street – they were licenced to slaughter on Tuesdays and Wednesdays for the Thursday meat market, and on Fridays for the Saturday meat market. The open meat market or shambles stood on the corner of South Street until 1870.
[xxxv] The Crown Inn at New Well Water, Sherborne was in 1851 run by John Chisman (1808-1882).
[xxxvi] William Ffooks’s waterwheel driven pump at Kennel Barton drew water from the springs at New Well Water and New Grange Water into a brick tank. In 1838 it supplied 62 houses and 4 shops. The water was available to customers for one hour in the morning and one hour in the afternoon. William Ffooks (1815-1873), solicitor and Clerk of the Peace for Dorset, lived at Greenhill House (now The Green), Sherborne. He attended Sherborne School as a Foundationer (day boy) c.1830. In 1848 he married Frances Jane Pickard-Cambridge. He was one of the first twelve members elected to the Sherborne Local Board of Health on 19 September 1851. He served as a Governor of Sherborne School; he was steward to Earl Digby and Mr G.D.W. Digby, and also to Mr J. Goodden of Compton and Colonel Bennett of Cadbury. He was a Captain in the Queen’s Own Dorset Yeomanry. He left Sherborne in 1871 and moved to Devon, and then to the Manor House, Northfleet in Kent where he died on 10 May 1873.
[xxxvii] George Willis (c.1804-1885), sawyer. He was ordered by Thomas Noake, the Inspector of Nuisances, to remove the pig stye from behind his premises. In 1851 he lived in Back Lane (now Hospital Lane), Sherborne. George frequently spent time in Dorchester Prison on charges of assault (in 1878 it was noted that this was his 7th stay at the prison).
[xxxviii] John Cox (1799-1888), Solicitor’s General Clerk, Newland. Son of Thomas and Mary Cox. In 1825 he was a schoolmaster in Sherborne. He died in 1888 in Sherborne Union Workhouse.
[xxxix] Bishop’s Yard pump in Newland Garden, was one of six public pumps in the town in 1849.
[xl] Thomas’s Court, Newland. The Courts were named after their owners. Many cottages in Newland were arranged in courtyards behind the street house and were locally known as ‘drains’.
[xli] Miles’s Court, Newland. The Courts were named after their owners. Many cottages in Newland were arranged in courtyards behind the street house and were locally known as ‘drains’.
[xlii] The Rookery, Newland. In August 1847, in the case of Ellis v. Walter, an action was brought to recover £3.2s from the defendant for rent. The defendant said the cottage he occupied was one of sixteen in The Rookery, which were without any necessary conveniences and were filthy beyond description, saying ‘they were not fit for dogs to live in’. Having inspected Sherborne on 12 September 1849, George Clark reported at a meeting the following day that ‘The Rookery as it now stood was not perhaps worse than Rookeries usually were, for there were Rookeries in all town. Though these Courts stood in need of remedies, yet then they were applied, they would stand in a much better position than other town courts.’
[xliii] William Coffin of Newland, Sherborne.
[xliv] Dr William Henry Williams (1819-1891) MD Lond., MRCS, LSA, surgeon, of Cheap Street, Sherborne. He was born on 14 August 1819 at Temple Cloud, Somerset, son of William and Mary Ann Williams (née Baily). On 13 July 1849 he was married at Sherborne to Mary Chandler, eldest daughter of Benjamin Chandler, esq. He Served as Deacon of the Congregational Church; Trustee of the Congregational Chapel and School; Superintendent of the Congregational Sunday School; Vice-President of the Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Society; was involved with W.C. Macready in the setting up of a night school in Sherborne; Governor of Foster’s School; a local committee member of the British & Foreign Bible Society (& a county secretary); a member of the Tract Society’s committee; a Director of the London Missionary Society; President of the Sherborne Liberal Association; Medical Officer Health Sherborne Urban District; Medical Officer for the NW district of the Sherborne Union; Medical Officer of the Sherborne Union Workhouse; Hon. Consulting Surgeon to the Yeatman Hospital; Hon. Surgeon to the Sherborne Volunteer Company; and a trustee of Henstridge Congregational Chapel. He died at Sherborne on 14 September 1891, aged 72.
[xlv] Ellis Rookery, Newland. The Courts were named after their owners. Many cottages in Newland were arranged in courtyards behind the street house and were locally known as ‘drains’.
[xlvi] John Ffooks (1813-1882), wine and spirit merchant, brewer and maltster, of Westbury. Ran a brewery in Long Street, Sherborne. One of the first twelve members elected to the Sherborne Local Board of Health on 19 September 1851. Born in 1813 at Sherborne, son of Thomas Fooks and Frances Sophia Woodforde. Brother of William Ffooks (1815-1873) and Thomas Ffooks (1817-1906). He attended Sherborne School (Foundationer/day boy) c.1825. In 1846 he married Mary Ann Bailey. In 1854 he was declared bankrupt. He died in 1882 in Holbeach, Lincolnshire.
[xlvii] Windsor Court in Hound Street was the property of Benjamin Chandler (1818-1896), solicitor. Having inspected Sherborne on 12 September 1849, George Clark reported at a meeting the following day that Windsor Court represented some of the best workers’ cottages he had seen in Sherborne and should be used as a model for what could be achieved: ‘There was one row of cottages which he had visited, which belonged to a promoter of the measure, and though his attention had not been directed to it as a nuisance, he could not be silent about it. The court he alluded to was called Windsor Court, it was situated in Hound Street, and was the property of Mr Chandler. To seven houses there were four privies, two locked, and two unlocked; there was a dust bin in the court; the garden had been swept away, and the yard was gravelled. The whole was clean and sweet. The rent was lower than that of other cottages which he had seen without any area, and Mr Chandler had assured him that the property paid very well. There was, however, one drawback, they had no water. The Public Health Act would enable the owners of cottages to put them into the same, or even a better state of repair than Mr Chandler had done with these; to give them water closets instead of privies; and certainly at a much cheaper rate than any individual could possibly do it. He mentioned these cottages because they were the only ones he could find in the town at all approaching the state of things that he wished to see; and showed first what could be done, and secondly that putting the cottages in repair did not entail any loss upon the landlord.’
[xlviii] There were four slaughterhouses in Sherborne – in Cheap Street, on the Parade, and at the junction of Half Moon Street and South Street – they were licenced to slaughter on Tuesdays and Wednesdays for the Thursday meat market, and on Fridays for the Saturday meat market. The open meat market or shambles stood on the corner of South Street until 1870.
[xlix] The Abbey Mill watercourse was fed by the Combe Stream.
[l] The Almshouse of St John the Baptist and St John the Evangelist in the Abbey Close was built in 1438-48 for twelve poor men and four poor women. The chapel was completed in 1442. In 1858 an extension to the north, designed by William Slater, provided the inmates with separate rooms.
[li] The six public pumps or fountains were situated at:
- Newell Water (the New Well spring), from which in the 12th century the monks of Sherborne Abbey built an open stone conduit or channel to bring the clean water to the Conduit House in the monastery cloister. After the Dissolution the Conduit House and water supply were moved from the monastery cloister to the Parade in Cheap Street for the use of the town.
- Bishop’s pump in Newland Garden.
- Mr Hoddinott’s pump, dependent on private liberality.
- The Acreman Street pump.
- The Conduit on the Parade in Cheap Street was fed by the New Well Spring. [In the first edition of Hutchins’ History of Dorset (1774) it is claimed that the Conduit yielded a hogshead of water every minute (one hogshead is equivalent to 54 gallons)]
- Castleton well (very good water).
In 1849, in the areas between Newland and Cold Harbour, people had great difficulty in getting a proper supply of water.
[lii] The area to the south of Sherborne Abbey was the parish graveyard, not just for the town but also for many of the surrounding villages. As a result of the Cemeteries Act, the Abbey graveyard was permanently closed in 1856 and a new cemetery opened in Lenthay. In 1858 the Abbey graveyard was levelled and about 3 feet of soil was removed to Lenthay.
[liii] The Abbey Silk Mill, formerly the Monks’ Water Mill, was fed by the Coombe Stream. From 1851 it was run by Joseph Broadribb Rawlings (1813-1872), silk throwster. In 1873, it was purchased by the Governors of Sherborne School who converted some of the old buildings into laboratories, a music room, museum and workshops, which later became the Carrington Buildings and Westcott Art School, and Devitt Court. Joseph Broadribb Rawlings died on 18 September 1872 and was buried at Oborne on 21 September 1872.
[liv] The Golden Ball Turnpike Gate stood on the junction with the Bristol Road and Blackberry Lane. The Golden Ball Turnpike reservoir was built in 1853 on the junction of the Bristol Road and Vernalls Road (now the site of ‘Furlongs’). The brick-built tank has a capacity of 130,000 gallons and was 30 feet below ground and 10 feet above ground, capped by a concrete lid.
[lv] Dorchester Road bridge [by Hyle Farm].
[lvi] Robert Dymond and Sons of Exeter were contracted by the Sherborne Local Board of Health to carry out a survey of Sherborne. Their formal report was submitted on the 6 January 1852. The report was supported by a map, entitled ‘Detailed Plan of the Town Portion of the District of Sherborne, prepared for the purposes of the Public Health Act, by Robert Dymond & Sons, Surveyors, Exeter, A.D. 1852. Scale 10ft to 1 mile.’ The map, which measures 13ft x 8ft and hangs in Sherborne Town Council Offices, shows how quickly the Board had proceeded with modernising the town, with all the main sewers and water mains laid by 1852 ready to connect to individual houses.
[lvii] The first twelve members elected to the Sherborne Local Board of Health on 19 September 1851, were:
Benjamin Chandler junior (1818-1896), solicitor, of Cromwell House, Long Street, Sherborne. Elected chairman of the Board. (167 votes)
William Dingley (1798-1883), draper and outfitter, Half Moon Street, Sherborne. (146 votes)
Henry Ensor (1816-1893), yeoman farmer, of Barton Farm, Cornhill, Sherborne. (177 votes)
John Ffooks (1813-1882), wine and spirit merchant, brewer and maltster, of Westbury. Owner of a brewery in Long Street, Sherborne. Brother of William Ffooks (1815-1873). (167 votes)
William Ffooks (1815-1873), solicitor and Clerk of the Peace for Dorset, of Greenhill House, Sherborne. Owner of Kennel Barton and Oborne Road waterworks. Brother of John Ffooks (1813-182). (186 votes)
Robert Longman (1813-1894), chemist, Long Street, Sherborne. (223 votes)
William Parsons (1816-1894), iron merchant, of Long Street, Sherborne. (184 votes)
Thomas Penny (1815-1904) ironmonger with premises on the corner of Long Street and Cheap Street. (172 votes)
Robert Stiby (1798-1866), farmer, of Acreman Street, Sherborne. (184 votes)
Francis Stokes (1811-1896), tea dealer & grocer, Half Moon Street, Sherborne. Brother of Charles Stokes (1813-1905). (137 votes)
William White (1788-1858), actuary, of Hound Street, Sherborne. (162 votes)
John Percival Willmott (1804-1858), silk merchant and silk throwster, of Westbury, Sherborne. (247 votes)
Clerk: John Young Melmoth (1806-1876) solicitor and attorney, of Acreman Street, Sherborne.
Treasurer: Charles Stokes (1813-1905), manager of the Sherborne branch of the Wilts & Dorset Bank, Long Street, Sherborne. Brother of Francis Stokes (1811-1896).
Inspector of Nuisances: Thomas Noake (1806-1876), surveyor, of Greenhill, Sherborne.
Transcribed with additional footnotes by Rachel Hassall, Archivist, Sherborne School.
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