Page 13 - Smallwood Hospital

Smallwood Hospital Redditch Heritage

had sent an order constituting a Board of Health for Tardebigge. The Minutes of the
Tardebigge Board revealed that, despite the opposition of the earlier public meeting the Earl
of Plymouth had written to the Privy Council on 16 September and the Central Board of
Health had replied with the order on 21 September.

People mentioned in the Tardebigg Minutes of the Local Board of Health in 1832.

Local Boards of Health were meant to include medical practitioners, local magistrates,
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clergymen and leading inhabitants.
Some members of the Board of Health

The Earl of Plymouth was Other Archer. The Rev. Lord Aston (1769-1845) was the Vicar of
Tardebigge. He succeeded his father as Lord Aston of Forfar in 1805. William Balden was a
miller at Redditch Mill in 1828 and 1835. The Rev. John Clayton was based in Redditch in
1828 and 1835. Thomas Fowkes was a maltster and a retailer of beer in 1842. William
Hemming was a magistrate at Foxlydiate House, Tardebigge, and described as gentry in
1842. In 1835 Edward Perks (also 1828) and Joseph Reading were needle and/or fish hook
manufacturers. William Field and Henry Milward were needle manufacturers in 1828 and
1835, as were Charles and Thomas Moore Bartleet in 1839. By 1842 Thomas Turner was a
needle maker. Joseph Cresswell was a solicitor in 1828; both he and Edward Browning were
solicitors in 1835. William Hollington was a fishing tackle maker in 1828 and 1835, but
there was also William Hollington, the draper, in 1835. Richard Rickards was a tin-plate
worker in 1835. John Osborne, the secretary, was a copper-plate printer, bookseller and
stationer and a National School master in 1835. Charles Swann was a Redditch factor (agent
or dealer) in 1842, presumably not to be confused with Charles Swan who was listed in 1828
and 1835 as a needle and/or fish hook manufacturer. John Vincent was a tailor and
pawnbroker in 1835. Alexander Pratt, Christopher Royston and Hugh and John Taylor
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were Redditch surgeons (doctors). Rob Cordell was the Churchwarden and John Higgs
was the Overseer, both for the Warwickshire part of the parish of Tardebigg.

Nurses

During the first half of the century, anybody could call themselves a nurse or say what they
did was nursing. Caring for the sick mainly consisted of helping people with daily activities
which they were not able to do themselves. Before the introduction of modern techniques of
diagnosis, this would have been the main way of defining someone as ill, that they were

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Lancaster B. (1999) The First Croydon Board of Health: 1831-1832, Bull Croydon Nat Hist Sci Soc, 108: 4-6.
Available at http://www.greig51.freeserve.co.uk/cnhss/bull108c.htm [Accessed 28 March 2013]
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Pigot and Co.’s National Commercial Directory Worcestershire, 1828, 1835; Pigot’s Directory of
Worcestershire, 1842; Repertory of patent inventions and other discoveries 1841, vol. 16, p. 308 (Available at
books.google.co.uk); Wikipedia. Those listed in the 1842 directory may not be those mentioned in the 1832
Minutes as their names were not included in the 1835 directory.

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