'History Down the Drain' Professor Carole Rawcliffe - 12th February

Professor Rawcliffe

In another well attended session, members of the Norwich Community History Club were delighted to welcome Carole Rawcliffe, professor of medieval history at UEA, to talk to us today. Her presentation was entitled, 'History Down the Drain - A New Look at Public Health in Medieval Norwich'. This 'new look' began with a critical examination of the widespread claims made by nineteenth century writers and historians that, compared to their 'enlightened' contemporary city, medieval Norwich was filthy with no regard for hygiene or public health. 

This viewpoint - still powerful in popular culture to this day (see HERE for instance) - was informed by a particular way of interpreting the past; an historical narrative that portrays one's present as being the culmination of inexorable progress from dirtier, 'darker', less enlightened times. However, challenging this perspective, Professor Rawcliffe made it clear that there is ample evidence from the mid-nineteenth century that public health facilities themselves were wholly inadequate - with the city's water supply being particularly bad:
"bad in quantity, bad in quality and bad in everything that should constitute a water supply" (William Lee, a government health inspector, visiting the city in May 1850). 

Having established that the public health of Victorian Norwich left much to be desired, she then proceeded to challenge and deconstruct the narrative of inexorable progress, using hitherto neglected evidence from the medieval city's archives (supported by archaeological discoveries). For instance, having examined local Norwich court records she was able to point to numerous complaints about dumping waste, leaving rubbish in the streets and the pollution of water sources - interpreting them, not as evidence of environmental neglect, but as transgressions (expressions of widespread concern for public health, held by, both, those lodging the complaints and the authorities who deemed them worthy of a formal hearing). 

Furthermore, there were numerous regulations and sanctions available to the medieval authorities against, for instance, those selling rotten meat. Professor Rawcliffe described how such people might be placed in the pillory in the marketplace and made to inhale the fumes from their spoiled goods (a 'miasma' thought, at the time, to transmit disease). Wryly, she offered a very current reference, suggesting that purveyors of horse meat mis-sold as beef might benefit from such corrective punishment. 

The 'horrible history' stereotype of medieval Norwich is further challenged by evidence that the civic authorities - informed by the work of ancient physicians like Hippocrates and Galen - ordered the relocation of the city's more potentially 'dirty'/polluting trades, such as butchery, to areas outside the city centre. Dating from as early as 1250, this 'zoning' predates that of more heralded examples, such as in Sienna in Italy, by some two hundred years. 

Professor Rawcliffe also argued that many of the medieval public health measures depended on public cooperation, but that this was more prevalent in pre-Reformation England where civic pride in cleanliness conjoined with a religious duty to provide for the benefit of the wider community. Even if this charitable impulse was based, in part, on a spiritual investment in speeding the progress of one's soul through the torments of purgatory, the outcome for the city's public health, she argues, were beneficial. 

Overall, we were presented with a persuasive argument that, although far from perfect, the medieval city was in many ways a healthier place than the later Victorian city. In part, the previous stereotypes persisted in the absence of serious research into this area. As historians begin to critically examine the archives for evidence of medieval urban health measures, the hitherto skewed picture of the past is being re-calibrated. 

Speaking to those present afterwards, there was overwhelming gratitude that Professor Rawcliffe was prepared to take the time to come and share her scholarship with us in such an accessible and entertaining way. 

Thank you Carole!