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Hierarchy Browser Number8001/6
TitleLocal Board of Health
DescriptionCommissioners for the Improvement of the City were ad-hoc boards created by an Act of Parliament, typically termed an Improvement Act. Power varied according the provisions of the Acts but generally included street paving, cleansing, lighting, providing watchmen or dealing with various public nuisances. These functions were taken over by the Local Board of Health.

Local Boards of Health were local authorities in urban areas of England and Wales from 1848 to 1894. They were formed in response to cholera epidemics and were given powers to control sewers, clean the streets, regulate slaughterhouses and ensure the proper supply of water to their districts. Local boards were eventually merged with the corporations of municipal boroughs in 1873.

Local boards could be formed either by a petition of one tenth of the inhabitants rated to relief of the poor in any city, town, borough, parish or place with a defined boundary not having less than 30 such qualified ratepayers; or by the General Board if the death rate exceeded twenty-three in a thousand in any place. This was the case with Worcester.

In the latter case a superintending inspector appointed by the General Board would hold an inquiry into the sewerage, drainage, supply of water, state of burial grounds and other matters relating to the sanitary condition of the town, and where necessary define boundaries for the district of the local board. A local board of health was allowed to appoint a number of employees including a surveyor, an inspector of nuisances, a clerk, a treasurer and an officer of health (who had to be a qualified doctor).

The City Engineer originally reported to the Board, but these records have been placed into a separate sub-fonds due to the later expansion of his role.
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    A Seal attached to a Deed in the Vernon family collection.

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