ABSTRACT
the middle decades of the nineteenth century marked the great era of permissive legislation. 1 Thereafter, national legislation and administrative pressure from the central government became increasingly important in a wider range of matters which, hitherto, had been the responsibility of local authorities. Municipal corporations could not avoid the increasing intervention of the central government, but it frequently caused resentment. In 1872 the Nottingham Town Council decided not to apply for a government grant to meet half the cost of employing two officers, because the latter were to be ruled from London. 2 However, in the year following the Public Health Act of 1872, the following year the Town Council, as the Urban Sanitary Authority, was obliged to appoint its first Medical Officer of Health. Later the same year, Edward Seaton, in cooperation with Tarbottom, submitted to the Council a Report on the Sanitary Condition of the Town. 3 The Report, which was the result of the combined research of Seaton and Tarbotton, emphasized the insanitary condition of houses in the Meadows, and others in the lower parts of the town. Nottingham’s eight thousand back-to-back houses were the object of fierce criticism, while the continued erection of insanitary dwellings likewise drew condemnation from the town’s officers. Ashpits for houses in the Meadows were situated at the rear, several feet below street level and considerably lower than the Trent flood level in that area. The result was that when the river rose each season, water was carried into the yards and sewage poured into the houses. 4 During the serious flooding in 1875 three thousand dwellings were affected and many families were rendered homeless. However, in 1874 the annual danger arising from liquid sewage in the Meadows was reduced when the Council acted upon Seaton’s recommendation that the official flood level of the Trent should be raised, and that no part of any building should be permitted below that level. These provisions were included in the Nottingham Improvement Act of that year. 5
