comparison

key features

water

food

waste

housing

outbreak

responses

public health

medieval Britain

belief in God, peasants, ancient ideas, holy days and drinking

only access to dirty water

they would often collect food in the same container as faeces

threw faeces out of the window onto the streets

closely packed, damp

the black death

prayed, church services, flagellants, burned rosemary, blood letting

1301 King Edward ordered people to clear filth from the streets of York. 1329 butchers appointed people to check meat quality

early modern Britain

alehouses, growth of parliament, more skilled professions, steam engines

pipes, wells and water sellers but the water was still often not clean

the poor ate bread, vegetables and pottage while the rich ate meat, bread, wine and exotic fruits and vegetables

still threw faeces onto the streets and had cesspits

damp, crowded and draughty

the plague

pest houses, plague orders, privy council, sent homeless people away, stationed watchers, people stopped directly handling money

pigs had to be kept in a pigsty, no dung hills, fines for dumping waste into the streets, footways built, gin craze

industrial Britain

Pasteur, poor working conditions, smog, better agriculture, growth of trade, growth of alcohol

people rarely had piped water to their house, most went to the town river or spring. middle class families would filter their water

adulteration of food, introduction of cans, the poor still couldn’t afford an adequate diet

night soil me would collect waste from the cesspit. more than ten houses might have shared a single privy

cramped, squalid with poor ventilation

cholera

burned barrels of tar, quarantining, removing rubbish, central board of health, cholera hospitals

first and second public health acts, the great stink, working class men given the vote, pure food act

Britain since 1900

n/a

most have access to clean water

tinned food, grocery stores, rationing, mad cow disease

Spanish flu and AIDS