Page 8 - Smallwood Hospital

Redditch Heritage Smallwood Hospital

Industrialisation meant more people moved to the rapidly expanding cities and towns, with
badly built houses and inadequate facilities. This state of affairs was evident in Redditch. In
the 1840s the population of Redditch quickly increased when the new large mills were
powered by steam and not water. In 1859 the railway line was extended from Barnt Green to
Redditch, so that deliveries to and from the town were made easier. The developing expertise
and fame of the Redditch firms attracted workers from the West Midlands, and this
contributed to the expansion of the town. In 1801 the population of Redditch was estimated at
just over a thousand, but by 1841 it had grown to 3,314, by 1871 it was 6,737, and by 1901
13,493. 4

In 1832 many of the local Boards of Health seem to have examined the cleanliness of their
parishes, and cleared ‘nuisances’ off the streets. ‘Nuisance’ was a euphemism for human and
animal effluent, rubbish, dead animals, household waste, rotting vegetables and all other
noxious substances which were to be found in the streets. The Public Health Act of 1875
defined ‘nuisances’ as those things that were ‘injurious to health’ that should be removed.
Nuisances included foul pools, ditch, gutters, watercourses, privies, cesspools, and drains, as
well as overcrowded houses, and dirty, unventilated workplaces. Despite this legislation, in
1891 one of the local newspapers described how Redditch was still ‘insanitary Redditch’.
The following pages show how Redditch coped with various diseases and lack of appropriate
sanitation in the nineteenth century. They also include the development of the Redditch
District Nursing Association, the Smallwood Hospital in Redditch, and the Bromsgrove,
Droitwich and Redditch Hospital, an isolation hospital in Bromsgrove.

4
Land, N. (1985) The History of Redditch and the Locality. Studley, K. A. F. Brewin Books.

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