Nineteenth century pollution in the Black Country … century pollution in the Black Country Town of...

:Nineteenth century pollution in the Black Country Town of Oldbury

Janet Sullivan, School of History and Cultures

The ProblemThe Effects

The Outcome

The Black Country was a cradle of the Industrial Revolution and

of great economic significance to the United Kingdom in the

nineteenth century. It supplied coal and iron to the industrial

centre of Birmingham, and items such as nails, locks and tools

to many parts of the globe.

The result of this productive industry was a massive amount of

pollution for small Black Country towns such as Oldbury.

www.bci-uk.com/clientImages/Black%20Country%20map%20450.jpg

wag@ewgreen.org.uk

‘a grimy town of smother amid smother’ Walter White, All

round the Wrekin (1860)

A farming community nestled at the foot of the Rowley Hills

Oldbury

Industrial

revolution

• Industrialisation was given priority over all other issues

in the early nineteenth century industrial town.

• The contamination of the environment by biological

and chemical agents took second place in people’s

thinking, even when it affected their health

• It was something which had to be tolerated or endured,

part and parcel of the industry which gave them a living.

• Noise pollution by industrial machinery

• Contamination of water sources

• Pollution of the landscape by industrial waste

• Contamination of the air by smoke and chemical gasses

• Health problems - asthma, breathing difficulties

• Conditions arising from lack of sunlight - rickets, stunted growth, pallid appearance

• Environmental problems - destruction of plant life

• Long distance pollution of forests and water sources

• Acid rain

• Hazardous piles of mining, metal working or chemical waste in a state of combustion

• Noxious fumes causing nausea, headaches and lethargy

• Physical instability of mounds leading to evacuation of homes

• Storage of waste chemicals in ‘lagoons’ or pits, hazardous to both people and wildlife

• Sewers with outlets directly into brook or canal

• Factory pollutants dumped in water sources

• Harmful effluents polluting watershed

• Sulphur liquors seeping from mound of waste alkali into water system

• Damage to ecosystem and animal life

• Lack of sleep due to ever present noise• School children unable to hear or be heard• Workers’ hearing problems, often leading to deafness• Intrinsic part of industrial life but received little attention at a government level

Harsh conditions

of industrial centres led to reform

Local action insufficient,

lacked funding and resources

Legislative controls –

inspectorate, monitoring, surveillance

New directions taken and standards

set

Acts of Parliament

enabling change

The improvement in health and

environmental controls we enjoy today is, to

a large extent, due to the price paid by

industrial towns in the nineteenth century.

1.

1. www,starchilde7.blogspot.com/2010/10smoke2

2. English Heritage (NMR) RAF Photography, ‘Blue Billy, 150,000 cubic yard mound of alkali waste in Oldbury‘

3. Sandwell Community History & Archives Service, ‘ view of Oldbury from Barnford Park’

4. A Nasmyth steam hammer

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