Insanitary Arlesey

The Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 created poor law unions, each run by a Board of Guardians, centred around towns, which included a union workhouse for the poor of the union area. The union was also responsible for other matters, such as public health. Arlesey was in the Biggleswade Union. The Biggleswade Poor Law Union minute book of 1868 to 1871 ends with a description of the sanitary conditions of the major settlements in the area, including Arlesey for 3rd May 1871 [ref: PUBWM10]. The entry for Arlesey is below.

“All the other villages are filthy ad overcrowded, but some of them have not as yet suffered from scarlet fever; one of these ia Arlesey, where there are filthy pigsties, ditches and drains close to many of the cottages, and “filth heaps everywhere””.

“One house that I examined had no back way at all, and no privy, nor even the use of one, there were two rooms upstairs and two down, and the only way that the eight inmates had of getting rid of their refuse of all Kinds was by throwing it over a wall onto a muck heap in the neighbour’s yard, the neighbour being their landlord. It was plain however that the slops were often thrown out in front of the door. Seven persons in this house had had Typhoid fever, as I was informed by Mr. Fisher, the Medical Officer”.

“At a plaiting school in this village I saw fifty one children sitting in a room 10 feet square by 7 feet high; the window was shut, the door open, as it was “not a windy day”, but it opened into a small kitchen; and this into a yard, with a filthy drain close to the door and a pigsty and privy close by; it was really impossible for any one coming from outside to stay in the plaiting room for a minute without a feeling of nausea”.

“It is plainly not from want of a window that scarlet fever has not appeared here, but because it does not happen to have been introduced”.

In 1875 sanitation ceased to be a function of the poor law unions and was transferred to sanitary authorities, in Arlesey’s case Biggleswade Rural Sanitary Authority. These were replaced in 1894 by the newly created district councils, in Arlesey’s case, Biggleswade Rural District Council. This was replaced in 1974 by Mid Bedfordshire District Council and in 2009 the new unitary council (incorporating the functions of the former district councils with the abolished county council) of Central Bedfordshire became responsible for all sanitary matters.