Posted with permission of the transcriber, Ann Selchick. Geo SICKNESS & POVERTY IN Nineteenth Century Whitehaven. # 60. REPORT FROM THE LOCAL BOARD OF HEALTH JANUARY 4, 1848. ______ In every district throughout the town, it is the painful duty of your Committee to state that there is a very inadequate supply of water, and as this is so essential for the comfort, cleanliness, and even the health of the inhabitants, they cannot too strongly urge upon the Board that no efforts be left untried to obtain such a supply, as may be adequate, in the fullest extent of its application, to the wants of the people. In those districts in which these wants has been alluded to the detail, we find that in Charles-street alone, which is part of the No. 2 district, there is a population of about 418 people without a single pump in the street. In No. 6, the Strand-street district, for instance, there is no less than 216 families, comprising a population of 700 people, without water on their premises, and only 2 fountains at all conveniently situated for their supply, which it must be borne in mind are also visited by an equally unprovided number of people from adjoining di! stricts. In District No. 8, comprising Albion-street, Swing Pump-lane, &c., in which is contained 170 families, comprising a population of the poorer classes, amounting to upwards of 800 people, we find that there are only 15 pumps, which belong to private individuals; consequently there is a very great want for water in this neighbourhood, sometimes felt to a serious extent by the numbers that may be seen waiting at the fountain near the Fish Market, at untimely hours, which fountain is the only one in the district. The Ginns District, No. 12, comprising a population of 865 people, or thereabouts, is equally unprovided with water, only four pumps were met with, and these were private property. There is no fountain in the neighbourhood, and the poor have a long way to fetch their water. In Mount Pleasant District, No. 13, containing 108 houses, with a population upwards of 500 people, there are no pumps, and the water has to be brought from a considerable distance, and at great inconvenience to the to the poor people, up a long range of steps from the fountain in Quay-street. In looking over the entire town, comprising a population, along with that part in Preston Quarter, of about 16,000 people, we find that there are only 11 public fountains; and during the dry seasons, all classes of the inhabitants have frequently to be waiting at them for a scanty supply of water to very untimely hours; indeed, in times of great scarcity, which do not infrequently occur, parties may be seen at the fountains for their turn to obtain a supply all night long. __________