Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association/Volume 2/Topographical Account of Stourport, Worcestershire, and its immediate neighbourhood

by Kenrick Watson

A TOPOGRAPHICAL ACCOUNT

OF

STOURPORT, WORCESTERSHIRE,

AND ITS

IMMEDIATE NEIGHBOURHOOD.

BY KENRICK WATSON, ESQ. SURGEON.

───────

Description of the Town, &c. &c.

STOUPORT is situated in the hamlet of Lower Mitton, the parish of Kidderminster, and the county of Worcester, and is distant eleven miles from that city. It is bounded on the south by the river Severn, on the east by the Stour, on the north by the hamlet of Upper Mitton, and on the north-west by part of the Foreign of Kidderminster. It is distant 122 miles from London, and about 100 miles from the nearest part of the coast. Its height, above the level of the sea, is 58 ft. 7 in.^[1] Its longitude is 2° 10′ W., its latitude 52° 24′ N. The river Stour rises in the celebrated grounds belonging to the Leasowes, near to the town of Hales Owen. Its waters are considered to be excellent for all the processes of dyeing, and a great number of forges and mills are connected with its stream. After a course of above twenty miles, it empties itself into the Severn, immediately below Stourport. In 1661, an act was obtained for the purpose of rendering the Stour navigable, and in 1666, a person named Yarrington was sent to Holland to learn the art of inland navigation; upon his return, he made the Stour navigable between Kidderminster and Stourbridge, but there was then so little want of such a communication, that the river was soon choked up, and the boats allowed to rot as being useless.

The Severn, during the summer, is a very shallow stream, but the channel is deep, and the banks are high, on account of its running generally through a light sandy soil. It is navigated, however, at all times of the year, (except when the season is very dry,) from Bristol to Shrewsbury, and even to Welsh Pool; the tide is not generally felt higher than Upton. A horse towing-path has been made within a few years from Gloucester to Shrewsbury. The Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal, to which the town owes its rise, and the immediate neighbourhood its prosperity, was completed in the year 1771, and in 1775 a bridge was built over the Severn, connecting the town with the parish of Areley Kings, by which means a new line of communication was opened between the manufacturing towns and those agricultural districts upon which they depended for their supply of corn, cattle, hops and fruit.

By these means, the town enjoys a perfect facility of communication with all parts of the kingdom, and forms an entrépot for the agricultural produce of the adjoining counties, the manufactures of Lancashire and Birmingham, the mineral productions of Wales, Shropshire and Staffordshire, and for the colonial imports from the different parts of the world.

Stourport (of which Mitten, the original or old town, may now be considered as a street,) contains 567 inhabited houses, of which 162 are of the annual value of 10l. and upwards, and the population, according to the last returns, was 2952. Males, 1446; females, 1506. The average number of baptisms and funerals, for the last three years, is, baptisms, 103; funerals, 66. The number of marriages cannot be ascertained, since persons resort to Kidderminster most commonly for the ceremony.

The houses are built of brick, and are, generally, very warm and comfortable, but the yards are small and confined. The usual rent of a small house is about seven pounds. With the exception of the principal streets, the drainage is imperfect, and the privies and pig-sties are in an offensive state. Vessels full of pig-wash are frequently kept close to the doors, and, sometimes, within the houses, but I am not aware that any extensive disease has been ever produced by these nuisances.

The mud from the canals and basins, which consists principally of clay mixed with sand, more or less coal-dust, and a very small portion of animal and vegetable matter, is frequently allowed to remain in different parts of the town, for many weeks, until it is dry enough to be removed, but I never observed any disease arise from this cause.

The labouring classes in the town are generally in comfortable circumstances, and their wages are good. Bargemen, when on a voyage, get an unlimited allowance of animal food and beer, with bread. They are generally stout powerful men, and though exposed to great hardships during their voyages, they appear to be very susceptible of cold when at home. I observe that they exclude every breath of air from their bed-rooms, cover themselves with a heap of clothes, and never seem so comfortable as when they are in a profuse perspiration. They commonly eat their meat broiled, with bread, but very seldom use vegetables. They receive about thirty shillings for a voyage to Stroud, besides their meat and drink. The length of time required for the voyage varies with the wind and tide, but the average may be from seven to fourteen days.

The canal boatmen are a much more feeble class of men, and live much more upon vegetables. They are usually accompanied by their wives, and, occasionally, their whole family live in the boat, but the majority of them have houses in Staffordshire. The wages usually paid for a voyage to Bilston, which is thirty-two miles distant, are twenty-five shillings. The time required for the journey is three days, but they are frequently detained many days before they can get coal. The boatman finds his own provisions, and, likewise, a hoy, horse, and lines. They are a drunken race, and many of those who are not in regular employ, are considered to be men of bad character. Those who go with the regular trading boats are respectable men. In general, the Cheshire men and their wives are the most cleanly and orderly.

The poor, here, have plenty of coal, indeed, stealing coal is not considered a crime.

The water used for domestic purposes is raised by pumps; it is what is generally called hard, and contains a large quantity of carbonate of lime. The average depth of the wells is about 33 feet. There are two wells in the neighbourhood which are used when a purer water for domestic purposes is wanted; the water of these wells does not appear to contain any mineral impregnation.

About 100 persons are employed in an iron foundry; inflammation of the eyes appears to be the only disease to which they are liable, which can be attributed to their employment.

There is a small spinning mill, at which from 20 to 50 girls are employed; although they work in turn, occasionally night and day, they appear to be very healthy.

There are several benefit clubs in the town; the calculations are, in general, badly made, and there is much reason to fear that those members who may live to be old, will never derive any advantage from their contributions. Every now and then the box is said to be shut, or, in other words, there are no funds. None of the persons of influence among the men join the clubs, and there appears an objection among them to enrolment.

There are no endowed charities connected with the town, nor any charitable institutions of any extent, except the Sunday Schools.

There is a market on Tuesday and Saturday, and there are two fairs in the year.

By the late Reform Bill, this town was added to the borough of Bewdley, which unites with it in sending one Member to Parliament.

Natural History of the District.

The soil, the produce, and the surface of the country immediately surrounding Stourport, vary very considerably. Within a few miles every variety of secondary formation is met with. The hills, or, rather, the high grounds, which bound the valley of the Severn upon the south, are generally covered with coppice, but timber trees are few in number; oak and ash are the most prevailing kinds of wood; they are generally cut down once in about fourteen years, and are sold for hop-poles and crate-wood, the refuse being burnt into charcoal.

The hills, in this immediate neighbourhood, are sandstone; the level grounds, except where the soil is alluvial, are a bed of sand from twenty to thirty feet deep, then sandstone, and afterwards gravel. Before the country was enclosed, it appears to have been drifting sand for miles round. At the distance of four miles, near Abberley Hills, the sandstone disappears, and limestone succeeds in its stead. When this formation is first met with, it is very soft and impure, and contains very few petrifactions, but, at the distance of eight miles, in the parishes of Witley and Martley, the stone is much harder, and the number of petrifactions much greater. On the south side of the hills, and in the dips between them, the surface is a strong clay, and, at different depths, coal is very generally met with. The coal formation, in some places, commences within a few feet of the surface, but it inclines so much, that the shafts are frequently from twenty-five to thirty yards deep. After the blue clay is cut through, sandstone appears, of different degrees of thickness, and then a very shallow coal, varying from one to three feet; it is very sulphurous, and, with the exception of what is used in the immediate neighbourhood, is converted into cokes. It seems to be a general opinion among the miners, that there is a deep coal formation, but that the expence of working it would be so great, as not to pay the proprietors.

Some of the springs contain large quantities of carbonate of lime in solution, which is precipitated when the water reaches the surface; occasionally, large masses of tufa are formed.

Vegetation is at least a fortnight later in the clay district than where the sand prevails, but, on the other hand, the autumnal flowers continue several weeks later in the former than they do in the latter.

It is natural to suppose that, in such a varied surface, a variety of botanical specimens would be met with. The following are most of the medicinal, together with some of the scarcer plants:─

Anthyllis vulneraria.	Daucus Carota.
Antirrhiuum Orontium.	Digitalis purpurea.
Arum maculatum.	Drosera rotundifolia.
Atropa Belladonna.	Erin Tetralix.
Butomus umbellatus.	Gentiana Amarella.
Campanula patula.	Gentiana campestris,
Campanula hederacea.	Geranium phæum.
Campanula Intifolia.	Galanthus nivalis.
Cardamine impatiens.	Glechoma hederacea
Colchicum autumnale.	Helleborus viridis.
Comarum palustre;	Helleborus foetidus.
Conium maculatum.	Hyoscyamus niger.
Couvallaria majalis.	Hypericum dubium.
Cornus suecica.	impatiens Noli-me-tangere
Cystea fragilis.	Lathyrus sylvestris.
Lathyrus Nissolia.	Rosa rubigiuosa.
Lathraea Squamaria.	Sagittaria sagittifolia.
Leontodou Taraxacum.	Sambucus Ebulus.
Lysimachia vulgaris.	Sambucus nigra.
Melampyrum cristatum.	Scabiosa columbaria.
Mentlia Pulegium.	Silene anglica.
Menyauthos trifoliata.	Solanum nigrum.
Monotropa Hypopithys.	Solanum Dulcamara.
Narcissus Pseudo-Narcissus.	Spartium scoparium.
Nymphaaa alba.	Tencrium Scorodonia.
Orchis ustulata.	Ulmus campestris.
Ophrys apifera.	Vaccinium Vitis Idea.
Osmunda regalis.	Verbascum virgatum.
Ononis spinosa.	Veronica Beccabuuga.
Papaver Rhæas.	Vinca minor.
Quercus Robur.	Viola palustris.
Ranunculus hirsutus.	Viscum album.

The mistletoe, Viscum album, grows in great quantities upon the apple trees; it is found, likewise, upon several other trees, as the ash, the poplar, and the elm, but I have never been able to find it growing upon the oak.

Among the birds which usually prevail in the midland counties, the following are either only occasionally met with, or are mentioned on account of some circumstances connected with their habits which may deserve notice.

Alcedo Ispida.	Loxia Coccothraustes.
Ardea stellaris.	Loxia curvirostra.
Caprimulgus europæns.	Perdix rubra.
Ciuclus aquaticus.	Perdix Coturnix.
Colomba Œnas.	Strix Otus.
Columba Turtur.	Sylvia Œnanthe.
Colymbus cristatus.	Sylvia Luscinia.
Corvus Corax.	Tetrao Tetrix.
Falco Milvus.	Tringa Cinclus.
Falco Buteo.	Parus caudatus.
Lanius Excubitor.	Picus major.

In the foregoing list, almost the only bird which requires any particular notice is the nightingale. The banks of the Severn appear to be a favourite resort of this bird, and there is reason to suppose that their number has increased very much of late years in this district, while it is thought, by some naturalists, that they have decreased lower down the Severn. They very rarely proceed further up than Colebrook Dale, and are, I believe, never heard so high as Shrewsbury.

Since so much attention has been paid to the preservation of game, birds of prey have nearly been all destroyed. It is now an unusual thing to see either the kite, Falco Milvus, or the buzzard, Falco Buteo.

Ravens are likewise rare: in a nest which was built in this neighbourhood a few years since, one of the young birds was a perfect albino; it lived in a domestic state many years, and appeared to possess all the cunning of its kind. The king-fisher, Alcedo Ispida, frequently builds here. The common tale of the nest being built with bones is not true in every instance. I have, myself, seen the eggs laid in a hole in a sand bank, which, I conclude, was made either by a rat or a sand martin, and after the young ones were hatched, the sand at the bottom of the nest was found mixed with small bits of bones, the remains of fish which had been eaten either by the old or young birds; whether the bones are to be found before the eggs are hatched, I have had no opportunity of ascertaining. The increase of population, and the great attention which has been paid to the game preserves, has had a similar effect upon the beasts; the badger and the martin have become scarce, and the fox owes his existence more to the taste for hunting than to his own sagacity.

With regard to insects, in some years they are a perfect plague; the light dry soil of the district is particularly favourable to the different species of the aphis family. The ants are likewise very numerous, particularly the Formicæ herculaneæ. In some years, the beetles, and the larvæ of the different Lepidopterous tribes destroy whole woods and orchards. The trees, indeed, rarely die, but, for that year, they neither grow nor produce fruit. The Scarabœus Horticola, S. Melolontha, and S. auratus, are among the most active. A few years ago, the S. auratus increased so much as to cause great alarm among our horticulturists, but they have, of late years, been much less numerous; occasionally, the larvæ of the P. Cratœgi destroy the hedges to a great extent.

Our rivers produce but few fish which are not found in most others of the same size. Though the Severn has so long been celebrated for its salmon, it is very rarely taken in this neighbourhood. The following are the only species which are not well known in other streams:─

Clupea Alosa.	Petromyzon Marinas.
Corigonus Thymallus.	Petromyzon Bronchialis.

Before the opening of the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal, the only communication which existed with North Wales and with the manufacturing districts, was carried on by pack horses, of which, it is said, 400 have been stationed in Bewdley at one time, and afterwards, when the roads were improved, by waggons.

In this manner, Staffordshire and Lancashire, and the country on the banks of the Severn and the Dee, were supplied with West India produce from Bewdley; so complete, indeed, was the monopoly which Bewdley enjoyed, that the tradesmen came from Worcester to buy sugars which had been brought past their own doors from Bristol. The manufactures of Lancashire were brought back to Bewdley, and thence forwarded by barges to Bristol. The roads were so bad, and the difficulty of conveying produce to market so great, that agriculture was much neglected; the meadows were untrained, and so little wheat was grown, that, in one of the neighbouring parishes, the only piece of land which was planted with wheat, was, by way of distinction, called the “ wheat pleck.” Barley and rye were the principal crops; potatoes and turnips were but little planted; wheat and cheese were procured from Gloucestershire. Very little attention was paid to the cultivation of fruit; the trees were seldom grafted, and the cider which was made, was of a very inferior description, being intended merely for home consumption.

Immediately, however, after the canal and the bridge were completed, things began to improve; by the introduction of the turnip husbandry, large flocks of sheep are kept, excellent wheat crops are now produced, and better sorts of fruit are grown. The cider, however, is still rough, and very far inferior to that which is made in Herefordshire and Gloucestershire. Hops are likewise cultivated in this part of Worcestershire, but not to any great extent, the lighter soil, or rye-lands, as it is called, not being so well calculated for their growth as the wheat-lands.

About three thousand persons, principally women and children, from the manufacturing districts of Staffordshire, pass over the Severn, about the middle of September, to pick the hops. They are paid about eight-pence a-day, and have their breakfasts found them. In drying the hops, cokes, made from sulphurous coals, are preferred. The great inducement which brings so many individuals so far from home, is to get apples; it may be fairly calculated that each person consumes or takes away two pots or ten pecks of fruit. Some of the pear trees are very large, and will produce forty pots of fruit, which will make two hogsheads of perry. Great quantities of apples are, some years, sent by the boats into the manufacturing districts. In the year 1791, at least three thousand tons were sent; many of them, however, came out of Gloucestershire; the cost of their carriage from Stourport to Manchester would be about £4000. Good fruit, for baking, was then worth ten shillings pot, and the best table fruit from fifteen to twenty shillings. The price is now from two to five shillings. When the price is low, the apples are ground for cider, but there is much less demand for fruit to go to the north than formerly. Except upon the farms where it is made, cider is not the common beverage; in the towns beer is drank as in other parts of the kingdom. The cider will produce intoxication when it is very imperfectly fermented, and, even at the mill, the persons employed in making it are drunk for weeks together. The cider is, occasionally, impregnated with lead, in consequence of a quantity of the metal being melted and poured in between the stones when they are worn by the friction, to repair the trough of the mill. The smallest quantity of lead in the cider, if constantly drank, will produce colic, but a moderate quantity, occasionally, does not produce any perceptible effect. The perry produced in this neighbourhood, is of much finer quality than the cider, but it requires great care in the fermentation. The cider and perry which are sold by the merchants, are, generally, a mixture of the produce of different years, managed according to the nature of the different kinds produced.

Leases of farms are not generally granted for a longer term than seven years.

With the exception of the parish of Hartlebury, which is copyhold under the See of Worcester, the land is generally freehold. The poor-rates are moderate, and no part of the labourers' wages is paid from the poor-rate, and the tithes are rarely taken in kind.

Diseases, &c.

Formerly epidemic diseases were particularly severe in this parish; during the first part of the last century, typhus fever and small-pox were so fatal, that the farmers were deterred from going to Kidderminster market for fear of the contagion, and so recently as from thirty to forty years since, typhus was frequently epidemic in the neighbouring villages. In the memory of some persons now alive, intermittent were so general that, in the spring and autumn, labourers could not be got to do the necessary work. Since the inhabitants have been better clothed and fed, epidemics have quite disappeared from the rye-land country; intermittent, unless from some accidental cause, are never met with, and typhus, for several years, has been very rare. It occasionally happens that the houses near the Stour are flooded several times in the course of the year, after which, typhus has appeared in these houses; but several years frequently pass without any flood. I have likewise, occasionally, seen typhus very general upon the hills in the coal district, where the water remains a long time upon the surface of the ground, covered, in autumn, by dead leaves, and the cottages are surrounded by trees.

In the rye-lands, glandular diseases are very general. Phthisis is very common, and, in some parishes, there is scarcely a family but has suffered more or less from its ravages. Disease of the mesenteric glands is likewise very general, but the severe external forms of scrofula are unusual: bronchocele is met with in all parts of the country.

The working classes here are bad managers; potatoes, with a very little bacon, or fat mutton broiled, and the fat poured over the potatoes, is their common food; none of the family will touch buttermilk or whey. When the children are weaned, they eat sop; or bread soaked in weak tea with some sugar; and, as soon as they are old enough, they live upon the potatoes and melted fat, and drink water.

The agricultural labourers get from eight to ten shillings a week, and a gallon of cider or beer a day; sometimes they get a small barrel of cider, or brew a little beer at home, but, in general, the women and children, except among the better class of labourers, are badly off.

Secondary small-pox has been very prevalent of late years but its occurrence has not at all lessened the confidence in vaccination; indeed, I sometimes think the parents are pleased at their children having it.

Calculous complaints are very unusual here, and, in my own practice, they have occurred more frequently among women than among men. During the last ten years, the labouring classes, although comparatively well off, have not been able to procure so large a quantity of animal food, and I think a considerable difference may be observed in the nature of their diseases. Formerly, severe cases of inflammation of the abdominal viscera, particularly of the liver and bowels, were frequent; they are now seldom met with, while, on the other hand, inflammation of the mucous membranes is certainly become much more general.

The mortality in this town, during the year 1832, was very great, the deaths being eighty-two, thirteen of which were from cholera; while, during the first, six months of the year 1833, there have been only nine funerals.

In the coal districts, on account of the coal strata being so very thin, the labourers are obliged to lay upon their sides to work, from which cause the spine, occasionally, becomes twisted; but I am not aware that any material inconvenience arises from the deformity. Asthma very frequently occurs among the miners, and many young men are unable to work under-ground from that cause.

Upon the whole, the average of life is very high in the clay districts, but I have been unable to make any thing like a correct calculation of the comparative mortality between the wheat-land and the rye-land districts, on account of the population being insufficient for the purpose, and of the constant emigration which takes place from the distant parishes to the neighbouring towns.

It may, perhaps, be expected that I should give a more particular account of some of the severer forms of disease which occasionally occur in this neighbourhood, though I have nothing in addition to offer as to their treatment, to what is well known to every respectable practitioner.

Acute rheumatism is one of the most severe diseases which we meet with, whether we look to the immediate suffering of individuals, or to its future consequences. I am not aware that it is more frequent among watermen than among those persons who are less exposed to wet and cold, and at least one-half of my patients have been young women. Nor are those persons who are exposed to great changes of temperature in foundries and forges, more liable to rheumatism. I do not, at present, recollect a single case of acute rheumatism among them. I am inclined to think that gout and rheumatism are more nearly allied than is generally supposed, and that both depend very much upon hereditary predisposition. Since the more general introduction of colchicum into practice, rheumatism is much more easily cured than it formerly was. In my own practice, I seldom find it necessary to take away blood. I generally depend upon the olchicum given in the common purging mixture, with calomel and colocynth in moderate doses till the bowels are freely acted upon, and the secretions become more healthy; after which, I commonly give calomel and compound ipecacuanha powder at bed time, and repeat the colchicum mixture in the morning, till the disease begins to decline or to remit, at which time I begin with quinine, according to the debility and state of the pulse. If the pain or fever should return, I omit the quinine, and give the purging mixture every morning for a day or two, and then return to the bark, &c. In this neighbourhood it is usual to apply scalded leaves to all inflamed joints, and great relief is frequently afforded by the application. I have seldom found it necessary to give calomel so as to affect the constitution, unless when the heart or its membranes have become implicated in the disease. Though the heart is very frequently affected in this disease, I have only seen one case in which the inflammation left the extremities and attacked the heart; in this case the disease as suddenly left the heart and fixed upon the membranes of the brain; the patient ultimately recovered, but no inflammation returned in the extremities. In one case of rheumatic fever which occurred in a delicate girl of fourteen, suppuration took place in several parts of the body and limbs; I think more than twenty abscesses required to be opened before she recovered. I have never considered chronic rheumatism as a frequent disease here, but I must observe that I have generally considered those pains which are commonly called rheumatic, as depending upon a disordered state of the digestive organs, and treated them as such.

Croup is not a very frequent complaint, and, in its acute form, is rarely fatal, unless it has been neglected in its early stage. I find that children will bear the loss of a greater quantity of blood, and will recover more rapidly from its effects, when it has been taken from the jugular vein, than by any other method. I have seen more children recover who took, after bleeding, oxymel of squill with tartar emetic, every hour, in sufficient doses to keep up nausea, than by any other plan of treatment.

Chronic Croup I have found a much more fatal complaint. Patients frequently go about for several days with but little inconvenience, have very little cough or fever, nearly lose their voice, and die from suffocation. In two instances I opened the trachea; the whole of its internal surface was lined with a tube of lymph.

Cancer.─In eight or ten cases of scirrhous mamma in which I have removed the diseased part, though all recovered perfectly from the operation, I believe that every individual died in less than three years afterwards, from a return of the disease in different parts of the body.

Twenty years since, when there was a great demand for houses, they were frequently inhabited before they were dry. At that time phlegmasia dolens was a very frequent disease; I have not now seen a case for many years. During the same period puerperal fever was very common, but a severe case is now rare. In the advanced stage of the last disease, when the abdomen continued enlarged, with a doughy feel upon pressure, I have seen great benefit from drachm doses of the spir. terebinth, given every three hours, and its external application mixed with equal parts of linimentum ammoniæ.

Though large quantities of cider are drunk with impunity, in any state, by persons who have been accustomed to its use, I have known violent inflammation of the stomach, colon, and rectum, produced by its use, in persons who were not cider drinkers. Very new and very old cider are both apt to disagree, even in small quantities. I have known a quart of old cider produce inflammation of the stomach, which proved fatal, and two small glasses, daily, of new cider, occasion violent dysentery.

Diseases of the heart and large blood-vessels are very frequent, but I am not aware of any peculiarity connected with these complaints, which is not well known.

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1. 	ft.	in.
   Level of Canal is, above the low water mark at Liverpool,	99	7
   Bank of Severn at Stour Bridge is, above low water at Liverpool,	58	7
   	────
   Rise,	41	9