Author: Peter Witham

Miners’ life 3

Collecting water was a daily chore as there were no taps in the cottages. On some occasions water had to be bought from a water carrier and this water occasionally was not clean. Some places in Hetton relied on springs or wells, e.g. The Springwell area of Hetton. Water butts were kept in the backyards of the cottages to collect rainwater.

This cartoon from “Punch” was entitled “ King Cholera” and showed the insanitary conditions in which people lived. Note the boys playing in the dung heaps as well as toilet waste being thrown into the street. It is likely that there was the occasional case of cholera in Hetton when there were outbreaks elsewhere, including Sunderland.

Diseases such as Dysentery and Typhus were common and once established in a close knit area they were difficult to get rid of.