30/10/2006 - Media event: A whiff of Kendal's history

History lovers can now dive into Kendal’s murky historical waters thanks to a new book published next week by Cumbria County Council’s Archives Service.

Kendal’s proud place as a beautiful market town on the edge of the Lake District is well known but the book Cleaning Up Kendal: a century of sanitary history shows how the town was not always flushed with pride.

Members of the media with a strong stomach are invited to attend the book launch which is being hosted by Cumbria County Council's Chairman Allan Caine at Kendal’s County Hall from 6:00pm on Tuesday 31 October.

Those attending will hear the book's compilers Loraine Ashcroft and Phil Chapple explain how the putrid and disease-ridden conditions in 1840s Kendal contributed to death rates amongst the town’s population which were staggeringly high even for the age.

The book is the fourth in a series of Curwen Archive Texts commissioned by the county council and uses three historical surveys of sanitary conditions from 1822-1875 to chart the auld grey town’s progress from the squalor of open cess pools and unlicensed slaughter houses to the new era of public health which we are all familiar with today.

Councillor Roger Bingham, cabinet member responsible for the county council’s Archives Service, said:

“This book gives a fascinating snap shot of the dire and degrading conditions inhabitants of Kendal faced before the new era of public health was ushered in.

"In the 1840s, sanitation in Kendal was considered to be worse than the central areas of London and Manchester.

"The subsequent clean up resulted in the councillors of the day objecting to water closets as being filthier than earth privies because the effluent emptied straight into the River Kent.

"Shortly after the town’s first proper sewerage system was installed, a cow wandered from the river meadows up the sewer tunnel to the top of Lowther Street where it had to be dug up and released.

"This compilation will undoubtedly add considerably to our knowledge this fundamental aspect of social and indeed personal affairs.

"The series of Curwen Archive Texts aims to open up some of the unique archives kept in Kendal to a wider audience and I am sure this latest book will contribute handily to that goal.”

ENDS

Media enquiries to Mark Graham, Media Officer on 01228-606337

Notes for Editors

The Curwen Archives Trust was set up by Captain Donald Curwen who bequeathed his estate for the historic county of Westmorland in 1968. The Trust has helped Cumbria County Council’s Kendal Records Office to promote research using archives and to support local history publications.