Page 12 - Smallwood Hospital

Redditch Heritage Smallwood Hospital

was feared that in some cases sufficient precaution had not been taken, and that, at least in one
instance, a person had been buried alive.

The 21st March was set apart as a day of humiliation and prayer, and later, a town’s meeting
was called, and some cottages in the Old Hop Gardens, near the Old Railway Station, were
used as a kind of hospital for the sick. However, the people were not satisfied, and the town
petitioned the Government for instructions how they were to act, and a reply was returned,
advising the formation of a Local Board of Health. This was at once done, a dispensary was
opened at Hall’s, the grocer, and anyone, night or day, could obtain medicine free. Young Mr.
Pratt, the surgeon, was in constant attendance here, and administered to the wants of the
people. Throughout the summer the pestilence raged, and most families suffered from it; in
some instances as many as three died. I have been looking over a private list which I jotted
down at the time, and I find the names of fifty persons I know who succumbed to the
pestilence.

It was not until the autumn that the disease abated, and the 14th December was appointed a day
of heartfelt thanksgiving that this scourge had disappeared. During its existence there was
great religious excitement. Special services were held in the chapels, and many of the most
vicious characters of the town became changed men, and for years sustained the principal
offices of their churches. I must here pay a tribute to the ministers of the town, who, seemingly
careless of themselves, were ever ready to give help when needed, and at the bedside of the
dying, and in the families of the dead, were to be found exercising their holy functions.

Establishing a local Board of Health

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On the 8 September, 1832 the Worcester Herald announced the arrival of cholera in
Redditch. A public parish meeting was held to discuss having a Board of Health to prevent
the spread of cholera, but the meeting was not well attended. Perhaps people thought that
there would be no opposition to a Board as it was a ‘measure which had for its end ... the
relief of the afflicted - the preservation of the healthy, and the good of all’. However, the
majority at the meeting decided against a Board being set up. About six farmers, probably
‘fancying themselves free from danger’, claimed the right of voting according to the rate
assessment which gave some of them four to six votes, so that the majority of votes were
opposed to the establishment of a Board of Health. The ‘respectable inhabitants of Redditch’
wrote to Lord Aston and the Earl of Plymouth asking for advice and assistance, and the letter
was signed by ‘almost every respectable inhabitant of the place’.

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The Earl of Plymouth contributed £50 and Lord Aston gave £20 for a cholera fund. Others
followed this ‘liberal example’. William Hemming, Messrs. Bartleet, and Messrs. Milward
contributed £10 each, Messrs. Field and Mr. Reading gave £5, Mr. Perks and Mr. Williams,
£2..10s[shillings], Mr. Fowkes, Mr. T. Field, Messrs. Holyoake, Mr. J. Holyoake, and Mr.
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Cresswell, £2. Other donations for the cholera fund followed in the next few weeks. A
reporter heard from a trusted source that the Earl of Plymouth asked the Rev. J. Clayton to
draw upon him for any amount that might be required for the assistance and relief of the
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afflicted. On 29 September the Worcester Herald stated that the Lords of the Privy Council

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Worcester Herald 8 September 1832.
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Worcester Journal 13 September 1832.
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Worcester Herald 22 September 1832

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