I think we can safely assume that the famine era brought about the biggest influx of Irish and leading up to that period of time, if not a trickle, certainly not the vast amounts that would make a great deal of difference to this areas population, considering that there was repatriation taking place.(Geekus post) Perhaps its debatable why the Irish landed here in the first place, was it really that they were starving and there was no alternative way of feeding them or was it land clearance by greedy land owners. Eventually Liverpool started to repatriate, i can't find any evidence this took place in Birkenhead. Its possible we on this side of the river were more benevolent towards their needs and they were able to find work in the ever developing Birkenhead. Once Liverpool started throwing out the Irish, repatriation being the nice name for it, it was then that they seemed to move further afield, deeper in to Lancashire and Cheshire to escape this deportation, I can't find any evidence this applied to the peoples of Birkenhead.
God help us, Come yourself, Don't send Jesus, This is no place for children.
I don't know exactly how 'benevolent' the Birkenhead authorities really were bert. Certainly not if you think back to some of the comments made on Wiki re: the 'One Eyed City' tag (on an earlier thread).
I know that, generally speaking, there was a great deal of poverty in mid to late Victorian Birkenhead, and the powers that be were quick enough to even ship off our own orphans to places like Canada.
I'm not sure how benevolent the Birkenhead authorities were either Geekus, however on saying that, what we deem as barbaric practices in the 21st century may not have been deemed so in the 19th century. Poverty there certainly was and the way they dealt with it at that time must have seemed the best way forward, perhaps we should look upon the likes of workhouses, poor houses and even the deportation of orphans as a first step of welfare help and giving people a chance in life, again perhaps they thought the orphans had a better chance in Canada. What the Birkenhead authorities didn't do unlike the Liverpool authorities was pile sick and dying people into holds of ships and send them packing back to Ireland and what seems like certain death. unless of course when we read Liverpool we should read Birkenhead also, just in case some Historian has not found Birkenhead worthy of a mention.
God help us, Come yourself, Don't send Jesus, This is no place for children.
I’ve come across a report in the Lancet regarding a smallpox outbreak in Birkenhead in 1870. This might be an appropriate thread to put it in as it appears that the outbreak occurred in an area where the population was predominantly Irish. It certainly gives an insight into the squalid and overcrowded conditions that many lived in. Haven’t been able to trace Exeter Street but assume it was in the Argyle Street area.
EXTRACT FROM A REPORT IN THE LANCET, DECEMBER 3, 1870.
Tracings of small-pox for two months after its importation into Birkenhead. Thirty cases of the disease noted, including one death. The disease, though checked, still progresses.
THE presence of small-pox remained undiscovered from its importation on May 15th till June 25th, on which date five houses had already become infected from the original focus. From the investigation then instituted, it appears that seven children and their mother, whose husband, William B rents the cottage, No. 46, Egerton-street, Birkenhead, were some time ago on tramp, and that one of the children sickened at Darwin, whence arriving at Blackburn, she was found to be labouring under small-pox. After the child had sufficiently recovered, they all rejoined their father in Birkenhead, about the 15th of May. Three more were then attacked, at intervals of about one week apart. All are now (June 25th) well or convalescent, but the crowded and pitted marks on their faces attest the completeness of the disease. All are said to have been vaccinated. The children got out of doors quickly, and played promiscuously with the others of the neighbourhood.
June 17th. — Samuel P (35, Marion-street), aged twenty-two years, said to be vaccinated, was thought to be seized with measles, and sent to the parish hospital; it proved, however, to be small-pox. This youth tended his brother's cart-horses night and morning, at stables immediately opposite to the cottage of William B, but is not known to have had any intercourse with the infected family. His house is about one-third of a mile distant from that of the latter.
June 18th. — Thomas D (17, Egerton-street), aged twenty years, said to be vaccinated, was pronounced to be suffering from small-pox, and sent to the hospital by the parish doctor. The dwelling in which he lodges is made up of two cottages, the one opening to the other, and accommodates the chief tenant, his wife and four children, two other families of three persons each, and one single lodger.
June 19th. — Elizabeth McL (73, Egerton-street), aged nine years, vaccinated, showed scattered eruption, some of which soon dried up. She is not confined to bed.
June 20th.—-Sarah S (33, Egerton-street), aged five years, said to be vaccinated, showed the characteristic eruption, becoming afterwards confluent; died June 27th. The father, mother, and two children occupied the upper one out of the four rooms constituting the cottage, the other three rooms accommodating the chief tenant, his wife, and four children. All are Irish. The funeral was promiscuously attended by the friends who had held the usual wake on the previous night. An ordinary car was used to convey the corpse and attendants to the grave. Crape hatbands were given out, and received back for further use into the general stock of the undertaker. The vigilance alone of the sanitary authorities ensured afterwards the renovation and disinfection of the vehicle and the destruction of the hat-bands.
June 20th.—Anne B (49, Egerton-street), aged three years and a half, not vaccinated, commenced the eruption, which became confluent. She is one of a family consisting of father, mother, and four children. The house comprises four apartments, the first of which serves as a shop, to which the neighbours or their children constantly resort.
June 22nd.—William McL (73, Egerton-street), aged three years, not vaccinated, was found to have the eruption, which afterwards became only moderately confluent. The dwelling has four apartments, and nine inmates, all of one family.
July 2nd.—John H. B (49, Egerton-street), aged seven years, successfully vaccinated six days before, was seized with the disease, which went through its course in a OE modified form.
July 5th.—Richard S (33, Egerton-street), brother of deceased case, aged three years, was successfully vaccinated on a second attempt along with three other children in the same house, about or on June 1st. Small-pox in a mild form and vaccinia each passed through their respective courses.
July 6th.—Mary A. McL (73, Egerton-street), aged eleven years, vaccinated, is found to be sickening; some scattered eruption is visible. Afterwards did well.
July 6th.—Robert E (58, Egerton-street), aged four years, not vaccinated ; eruption confluent. Cottage contains four rooms, lodging one family, numbering eight persons.
July 7th.—Anne R (19, Lower Ivy-street), aged seven months, not vaccinated; eruption scattered. The dwelling only fronts in Ivy-street, being over a shop; and the entrance is through a foul back passage into Grange-street, which crosses the top of the first infected street—viz., Egerton-street. Family numbers seven.
July 9th.—George R (19, Lower Ivy-street), aged nine years, not vaccinated, was seized, and eruption became ultimately confluent. The three remaining children were vaccinated during infancy, and these escaped (Oct. 15th) the disease.
July 9th.—Mary L (54, Egerton-street), aged three years; eruption scattered; said to have been vaccinated. House has four apartments, in which live father, mother, and three children.
July 10th.—Samuel B (49, Egerton-street), aged a year and a quarter, was vaccinated fourteen days previously; eruption scattered; disease modified.
July 11th. — James D (13, Carpenter's-row), aged eleven years, recently vaccinated; eruption scattered. House has four rooms, and lodges one family of eight. Carpenter's-row is the name of a court at the rear of, and connected only with, Egerton-street.
July 11th.—John M (Beckwith-street), butcher, aged twenty-two years, not known to be vaccinated; eruption confluent on the 17th, and his face a mask of pustules and scabs. Was hanging much about the infected neighbourhood one evening about a fortnight before. His dwelling is about three-quarters of a mile from it.
July 14th. — Frank D (56, Egerton-street), aged six years, not vaccinated; eruption confluent. Out at play when vaccinator called.
July 15th.—Up to this date the following (with the exception of the last three, residing in Egerton-street) had also been recently attacked with the disease, and ultimately recovered—namely: Peter McL , aged sixteen years, and Minnie McL——, aged eleven years, vaccinated; eruption scattered. Anne G , aged five years, and Michael G , aged three years, both recently vaccinated; eruption scattered. Eliza R , aged three years, recently vaccinated; eruption scattered. John J. L , aged eight months, not vaccinated; eruption scattered. AnneE.D (13, Carpenter's-row), aged fourteen years, recently vaccinated; eruption scattered. Hannah E , aged ten years, and Sarah E , aged four years (77, Jackson-street), not vaccinated; sent to hospital. Jackson-street is within a quarter of a mile of the infected Egerton-street, but is completely separated from it by a railway.
The disease had also by this time (July 15th) found its way into the adjoining township of Tranmere. No death from small-pox has been registered this year up to date in Liverpool, on the opposite side of the river, nor is it known that the disease exists there.
Remarks and conclusions.—Egerton-street is boulder-paved. Many confined courts open into it on both sides. The houses are old, many being rickety; all are crowded together, with little or no exterior ventilation. The street, however, has been improved by the conversion of most of its privies into waterclosets. The population partakes largely of the Irish element. Tramps favour the locality.
I imagine the phrases 'were some time ago on tramp' and 'tramps favour the locality' are used in the old sense of travelling/travellers rather than the modern use relating to vagrancy. Seems to show that there was a fair amount of movement in the population.
Very good post Nightwalker and very enlightening, although about 25 years earlier about the time of the famine, the most prevalent diseases recorded due to the famine and lack of hygiene was Cholera and Typhus, these were the main diseases along with starvation that the Irish peoples brought with them to these shores. It is also believed that the Irish landlords wasted no time in getting rid of sick tenants as a cleansing exercise.
God help us, Come yourself, Don't send Jesus, This is no place for children.
There was a typhus outbreak in the Price Street area during 1875, I know this as my gg-Grandfather/mother/uncle all died of the disease that year. It was at the time considered by many to be an 'Irish'fever, little did people understand that the ethnology of a people was not the cause of the disease, but resulted from: "The infectious organism of typhus, Rickettsia prowazeki, appears to be invariably louse-borne among human beings. Like dysentery, typhus appears wherever poverty, crowding and insanitary conditions prevail, in times of social dislocation, and principally in the winter months."
The housing and sanitary conditions that prevailed in Birkenhead's dock side streets during that period, along with the degree and extent of overcrowding and appalling circumstances endured by Irish families, provided perfect conditions for typhus to thrive.
At the time of the smallpox outbreak, Egerton Street was part of the area around Back Chester Street that formed some of Birkenhead's worst slums. The dwellings were dark, overcrowded 'courts' with little sanitation that had been thrown up to accommodate workers as the town expanded. The attached map (courtesy of marty99fred from a previous thread) gives some idea how crammed the buildings were - so it is no surprise that infection and disease spread quickly. After the Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890, the council cleared the courts and built rows of small redbrick terrace houses. These had no heating, hot water or inside toilets, but were an improvement on the previous places. These houses were in their turn demolished around 1966-1967 to make way for the tunnel flyovers.
I have ancesters that came over from Ireland abt 1870. They lived in Gillbrook, which was off Laird St, by St.James's Church. GG.Grandad, William was a Horse Slaughterer(knacker).
The figures Nightwalker posted,The Irish being approx 33 percent of Birkenheads population in 1851, is it possible that Birkenhead had its own Irish Quarter before integrating fully amongst the local already established inhabitants. Its not uncommon for immigrants to develop herding instincts, wanting to be close to friends and relatives. Any thoughts on this?
God help us, Come yourself, Don't send Jesus, This is no place for children.
Great point you raise Bert. It's a well known process that economic and other forms of migration tend to seek areas of habitation already populated by their own folk. Of course economic and employment factors operate also in terms of distribution, in the case of Irish people arriving in Birkenhead, presumably opportunities for general labour would be dominated by the docks and subsequent Iron Works. In addition the housing stock and affordability of rents perhaps were most accessible in such areas.Would this perhaps explain why so many Irish families, including my own, populated such locations as Brook Street,Cavendish Street, Coroporation Road, and other places in/around the North End?
