Tuberculosis
 

Hello everyone. Can you can you local history buffs shed any light on how the town dealt with TB in the early 1900's/late 1800's? I am an avid family history researcher and one section of my family from wayyyy back lost two sons and two daughters (in their twenties) to TB within a four year span, one after the other. One of those was married, but census shows her having moved out of the marital home and into a lodging house. I wonder if it was to protect her family ? The adress of the lodging house was Stonefold Haslingden.

Re: Tuberculosis
 

Queens Park Hospital was a TB sanatorium at one time, in recent years TB was treated at Withnell Hospital near Chorley, it closed in about 1988 when all staff were transferred to a new chest ward at Queens Park Ward "E". TB was virtually eradicated in this country, but has become prevalent again due to mass immigration from countries which still have big problems with the disease

Re: Tuberculosis
 

Hundreds if not thousnads of soldiers contracted T.B., during the first World war, caused by conditions in the trenches, most of their service records show P.U.O., as the first entry, usually at a C.C.S., their first hospital diagnosis would then identify it as either T.B., Bronchitis, or Influenza, and send them to the appropriate hospital for treatment.

Retlaw

Re: Tuberculosis
 

My mother's younger brother had a wife who died from TB in the 1940s
I was very young at the time and my only memory of her was my standing at her bedroom door and not being allowed to go in.
She was laid in bed at the far end of the room.

I do not recall the 'grown-ups' talking of her hospitalisation.
I think she just lived in isolation at home.
It could well have been before the NHS - ie. pre 1948

Re: Tuberculosis
 

My granddaughter was tested for T.B. last year after one of her Uni. friends was diagnosed with it. Luckily, she was ok.

Re: Tuberculosis
 

Would she not have been tested/ vaccinated against it when she started her training?
I know we were all tested to see if we had immunity and if you hadn't, you were vaccinated.
I was lucky I had built up my own immunity...though I cannot remember being in contact with anyone who had, or had been treated for TB.

Re: Tuberculosis
 

Think you are getting confused with my daughter, Margaret, who is the nurse. :)
The programme for T.B. innoculation was ceased some years ago, so my granddaughter and many of her contempories, never had the benefit of this protection.

Re: Tuberculosis
 

sorry Kate, my mistake......misread.....duh!

Re: Tuberculosis
 

me dad had it mid 60s, was taken to Withnell Hospital, me along wi all family n friends who had been in contact wi him had to tested.:eek: was hard work at the time, cos me mam was in accy vic wi summat else, so had to look after the younger siblings, to school n feed the greedy pigs etc, was not a great time.

Re: Tuberculosis
 

Thought Park Lee in Blackburn was the local "isolation hospital" , Withnall is a new one on me , wheres it located :confused: :confused:

Re: Tuberculosis
 

it was in Withnell steely, was a pig to get too on the bus, that i do remember.:eek: think its long closed now?

Re: Tuberculosis
 

pre 1948 tb isolation The National Archives | Search the archives | Hospital Records| Details

Re: Tuberculosis
 

yep ,thanks thats the one I was thinking of ;)

Re: Tuberculosis
 

how did yeh remember that un? i couldn't.:D

Re: Tuberculosis
 

my grandparents and my Dad were 'pure' Blackburner's/Little Arroders , and Park Lee was allways referred to as the Isolation/Fever hospital , bit like Queens Park Hosp. was allways known as the workhouse ......remember as a kid going up to Queens Park Hosp. from the Darwen St bridge area , there used/maybe still is ... a big stone wall on the left hand side where they used to say folks used to hide their stuff before going to the workhouse , the place had the reputation amongst the older folks that if you were in an Ambulance and it was heading for Queens Park your days were numbered and if it was headed to the Infirmary there was a good chance of recovery (true) ..... should mention this was during the 50s , hopefully things have improved ;)

bit of a wander , but kind of related ... there is a Church yard near Guide near to where Beechwood gardens used to be where the penniless dead and unknown from the workhouse were buried (nearest cemetry to QPH in those days I guess


Cashy , still waiting for you to tell me where Withnell is (geograpic location /nearest town) :D :D

Re: Tuberculosis
 

There ya go SJ

Withnell - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Re: Tuberculosis
 

Thanks Jaysay , never heard of the place and only 5 mile from Blackburn :confused:

Re: Tuberculosis
 

I was actually lucky they shut the place about 2 years after I moved back to Ossy in 1986, when it closed it was the critical care unit for chest patients, I was admitted to the new version at Queens Park in 1988, phew was I lucky or should I say my relatives who would have had to travel to visit, it was a bitch of a place to get to if you had no transport;)

Re: Tuberculosis
 

Changing the disease slightly, can any of you lot recall the dysentry outbreak in Accy sometime in the mid-1950's? I'm far too young to have been around at the time and was told about it by a medical historian about 10 years ago. I know it's normally a disease associated with the aftermath of third world floods and earthquakes but I doubt if Hyndburn was then third world (although some parts like Ossy now are).

Re: Tuberculosis
 

What about Ossy's poor neighbour Church:eek::eek::eek:

Re: Tuberculosis
 

Found a PDF (googled) -Accy mentioned in 3rd para down on the left - 1955
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...03227-0077.pdf

Re: Tuberculosis
 

Cheers M, - although at the time I got the impression that this was a much larger outbreak and possibly later and isolated around Accy. It all seems now like a variation on E-Coli, although I doubt if at the time we were eating many of Johnny Dago's dodgy cucumbers or Heinrich Heinz's mean bean sprouts..

The same guy also told me a story about a mad dog rabies attack in Accy sometime in the late 19C - gruesome stuff, with kids having fingers and noses bitten off and ending up in the Pasteur Institute in Paris.

Anyone know about that tale?

Apparently the dogs name was Britcliffe.

Re: Tuberculosis
 

Who are you trying to kid?

Re: Tuberculosis
 

I can only tell the truth.

Re: Tuberculosis
 

Telling the truth and coming from Church don't site well:D

Re: Tuberculosis
 

The reports on the dog attack appeared in the newspapers in October/November 1894.

PATIENTS FOR THE PASTEUR INSTITUTE>

Six persons, a married woman and five boys bitten by a mad dog left Accrington yesterday for the Pasteur Institute. One of the boys had two fingers bitten off and another had his nose almost severed.
A third had his thigh badly lacerated.

They were sent by public subscription and a Rabies order was put in place in Accrington.

Later newspaper reports say that one of the boys died whilst there and was buried in Paris

No mention of the Dogs Name

Re: Tuberculosis
 

And there was even more gruesome stuff to follow (if I remember correctly):

Apparently, back in the 1920/30's - prior to the advent of the NHS - the Borough appointed a new District Health Officer. One of the first things he did was to check the local mortality stats and operations stats.

It turned out that our local surgeons were well into child butchery. Nationally, some 5% of kids had their tonsils removed...in Accy, the figure was 50%.

A bit of a scandal at the time.

I wish I could recall a little more from what I was told.

Re: Tuberculosis
 

And that, boys and girls, is surely a tale for our local historians.

Come on down Dobbo & Retlaw - and maybe Anzac!

Re: Tuberculosis
 

Anyone can read about this story in the online newspapers - all you need is a current library card.

It was covered by the Blackburn Times which is online and a fascinating source of local information and stories about people in the 1800's.

Re: Tuberculosis
 

I'm quite sure they can and they no doubt they can read from other sources as well. But surely they have to know what they're looking for in the first place?

Re: Tuberculosis
 

Thanks everybody , useful information.

Re: Tuberculosis
 

Can I just say, I was always under the impression we had an "Isolation Hospital" in Accrington, well ... Bash! If you go from Accrington, up Royds Avenue and stop just before Hollins School, you will notice a little date stone on the grass verge. Nearby is a little pathway, that leads to a gate, to a field. I was always told this was where "our" Isolation hospital was, but .. not sure on the date.

Re: Tuberculosis
 

I'm a bit late with this information. My Great Aunt and Uncle were caretakers of the isolation hospital in the 1940's. They were Emma and Hubert Mulhall. I remember visiting them on numerous occasions. Their house was I think prefabricated as I think was the hospital. They kept chickens and had a huge vegetable garden which during rationing was very useful. Between the hospital and house was afield of daffodils. It overlooked the valley with the steam train to Manchester. I remember particularly the sound of the wind in the telegraph wires and the cold!
They must have left in the late 40's, and I assume the buildings were then demolished.