self catering devon
 |
 |
 |
 |
self catering devon, exmoor, ilfracombe, family holiday, accommodation, exmoor, ilfracombe, bed breakfast, walking, cabin, cottage, self catering devon
In 1879 a firm of local printers produced a small booklet with a long title - ‘Byelaws made by the Town Council of the Borough of Bideford acting as the Urban Sanitary Authority allowed by the Local Government Board.’ Admittedly such things as old municipal byelaws don’t sound very interesting but reading them does illustrate the lives of our Victorian ancestors in some surprising ways. The booklet begins with those rules covering the cleanliness of the town. The first should give us pause for thought today as we complain about the litter in our streets as it orders that every property owner must ‘once at least in every day, Sundays excepted, cleanse the footways and pavements’ in front of their premises. Some of our shopping centres fouled as they are by dogs could do with this treatment today.
Another byelaw in the same section orders that all property owners should ‘once at least in every three months, cleanse every earth closet belonging to their premises.’ This is an odoriferous reminder that flushing toilets were uncommon at this date. The material so produced by this cleaning was collected, in a covered cart, by the euphemistically named ‘night soil men’ who sold it on to farmers as manure. Not the most hygienic thing to do with raw human sewage perhaps but certainly very environmentally acceptable (and after all South West Water are planning to do the same thing when the new sewage works at Cornborough is up and running.) In addition to this rule ashpits had to be cleaned at least once a week, a necessity in the days when open fires supplied all hot water and provided the only cooking facilities available for most people.
Anyone who flouted any of these byelaws was laying themselves open to a fine of 92. In the booklet there then followed a whole series of byelaws concerning the keeping of animals. No pigs or cattle were to be kept within fifty feet of any house in the town and all animal dung had to be kept away from sources of human drinking water and even the times the dung could be removed during the day were strictly controlled. A further collection of rules governed ‘Common Lodging Houses’ beginning with maximum possible numbers of lodgers - and a stern order concerning the separation of the sexes. Windows in all rooms had to be opened for at least two hours a day for airing purposes (unless the weather was too bad!) As soon as lodgers departed their bedding had to be aired for at least an hour - but there was now rule specifying that it had to be washed! All illnesses of lodgers had to be reported to the Council’s Medical Officer of Health. Landlords were ordered not to use kitchens as bedrooms and to display a complete set of byelaws in their lodging house where guests could see them. Any offences against these rules, and there were twenty six altogether, rendered the landlord open to an initial fine of 22 with an additional fine of 50p per day for as long as the offences continued. The booklet also contains rules relating to building standards and slaughter- houses but these are for the most part more technical and less interesting perhaps than the ones already discussed.