The Curiosities of Dudley and the Black Country, From 1800 to 1860 / Also an Account of the Trials and Sufferings of Dud Dudley, with His Mettallum Martis: Etc.

by C. F. G. Clark

Died February 27th, 1851, Mr. John Smith, the kind, considerate, and jovial landlord of the “Hotel.” Aged 58 years.

1851. March 30th. The Census of the United Kingdom was taken this night.

Marriage of Lord Ward.—April 24th, 1851, the marriage of Lord Ward, so well known as being one of the largest proprietors of the empire, with Miss Selina Constance De Burgh, eldest daughter of Hubert De Burgh, Esq., was celebrated at St. George’s Church, Hanover Square, in the presence of a select circle of the friends of both parties. The ceremony was conducted in a comparatively private manner, owing to the recent demise of a member of the De Burgh family. The Rev. Legh Claughton, Vicar of Kidderminster, and brother-in-law to Lord Ward, officiated. Shortly after nine o’clock the bridal party entered the church; Mr. De Burgh gave his daughter away. Lady Wallscourt, the Hon. Mr. and Mrs. Dudley Ward, Mr. and Mrs. Hawkes, the Hon. Mrs. Blake, the Dowager Lady Ward, and other friends of the families, were present. At the conclusion of the ceremony the bridal party repaired to the residence of Mr. De Burgh, in Grosvenor Crescent, and there partook of breakfast. The happy pair subsequently left town for Sandgate, to pass the honeymoon.—Birmingham Journal.

This unhappy lady died shortly afterwards of fever, and was interred in the family vault in Himley Church, amidst a grievous sorrowing throng of relations and friends. Aged 22 years.

1851. May 1st. This day the Great National Exhibition was opened in Hyde Park, London, by the Queen and Prince Albert, in great pomp and state, attended with an immense retinue of English and Foreign potentates. Many of us denizens of the Black Country attended also and paid our respects to the immense block of coal exhibited, which came from the bowels of the earth at Dudley Port, or Horseley Fields.

May 5th, 1881. This town and locality was this day visited with a terrific storm of thunder and lightning. Some houses in Prospect Row and St. Thomas’s Church were struck with the lightning, but fortunately no lives were lost.

July 28th, 1851. A partial eclipse of the sun took place this day, at the hour of 3 p.m.

August 6th, 1851. “Proposed Application of the Public Health Act to Dudley.” Mr. Lee, one of the Inspectors under the Sanitary Act, held a Public Enquiry, and made a survey of the Borough of Dudley, and he declared “that this town was the worst drained and the filthiest of any town in the kingdom.” The death-rate was much higher than any other, being 28 deaths in every 1,000 inhabitants during the last 10 years!!! whereas the general average was 20 deaths in every 1,000 inhabitants. Oh! ye advocates for economy, and keeping your hands tightly on your breeches pockets; who draw the rent, with greed, from your ignorant tenants, but refuse to bear the burden which belongs to the landlord for the domestic health of those very tenants you live upon day by day, read the subjoined astounding report and ask yourselves whether conscience does not struggle hard to resume her seat!

PROPOSED APPLICATION OF THE PUBLIC HEALTH ACT TO DUDLEY.

On Tuesday last, William Lee, Esq., one of the Superintending Inspectors of the General Board of Health, opened an enquiry at the Old Town Hall, Dudley, for the purpose of enabling the authorities at Whitehall to form an opinion as to the desirability of bringing the provisions of the Public Health Act into operation within the Borough. Such investigations have mostly hitherto been instituted upon the petition of the inhabitants of such towns as were considered to require improvement in sanitary matters. In this instance, however, the Board had taken advantage of the powers given them by one of the sections of their act, which directs them to take steps for the application of its provisions to towns where the returns of the Registrar-General showed that the deaths annually exceeded twenty-three in the thousand. Although doubtless the attention of the Board had been called to the matter by some influential gentlemen of the town, we suppose we must attribute the very thin attendance of the inhabitants at the opening of the enquiry as much to the private and non-popular nature of its origin, as to any want of interest in the matter either as a question of public health, or as one which may ultimately become important to the community as ratepayers. The proceedings did not commence until nearly an hour after the appointed time, and even then not more than a dozen or fourteen persons were present. Amongst them were the Rev. Dr. Browne, (the Vicar,) John Houghton, Esq., T. W. Fletcher, Esq., (firm of Robinson and Fletcher, Solicitors,) Messrs. Hollier, Fisher, Richardson, Bowen, Bateman, T. P. Stokes, Minty, Griffiths, and Cook.