There is a lot of nostalgia and "ye olde worldliness" about
the occupations of our ancestors.
The old standards and attributes of honest hard
work, stamina and knowing your station in life were core beliefs of previous
generations. It is only when talking with the senior citizens in current times
that these qualities and characteristics are still revered although in reality
that job for life entitlement that even I was expecting in my early adult years
is long gone.
We have a rather idealistic image of our Victorian ancestors largely based on TV and Movie Period Dramas with ruddy faced, chubby bellied and rather raucous men and their delicate, nervous yet ambitious women folk.
Dickens portrays a good cross section of English Society in his writings which has perpetuated a rather stereotypical image of those life and times.
Personalities in those pages are largely happy, of reasonable financial means and generally healthy (apologies to Tiny Tim).
There are however many great tracts and papers from contemporaries of that era which paint a very different picture of the troubles and strifes of, in particular, the working class.
One great piece of social history is the scholarly book by a Yorkshire Surgeon, Charles Turner Thackrah entitled “Diseases of Occupations”.
In it he recounts the illnesses and conditions befalling those employed in industry and commerce, from those working the land to factory and process workers. It is a fascinating study, not so much in the often debilitating medical health brought on by a particular job but in the actual job titles, many of which have now disappeared from our modern manufacturing and automated operations.
Thackrahs’ is a weighty discourse which shows very extensive canvassing and research as well as references to other practitioners and writers on the same subject. “Diseases of Occupations” was published in 1832 with, in the preamble, what is almost a lament on the fast pace of change at what was the peak of the British Empire and its global influence. “Wilderness converted to towns and cities, roads cut through mountains, bridges carried over rivers and arms of the sea, ships traversing the globe, lakes into cornfields, forests into pasture and barren rocks covered with timber”.
Thackrah is very sympathetic to the plight of the manual workers of his era and states that employment serves to “reduce his character, weaken his frame and bring on him premature decay and death”.
Born in Leeds, Yorkshire the Surgeon relies on a lot of regional examples in his study rather than what will have been quite a Londoncentric academic bias behind findings and theories.
He expressed his own shock and dismay that in the three Ridings of Yorkshire and specifically in the manufacturing districts of West Yorkshire many in employment failed to reach beyond the age range of 40 to 50 years. There were reported to be some 450 deaths annually just in Leeds from the injurious effects of manufacturing, the crowded population and what he alludes to as “bad habits”.
The book does cover all aspects of employment with sections on operatives (manual workers), Dealers, Master manufacturers and merchants, independent men in labour and business and also the Professional Class.
The individual entries for the hundreds of job descriptions are most interesting and cause you to radically rethink the widely perceived representations of tradesmen and women in Victorian England from literature and modern drama.
Take, for example a Husbandman, or rural worker. Whilst there will have been health benefits from open air working there will also have been exposure to common medical ailments including inflammation of the lungs, cholera, diarrhoea and dysentery, pleurisy and rheumatism. However, if managing to survive these conditions then there was some potential for longevity.
Butchers in 1832 were similarly tough and durable with access to fresh meat and a comfortable living but were prone to living perhaps too highly suffering congestion of the blood.
Cattle and Horse dealers were described by Thackrah as sickly fellows and although again active and exercised still susceptible to stomach and liver issues although mainly self inflicted by an irregular lifestyle and frequent debauchery.
Low wages were seen as a major contributing factor to ill health and shortened life expectancy in that poor diet and working conditions were inevitable in this sector.
Hard manual labour in the life of Dray or Wherrymen (cart drivers) caused problems with feet and muscles, in particular in the loins although again physical exercise could alleviate the problems to some extent.
Brickmakers, often stripped to the waist around the kilns may have been strapping in their half nakedness but could suffer catarrh, pneumonia and rheumatism.
Even sedentary occupations such as coachmen, either in service to gentry or nobility or in what could be called public transport were susceptible to curvature of the spine, aneurisms and not being able to take exercise due to long journey hours there was potential for rapid weight gain.
Gentlemen's Coachmen, hanging around at the beck and call of their Master, usually ate a lot out of boredom.
Others in domestic service of the time could suffer stooping and loins pressure through such activities as gardening or lugging about house coals and kindling to make up the many hearths in a well to do home.
All of the above had some element of access to fresh air and activity to get the muscles and bloodstream pumping but what about the millions engaged or trapped in industry and manufacturing?
Thackrah’s conclusion that less than 10% of those living in urban areas were in full health is shocking indeed. This was down to air quality in a fossil fuel powered world as well socio and economic factors. It was proven that for those sleeping in a room with many others, as was a typical family unit in the 1830’s working class, the poor atmosphere produced giddiness, drowsiness, mental confusion, headache, vomiting and that was before the influences of dampness in promoting bronchial and other respiratory illnesses.
Indoor workers producing goods and products for the wealthier in Victorian Society experienced problems relating to bad posture (Tailors and Dressmakers with squashed organs from a bent upper body), eyesight (watchmakers), lungs (inhalation of flax dust by Hecklers), poisoning (printers and engravers from white lead, Prussian Blue and turpentine) and noxious inhalations. In this latter category spare a thought for the humble bookbinder who used the putrid serum of sheeps blood as a cement agent.
Lost occupations which would now be considered hazardous included Staymakers, Milliners, Sailmakers, Cork Cutters, Leather, wool and silk spinners, Weavers, Burlers, Frizzers and my favourite, Shoddy Grinders (as in those who hand stripped old cloth and rags to be added to yarn).
Working environments could also be enough to do you in before your time.
A waiter in a hostelry would die young because of irregular and dissipated habits. Starch Makers were breathing in fetid acetous vapours from fermenting wheat with no perception of wearing a face mask or other protective clothing. Those working in many occupations of a wet, hot or badly ventilated nature were at risk. Wire Drawers inhaled tallow and oil, Varnish Makers a mixture of alcohol, turps, gums and tar, Lime Workers the Lime Dust which caused ophthalmia and cutaneous eruptions, Glue and Size workers a heady cocktail of ammonia and boiled up bits of animals.
Clay Potters seemed to be particularly prone to constipation. Chimney Sweeps were exposed to sulphurs and soots. Grinders in industrial processes, in their inhalation of dry stone dusts very rarely lived beyond the age of 50 years.
Then what about those working down the mines, either coal, lead or other minerals. Colliery fatalities from tunnel collapses, gas explosions and flooding were bad enough but even after surviving a life down a pit there were the inherited health problems such as fire damp and choke damp. Boys as young as 6 to 7 years started their working lives underground in such a perilous environment little aware of what would befall them in later life.
Military personnel were no less likely to suffer ill health than dying in the many campaigns of the Empire although there was an increasing awareness of medical monitoring of the ranks.
Accidents in the workplace were hardly recorded or investigated and even where fatalities occurred, even multiple ones, the wheels of industry barely slowed if at all.
So it appears that Empire was built on the sweat and bones of the working classes after all.
We have a rather idealistic image of our Victorian ancestors largely based on TV and Movie Period Dramas with ruddy faced, chubby bellied and rather raucous men and their delicate, nervous yet ambitious women folk.
Dickens portrays a good cross section of English Society in his writings which has perpetuated a rather stereotypical image of those life and times.
Personalities in those pages are largely happy, of reasonable financial means and generally healthy (apologies to Tiny Tim).
There are however many great tracts and papers from contemporaries of that era which paint a very different picture of the troubles and strifes of, in particular, the working class.
One great piece of social history is the scholarly book by a Yorkshire Surgeon, Charles Turner Thackrah entitled “Diseases of Occupations”.
In it he recounts the illnesses and conditions befalling those employed in industry and commerce, from those working the land to factory and process workers. It is a fascinating study, not so much in the often debilitating medical health brought on by a particular job but in the actual job titles, many of which have now disappeared from our modern manufacturing and automated operations.
Thackrahs’ is a weighty discourse which shows very extensive canvassing and research as well as references to other practitioners and writers on the same subject. “Diseases of Occupations” was published in 1832 with, in the preamble, what is almost a lament on the fast pace of change at what was the peak of the British Empire and its global influence. “Wilderness converted to towns and cities, roads cut through mountains, bridges carried over rivers and arms of the sea, ships traversing the globe, lakes into cornfields, forests into pasture and barren rocks covered with timber”.
Thackrah is very sympathetic to the plight of the manual workers of his era and states that employment serves to “reduce his character, weaken his frame and bring on him premature decay and death”.
Born in Leeds, Yorkshire the Surgeon relies on a lot of regional examples in his study rather than what will have been quite a Londoncentric academic bias behind findings and theories.
He expressed his own shock and dismay that in the three Ridings of Yorkshire and specifically in the manufacturing districts of West Yorkshire many in employment failed to reach beyond the age range of 40 to 50 years. There were reported to be some 450 deaths annually just in Leeds from the injurious effects of manufacturing, the crowded population and what he alludes to as “bad habits”.
The book does cover all aspects of employment with sections on operatives (manual workers), Dealers, Master manufacturers and merchants, independent men in labour and business and also the Professional Class.
The individual entries for the hundreds of job descriptions are most interesting and cause you to radically rethink the widely perceived representations of tradesmen and women in Victorian England from literature and modern drama.
Take, for example a Husbandman, or rural worker. Whilst there will have been health benefits from open air working there will also have been exposure to common medical ailments including inflammation of the lungs, cholera, diarrhoea and dysentery, pleurisy and rheumatism. However, if managing to survive these conditions then there was some potential for longevity.
Butchers in 1832 were similarly tough and durable with access to fresh meat and a comfortable living but were prone to living perhaps too highly suffering congestion of the blood.
Cattle and Horse dealers were described by Thackrah as sickly fellows and although again active and exercised still susceptible to stomach and liver issues although mainly self inflicted by an irregular lifestyle and frequent debauchery.
Low wages were seen as a major contributing factor to ill health and shortened life expectancy in that poor diet and working conditions were inevitable in this sector.
Hard manual labour in the life of Dray or Wherrymen (cart drivers) caused problems with feet and muscles, in particular in the loins although again physical exercise could alleviate the problems to some extent.
Brickmakers, often stripped to the waist around the kilns may have been strapping in their half nakedness but could suffer catarrh, pneumonia and rheumatism.
Even sedentary occupations such as coachmen, either in service to gentry or nobility or in what could be called public transport were susceptible to curvature of the spine, aneurisms and not being able to take exercise due to long journey hours there was potential for rapid weight gain.
Gentlemen's Coachmen, hanging around at the beck and call of their Master, usually ate a lot out of boredom.
Others in domestic service of the time could suffer stooping and loins pressure through such activities as gardening or lugging about house coals and kindling to make up the many hearths in a well to do home.
All of the above had some element of access to fresh air and activity to get the muscles and bloodstream pumping but what about the millions engaged or trapped in industry and manufacturing?
Thackrah’s conclusion that less than 10% of those living in urban areas were in full health is shocking indeed. This was down to air quality in a fossil fuel powered world as well socio and economic factors. It was proven that for those sleeping in a room with many others, as was a typical family unit in the 1830’s working class, the poor atmosphere produced giddiness, drowsiness, mental confusion, headache, vomiting and that was before the influences of dampness in promoting bronchial and other respiratory illnesses.
Indoor workers producing goods and products for the wealthier in Victorian Society experienced problems relating to bad posture (Tailors and Dressmakers with squashed organs from a bent upper body), eyesight (watchmakers), lungs (inhalation of flax dust by Hecklers), poisoning (printers and engravers from white lead, Prussian Blue and turpentine) and noxious inhalations. In this latter category spare a thought for the humble bookbinder who used the putrid serum of sheeps blood as a cement agent.
Lost occupations which would now be considered hazardous included Staymakers, Milliners, Sailmakers, Cork Cutters, Leather, wool and silk spinners, Weavers, Burlers, Frizzers and my favourite, Shoddy Grinders (as in those who hand stripped old cloth and rags to be added to yarn).
Working environments could also be enough to do you in before your time.
A waiter in a hostelry would die young because of irregular and dissipated habits. Starch Makers were breathing in fetid acetous vapours from fermenting wheat with no perception of wearing a face mask or other protective clothing. Those working in many occupations of a wet, hot or badly ventilated nature were at risk. Wire Drawers inhaled tallow and oil, Varnish Makers a mixture of alcohol, turps, gums and tar, Lime Workers the Lime Dust which caused ophthalmia and cutaneous eruptions, Glue and Size workers a heady cocktail of ammonia and boiled up bits of animals.
Clay Potters seemed to be particularly prone to constipation. Chimney Sweeps were exposed to sulphurs and soots. Grinders in industrial processes, in their inhalation of dry stone dusts very rarely lived beyond the age of 50 years.
Then what about those working down the mines, either coal, lead or other minerals. Colliery fatalities from tunnel collapses, gas explosions and flooding were bad enough but even after surviving a life down a pit there were the inherited health problems such as fire damp and choke damp. Boys as young as 6 to 7 years started their working lives underground in such a perilous environment little aware of what would befall them in later life.
Military personnel were no less likely to suffer ill health than dying in the many campaigns of the Empire although there was an increasing awareness of medical monitoring of the ranks.
Accidents in the workplace were hardly recorded or investigated and even where fatalities occurred, even multiple ones, the wheels of industry barely slowed if at all.
So it appears that Empire was built on the sweat and bones of the working classes after all.
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