SNIPPET: A great Liverpool heroine from the Vauxhall area was Kitty Wilkinson. Born in 1786 Catherine Seaward from Derry, Kitty took the Irish ferry with her poor parents to move to a better life in Liverpool. During the crossing the ship struck rocks and her father and sister both drowned. She and her mother struggled to survive and at age ten had her first job as a sort of young companion to an old lady. At age twelve she moved to Caton, near Lancaster, to work in a mill. Later Kitty married but shortly after her second child was born her sailor husband drowned and she was left to care for her young family and her blind and insane mother. Kitty was a very helpful and hospitable person, she took in homeless families and neighbours. On the death of her mother she moved back to Liverpool finding that the housing conditions were appauling - dirty, damp, cramped rooms plagued with disease. She took in washing to help make ends meet. She soon married Tom Wilkinson, who she knew from her Caton days, who was also a hospitable person. In 1832 Kitty risked her own life to care for the sick and dying during the cholera epidemic. The only wash boiler in the street was in her scullery and she let her neighbours use it to wash affected clothes and bed-linen. Later she fitted out her cellar as a wash-house and disinfecting room for the clothes from both the infected and non-infected homes. She managed her washhouse well and non of her workers became infected. The idea of a public wash-house had been born. She also took in twenty homeless orphaned children and taught that cleanliness was the main weapon against disease. Kitty promoted the washhouse concept and the first ever council run 'Public Baths and Wash-house' opened in Frederick Street, Liverpool in 1842. Kitty and her husband, Thomas were appointed as its first superintendents. People came from many parts of the UK, Europe and the States to have a look at the Washhouse that Liverpool built. A photo of Kitty hung in most washhouses in England and is still admired today. The Vauxhall area gave shelter to 300,000 people, victims of the famine in Ireland during the years 1845-49. With grateful thanks to Mike Kelly (Vauxhall History & Heritage Group) and Ron Formby at Scottie Press - The Community Newspaper for Liverpool Vauxhall The Life and Times of Kitty Wilkinson by Mike Kelly This is the story of a remarkable woman who fought poverty and adversity to become a legend in her time. Living in a poor part of Liverpool plagued by disease particularly cholera, she disregarded her own safety to care for the sick and dying, to take in homeless children and to teach that cleanliness was the main weapon against disease, turning her own home into a wash-house for her neighbours' benefit. Kitty was honoured by the city of Liverpool and by Queen Victoria, and in Liverpool Cathedral there is a window depicting this remarkable woman. Price: £7.00 Check out the excellent website at: www.vauxhallsociety.org.uk/Liverpool.html