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#61
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This is all good stuff Coquet. What is the evidence to suggest that the 1864 outbreak was cholera and not, for example, scarlet fever which was a killer disease at that time?
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#62
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I noted at the woodhorn archives that some entries in the Warkworth burial registers have cause of death recorded; It's possible the registers have a reference to the Radcliffe epidemic, but with our luck probably not! On that subject do we know where the victims were buried? Can't see any reference in the inscriptions at Warkworth beach road cemetery? Generally in reference to the Radcliffe dead I've often thought we have a shortage of burials [or monumental inscriptions] for the Radcliffe folk up to the opening of the Amble east cemetery. The Radcliffe population was larger than Warkworth, and not that much smaller than Amble during this time. Janwin, have you got any transcriptions of burial registers for that period? Where are they all? In Warkworth, just no headstones? |
#63
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Given this was a report in February and the epidemic was ongoing, it probably accounts for the deaths from fever during 1864. |
#64
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The burial registers for Warkworth are online and all the Radcliffe and Amble folk are there....outnumbering the Warkworth dead. Last edited by janwhin; 13-01-2015 at 01:27 PM. |
#65
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I wonder how that got going as there was an inoculation for Small Pox at that time? [Edward Jenner and his cow pox vaccine etc] [edit: there was a compulsory smallpox vaccination Act put through Parliament in 1853, Radcliffe must have missed out for some reason] |
#66
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Wouldn't you have to pay for it?
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#67
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Could be. In fact money almost certainly comes into it somewhere I bet!
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#68
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Have you noticed the population statistics fro Hauxley township between 1861 and 1871 on the home page of the other site? Quite a collapse. Not down to disease and death I assume, more likely problems at the colliery. Not a good decade for Radcliffe, whatever the problem was.
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#69
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That's interesting, Radcliffe was being put up for sale in the 1860s so maybe the pitmen voted with their feet. Look at East Chevington, quite a few might have tipped up there!
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#70
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Just done a quick add up of the burials in Warkworth for 1874, sad person that I am
There were 89 burials, of which 31 were from Amble, 27 from Warkworth, 24 from Radcliffe, 4 from Togston, and one each from Hauxley, Chevington and Broomhill. I hope they add up. |
#71
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That's ok, won't be a exact ratio with these small populations. Radcliffe higher than expected but pick a different year and you'll have different ratios. I was beginning to think they were being buried somewhere else! We have disproportionately less headstones for Radcliffe dead (or they are on stones without a place name mentioned). I think 'Radcliffe' only appears once on the Beach Road cemetery legible headstones, and that is a stone for one of the Beverleys. Again all down to money I guess.
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#72
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“The water scheme was then gone into and Mr Watson examined, who said that in 1864 the village of Radcliffe was visited with an outbreak of fever, having 200 cases and about 20 deaths. The burn where the people got their supply of water was found to be in a wretched condition and very much polluted, and this served to be the cause of the fever.” This states that the polluted burn was responsible for the 1864 “fever”. The smallpox virus is air bourne. Cholera is spread by people using polluted water. Could there have been both a cholera and a smallpox epidemic in Radcliffe in 1864? A horrendous thought! |
#73
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Smallpox and scarlet fever seem to be the principal regular visitations in Radcliffe. The Newcastle Courant of June 30 1876 refers to a meeting of the Alnwick Union with regard to sanitary work.
"As a rule the wells and water courses that constitute the supply are polluted with sewage. This latter is an evil of fearful magnitude, and it has proved no easy matter to deal with it. The two evils are combined in a most remarkable manner at Radcliffe Terrace, a pit village near Amble, where there is a very numerous population. The colliery proprietors allow the inhabitants to use the steam water at the pit, but this is at a considerable distance, and the common drink of the people is from a burn which is polluted with sewage along its course. Even this burn has now run nearly dry, and they have to buy their water of a person who brings it in a barrel cart from Amble and sells it by the pailful. Is it to be wondered at that the people here are frequent sufferers from the scourges of smallpox, scarlet fever etc and that there is a perpetual danger of these periodical outbreaks being diffused from Radcliffe Terrace and Amble over the surrounding county." Looking at Warkworth burials in 1864 it seems that most of the Radcliffe deaths that year were amongst infants and children, with a few teenagers too. It peaked in September, maybe when the burn was getting low? |
#74
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Just been reading about compulsory vaccination for smallpox......an 1840 Act made it free for infants, but the outcomes were pretty variable depending on the quality of the initial vaccination, whether the efficacy of the serum or the capabilities of the vaccinator. It became compulsory in 1870 with poor law guardians being required to provide suitably remunerated vaccinators but there were still parents being taken to court and fined for refusing.
There was a lot of opposition and controversy about vaccinations being voiced in the newspapers of 1864. Medical men were trying to mount sensible evidence based on facts. On the ground however it came down to whether a proper vaccination had been given. There were also religious/moral arguments circulating. Using cowpox as a serum, animals terrible, and smallpox was really the result of intemperate living, disgraceful |
#75
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Thanks for that Janwhin
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#76
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Glad to help Digvul. Personally I think the link with the water supply relates to the need for cleanliness and good hygiene in the treatment of these outbreaks as well as the need for a lot of liquid being given to the patients.
Cholera doesn't seem to make an appearance, although there must have been one or two cases. The last significant outbreak in the NE had been in 1853 when it was rampant. |
#77
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Great stuff. We get the details thrashed out eventually with a few heads working on it. I've updated the olde time line.
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#78
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remember this thread?
http://www.coquetandcoast.co.uk/ambl...hlight=cholera Smallpox in Alnwick in the previous year ('63) according to Janwhin's Tate's Alnwick |
#79
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If you have a spare moment, I would produce an index for the site, Coquet
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#80
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Another interesting snippet relating to the year 1864 comes in a report of the Registrar General's returns for the last quarter of the year, in the Newcastle Chronicle.
"The district registrars, in their notes of the closing quarter of 1864 (a quarter marked by excessive mortality), have frequent occasion to report the prevalence of fever in its various forms, and also of smallpox......and in the Warkworth district, 16 children (a third of the total number of deaths) died of scarlatina at Radcliffe Terrace (a colliery locality) and Hauxley, where "the water is impure and there is a great want of drainage."........" |
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