This is a brief guide to researching records related to public health; slum clearances and improvements, environmental health and regulation of trades held at Explore York Libraries and Archives.

A plan depicting area where slum clearance will take place
Hungate area improvement plan, 1907-1908 [Y/PPT/2/1/15/22/2]

This guide covers records created by the Medical Officer of Health, Health Department and predecessor bodies, Health Committees, and Town Clerk) and the York Health Department and its predecessor and successor bodies.

Additional finding aids and contextual documentation for these collections are available in the Reading Room.

Getting started

Local responsiblity for the health and safety of the local populace and the quality of the city’s environment, buildings and amenities changed considerably over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries. An overview of the responsiblities of the different bodies over time is given below:

Improvement Commissioners (1825-1850) – responsible for lighting; sewerage and drainage; streets and paving; nuisances and police/watchmen

Local Board of Health (1850-1872) – responsible for sewerage and drainage, water supply, offensive trades; street cleaning and paving; burial grounds; public lavatories and prevention of infectious diseases.

Urban Sanitary Committee (1872-1901) – responsible for sewerage and drainage; refuse collection; food safety; baths and washhouses; prevention of infectious diseases; common lodging houses and slaughterhouses; and clearances and street improvements.

Health Committee (1900-1974) – was comprised of the:

  • Health Department responsible for maternal and child health; prevention of infectious diseases; health education; health services; and slum clearances and improvements.
  • Sanitary Inspection Department – responsible for inspection of unhealthy housing inspection of offensive trades and nuisances; food safety and hygiene; occupational health and air pollution.

To help you begin your research there are some introductory resources below.

Archive collections

Health

  • Y/COU/5/6 – Minutes of the Health Committees Includes minutes of the following committees: Local Board of Health Committee; Health Committee; Lunatic Asylum Visiting Committee and Mental Hospital Committee; Mental Deficiency Committee; Maternity Hospital Committee; York Hospitals Joint Advisory Committee
  • Y/COU/5/4/5-6 – Minutes of the Sanitary Committees Includes minutes of the Urban Sanitary Committee and Sanitary Committee.
  • Y/HEA/1 – Administrative records Comprises general administrative records of the Health Committee, Health Department (and predecessor bodies), and Town Clerk. Includes files of the Health Committee, Town Clerk’s health files, staff papers, sanitary congress papers, and legal papers. For the mains series of Acts and bye-laws relating to public health see Y/ADM/3.
  • Y/HEA/2 – Reporting Comprises official reports relating to public health in York. Includes annual, fortnightly and special reports of the Medical Officer of Health. Statistical graphs and the Chief Public Health Inspector’s report book.
  • Y/HEA/3 – Sanitary inspection Comprises papers relating to the sanitary inspection work of the Health Department and predecessor bodies. Includes Sanitary Inspectors’ and Assistant Sanitary Inspectors’ report books, Inspector of Nuisances report books, drain inspection report books, register of complaints (of unsanitary conditions), infectious diseases report books (sanitary reports), sanitary inspections and reports of workshops, nursing homes, and York Racecourse.
  • Y/HEA/4 – Infectious Diseases Comprises records relating to the notification and control of infectious diseases. Includes Local Board of Health and General Board of Health cholera papers; enquiries into infectious disease outbreaks, including diarrhoea, typhoid fever and anthrax; papers concerning disinfection, notification, and the Infectious Diseases Acts; York Fever Hospital (Yearsley Bridge) and Fairfield Sanatorium records (note: the main body of records for the Fever Hospital and Fairfield Sanatorium are held at the Borthwick Institute for Archives); registers, record cards, reports and notifications of infectious diseases.
  • Y/HEA/5 – Maternal and child health Includes records of York Maternity Hospital, Acomb (note: the main body of records for the Maternity Hospital are held at the Borthwick Institute for Archives); papers concerning maternity homes and midwives; midwifery records; registers of deaths (maternal and child), disease in childbirth; inspection of the York Infant Welfare Association’s premises; and correspondence relating to Fulford Open Air School for children.
  • Y/HEA/6 – Mental health care and care of the learning disabled (historically called, respectively, lunacy and mental deficiency) Comprises returns of pauper lunatics; correspondence relating to lunatics and asylums; York lunacy legal papers; papers of the York City Asylum (note: the main body of records for the City Asylum, later Naburn Hospital, are held at the Borthwick Institute for Archives; papers relating to care of ‘mentally deficient’ individuals including returns of patients, correspondence, papers of the East Riding and York Joint Board for the Mentally Defective; and Mid Yorkshire Joint Board for the Mentally Defective; and Mental Health Sub- Committee notifications. See also YAM for records of the Yorkshire Association for Mental Welfare
  • Y/HEA/7 – Civic defence measures Papers relating to civic defence measures under the authority of the Health Department. Includes Air Raid Precautions files; emergency and communal feeding files (including British Restaurants); war-time nurseries; c correspondence relating to the York Medical War Committee and the preparation of the ‘ Medical History of War’; York Holidays at Home ; fire precautions inspections for workshops and factories; and radiation precautions. Note: most of these papers concern World War II civic defence but radiation precautions are post-World War II. See also Y/PPT/2/6 for plans of emergency and communal feeding facilities.

Clearance and improvement

  • COM – Papers of the Improvement Commissioners Includes papers relating to the enactment of the York Improvement Act, 1825; correspondence an minutes of the Commissioners; Commissioners’ nominations, elections and oaths; financial records; rating papers; correspondence, petitions, notices and bills relating to the improvement of streets, drainage and lighting; policing papers; and legal papers.
  • Y/PPT/2/1 – Housing improvements and clearances Comprises records of the Health Department and Town Clerk relating to housing clearances and improvements in York. Includes overcrowding surveys; surveys of underground room; registers of Housing Inspectors’ reports and register of unfit houses; general administrative papers relating to clearances and improvements; clearances papers (many of which include plans); improvement papers; house inspection records; clearance photographs; and papers relating to the improvement of rental properties.
  • Y/PPT/2/3 – Street improvements Comprises papers relating to the building, widening, paving and general improvement of York’s streets. Includes street renumbering records; and street improvement papers for the following areas: Castlegate and Water Lanes; Jubbergate; Spurriergate and Coney Street; Little Blake Street (Duncombe Place); Heslington Road; Gillygate, Skeldergate and Holgate Road; Monkgate and Layerthorpe. Note only street improvements undertaken prior to the establishment of the Streets and Buildings Committee (i.e. up to c1890) have been catalogued. Later records relating to street improvements are currently uncatalogued.
  • Y/PPT/2/6 – Health Department plans Comprises plans relating to drainage and sanitary conditions of buildings; improvement and clearance plans; and plans of emergency and communal feeding facilities. Includes plans of Rowntree and Company Cocoa Works and Joseph Terry and Sons buildings.

Environmental health

  • Y/COU/5/4 – Minutes of committees relating to environmental health and trade Comprises papers relating to sewerage, drains, waterworks, cemetaries and the administration of the Foss and Ouse navigations.
  • Y/ENV/1/2 – Sewerage Committee papers (1888-1914) Comprises papers relating to the maintenance and improvement of the Sewerage system in York. Include plans, correspondence, reports, notices and infringements, contracts.
  • Y/ENV/1/7 – Drains, Local Board of Health (1854-1874) Comprises papers relating to the early construction of sewers in York. Includes the York Drain Book (1850); lists of completed sewers; reports of the City Surveyor regarding construction work; and a sewer report.
  • Y/ENV/1/8 – Water pollution Comprises papers related to the monitoring of pollutions levels in waterways and drains. Includes correspondence and associated papers, and analyses of water samples.
  • Y/ENV/2/2-4 – Regulation of common lodging houses, slaughterhouses and abattoirs; and dairies and cowsheds Includes inspection papers; registers of premises and licences; Health Department correspondence files on slaughterhouse; enquiries into the erection of a public slaughterhouse in York; and Murton Abattoir papers.
  • Y/ENV/4 – Air pollution Comprises correspondence files of the Chief Sanitary Inspector; air station measurement records; smoke control papers and smoke abatement publications.
  • Y/ENV/5 Food safety and food hygiene Comprises papers relating to the testing of food and diseases of animals, and chemicals in the food chain. Includes registers of unsound meat and meat inspection records; papers relating to food sampling and testing; printed literature; and records concerning the notification and control of diseases of animals.
  • Y/ENV/6 – Pest control and disinfection Comprises records relating to the control of vermin and disinfection. Includes registers of complaints and verminous houses; pest control correspondence; and rodent and disinfection accounts.
  • Y/ENV/9 – Travellers’ sites Papers concerning the environmental health monitoring of gypsy caravan sites. Includes correspondence; records of residents; public enquiries; rent receipt books; publications; and policy documents.

Our archive collections can be searched and browsed on the archive catalogue: https://archives.exploreyork.org.uk/index.php/

You can find more information on how to search the archive catalogue on the ‘How to Search’ webpage: https://archives.exploreyork.org.uk/how-to-search

To book an appointment to access our archive collections and find details of our opening times and how to book an appointment, please refer to our ‘Visiting us’ webpage: https://exploreyork.org.uk/archives/visiting-us/

Library resources & special collections
  • Fellowes, Christine Irene. The decline in infant mortality in England and Wales 1871-1948: a medical conundrum. The case of Walmgate (York) 1872-1908, York: privately published, 1999 [Shelf mark: 362.1]
  • Rowntree, J. S. Municipal Government in Relation to the Public Health. A Paper read to the York Sanitary Congress, 1886. York : unknown publisher,[1886?] [Shelf mark: Y352.4]
  • Wilson, Van. Rich in All But Money : Life in Hungate 1900-1938, Rev. ed., York : York Archaeological Trust, 2007 [Shelf mark: 942.843(Y) HIS]

Our local history and special collections can be searched and browsed using our library catalogue: https://catalogue.exploreyork.org.uk/client/en_GB/default/

Online resources from Explore York

Other research guides & resources