Dr. J.R. Hutchinson's report to the Local Government Board on the sanitary circumstances and administration of the Chadderton Urban District.

  • Hutchinson, J. R. (James Randal)
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Dr. J.R. Hutchinson's report to the Local Government Board on the sanitary circumstances and administration of the Chadderton Urban District. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    to the borrowing of £16,900 has been obtained. The subsoil is chiefly rock or shale overlying the clay and the coal measures, and owing to the nature of the ground considerable engineering difficulties were met with in the laying of sewers^ Some subsi- dence from coal workings has taken place in Bower Lane. In Burnley Lane and Middleton Boad is a quantity of land “ made ” from clinker and other inorganic material. Industrial and Social Considerations. Oldham, of which Chadderton is but an overflow, is a typical centre of the cotton industry. In Chadderton alone there are 63 cotton mills, and it is estimated that on the average from 200-300 hands are employed at each, so that about one-half the population—which is wholly artisan—is thus engaged. At the present time wages are good and work is plentiful. From the age of thirteen practically all the youth of both sexes are wage- earners ; at this age a boy can earn bs. and a girl 35. a week. By the time they are sixteen they earn IO5., and at twenty from 205. to 235. Men may earn from 305. to 405. a week. It is by no means uncommon, therefore, for the joint earnings of a family to amount to £5 or £7 a week. In ordinary circumstances the common necessities of life can be well afforded by cotton operatives, and as a class they are well clothed, well fed, and well housed. Women are industrially employed to a considerable extent both before and after marriage. From information which I obtained from a number of cotton mills, it appears that of the married women who cease work on account of approaching parturition 40 per cent, cease at least three months before that event is due, whilst an equal number cease from l|-2 months before. The remaining 20 per cent, continue at work as long as possible or until they are stopped by the management. At many mills a woman leaving work for the purposes of parturition automatically ceases to be employed, and she is not again “ taken on.” I was informed that probably about one quarter of the total number never return to the mill, 14 per cent, return at the end of 3 months, 25 per cent, at the end of 2 months, and the remainder at varying periods less than this. There is no creche or similar institution in the town and a very large number of infants are artiflcially fed from a very early age, but as the Notification of Births Act has not been adopted, and no enquiry is made into infant deaths, precise in- formation as to the extent of artificial feeding was not obtainable. Tlie feeding of children of school age is specially important in a district like Chadderton where so many mothers return to work. The report of the school medical officer does not indicate any particular neglect in this respect, and I am informed by the county medical superintendent of schools that on the wliole the (school) children are well nourished. Many people living in the vicinity of mills make a business of cooking substantial hot mid-day meals, and these are taken to the, liomes or the mills by school-children. In cases where the mother remains at home she cooks the dinner, and it is carried to the mills by the children who often stay and