Had Public Health improved in towns and cities by 1750? Roman Dark Ages Public Health Public Health Middle Ages Renaissance Public Health Public Health

Lesson Objectives To describe and explain the developments in Public Health in Britain between the Romans and the Renaissance To assess the impact of factors on developments in public health To evaluate which factor was most important in the development of Public health from the Romans to the Renaissance To practice exam technique for 8 mark questions

Why was it so difficult to improve public health before 1750? 1-2marks: General or simple answer that describes some key points about the topic 3-5 marks Answer gives simple details with some limited explanation 6-8 marks Answer that gives a detailed evaluation of the key points of the topic

Your Plan! Time Period What was public health like?

What mark would you give this answer? Until the 1900s, Public Health was probably at its best during the Roman times. After the Romans left Britain their excellent public health facilities, which included sewers, public toilets, public baths and aqueducts to provide fresh water, plummeted and fell into disrepair. This led to the Dark Ages when public health was very poor. Streets were covered in excrement from animals and humans and rivers became polluted with whatever people chose to throw in them. This led to contaminated drinking water and a clear decline in Public Health.

During the Middle Ages, there was a slow recovery in town life but during the early Middle Ages, the streets were still filthy and it was still common practise to dump waste on the streets and in rivers. There were no sewers and public health remained poor. However, the Black Death in 1348 led to a mini improvement as the government decided that as so many people had died, it would pass laws to try to clean up the streets and rivers. In some towns, public toilets were built, but this tended to be over rivers and meant that sewage was dropped directly into drinking water. Also, although the laws were good in theory, in practise, many people ignored them and fines for doing things such as urinating in the street or putting waste animal parts from butcher were not carried out.

Generally speaking, during the Renaissance public health continued to be distinctly lacking in towns in Britain. Town councils continued to try to keep towns clean, but it wasn’t compulsory and was difficult to enforce. Diseases continued to spread and indeed the Black Death returned as the Great Plague in 1665. Streets were still extremely dirty and the standard of hygiene meant that public health was very limited. Therefore, although some attempts were made to improve public health at least in theory by 1750, in practice, any improvements were limited and had not remotely reached the standards of Roman public health.

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