Page 26 - Smallwood Hospital

Redditch Heritage Smallwood Hospital

other than those with a known or defined boundary, to adopt the Act were now made to the
Secretary of State.

The responsibilities of local boards included the removal of obstructions and nuisances in the
street, fires and fire prevention, provision of public bathing houses, naming streets and
numbering houses, and removal of ruinous or dangerous buildings. The local board also took
over any lamps, lamp posts and gas posts, and was given a new power to provide a market
place where one was required or inadequate. In the ten years up to 1868, 568 towns set up
boards of health and began implementing public health reforms. Redditch was one of those
towns.

Redditch and the 1858 Acts 57

At the end of December 1858 the Secretary of State’s Office sent the ‘order’ settling the
boundaries of Redditch, and John Osborne had been appointed summoning officer. The nine
commissioners/members of the local board elected by the rate payers were ‘gentlemen of
property’. The Worcester Journal reporter added:

If not quite up to the democratic standard, they are, as a body, possessed of practical
knowledge, yet, as men of business, well acquainted with the essential requirements of the
town, and being of the economic mould, the interests of the inhabitants may be safely confined
to them. ... from what we have heard, the darkness will be dispelled, and the disgraceful state
of one of the principal streets, amended by a proper drainage. That this is essentially necessary
must be evident to all who, like ourselves, have passed up Evesham-street in wet weather. 58

The journalist from the Birmingham Daily Post wrote that there was ‘a good infusion of
59
careful men’ among the number. The following list shows the names, occupation and
number of votes for each candidate. The first nine people had the most votes and therefore
became members of the board.

Name Occupation No. of votes
1. John Osborne bank agent 536
2. Benjamin Sarsons baker, corn dealer 459
3. William Ricketts grocer 356
4. Richard Harrison manufacturer 276
5. Edwin Smallwood manufacturer 274
6. John R. Nicholson physician 265
7. William Kinchin confectioner 245
8. Joseph Warrin manufacturer 228
9. William Smith surgeon 203

10. Samuel Thomas manufacturer 178
11. Edmund Holyoake manufacturer 83
12. William Boulton manufacturer 191

57
The Needle District Almanack and Trades Directory for Redditch & Neighbourhood 1888; available in
Redditch Public Library; Worcester Journal, 1 January 1859, 2 April 1859
58
Worcester Journal, 2 April 1859.
59
Birmingham Daily Post, 30 March 1859.

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