Medical Officer of Health reports

Congested housing near Bridge Street, Northampton

Between 1888 and 1974, Northamptonshire and the Soke of Peterborough were served by a variety of types of local authorities. Northampton was a County Borough and a County Council was the upper-tier authority for the rest of Northamptonshire. The Soke of Peterborough had its own County Council, while the City of Peterborough operated as a Borough. Brackley, Daventry and Kettering were also boroughs. The areas not included in a Borough were allocated to lower-tier authorities which were named either as an Urban District Council (UDC) or a Rural District Council (RDC).

Reports produced each year by the Medical Officer of Health of each authority described the work of its public health and sanitary officers. They provide a wealth of information about matters such as housing conditions, causes of death, sewerage, water supply, vaccination and action taken to deal with infectious diseases. The Wellcome Foundation has placed many of the reports online where you can find them free of charge by using the links listed below. They do not cover every year for every place but do provide access to a total of 977 detailed reports:

Follow the links for the areas that interest you in order to reach the relevant individual reports.

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