Victorian Values - Health and Environment
Cleanliness is Next to Godliness
Sheffield's population grew from 110,900 in 1841 to 409,000 in 1901. The houses and streets were squashed into spaces around the new factories and older-established places of work. But nothing was done to deal with other effects of such a population growth. There were few indoor toilets or proper sewers, with most draining into nearby rivers and streams which might be the source for drinking and washing water. Even doctors didn't fully understand the connections between living conditions and diseases.
Cholera epidemics throughout Victorian times alerted the whole country to the danger of infectious disease in cramped living areas.
In 1832 Sheffield's worst outbreak of the disease happened. Between July and September, 1,347 people caught cholera, of these, 402 died.
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