Manchester and Salford Sanitary Association

The material comprises publications and reports of the MSSA, including annual reports, weekly returns and quarterly reports which collated medical statistics for different districts of Manchester, reports of investigations into public health issues, such as food adulteration and sale of poisons, a series tracts published by the Association on sanitary matters for working class readers, reports of conferences hosted by the Association, and several items concerning the history of the Association.

The Association was founded in 1852 "to promote attention to Temperance, Personal and Domestic Cleanliness and to the Laws of Health generally" and "to induce general co-operation with the Boards of Health and other constituted authorities in giving effect to official Regulations for Sanitary Improvement". The Society was a typical representation of the sanitary activism of middle class citizens in Victorian Britain. The establishment of the Society was due to the efforts of two individuals. Thomas Turner (1793-1873), a surgeon and medical educator, and Rev. Charles Richeson, a Manchester clergyman deeply involved in social issues.

The original Association was governed by a committee of 45 members, with fifteen representatives of the clergy, fifteen doctors and fifteen others The Committee was chaired by Rev. Richeson, and the Bishop of Manchester elected president. Many of the original members were also members of other local public health, medical and charitable societies; a number were also members of the Manchester Statistical Society.

The Association originally delivered lectures and tracts to its target audience, the poorer working classes, on the benefits of sanitation and temperance. As well as this educative work, some members believed that the Association should put direct pressure on the local authorities of Manchester and Salford. They gathered facts on overcrowding, poor water supply, ventilation and sewage. The Society a believed that district visitation would be an invaluable way of achieving its aims and to this end, it divided Manchester and Salford into seven visitation districts - Deansgate, London Road, Ancoats, Oldham Street, Rochdale Road, Chorlton and Salford, and appointed committees of visitors to make personal investigation of the sanitary conditions in the houses, courts and streets of their district. They then referred these matters to the municipal authorities. The work of these committees came to an end in the 1860s.

The MSSA carried out a variety of research work: in the mid-1850s William Royston compiled mortality tables for Manchester and Salford, and these were expanded in 1861 to weekly returns of diseases and deaths based on data supplied by Poor Law medical officers and Registrars of births and deaths. Abstracts of these weekly returns would then be published in local newspapers. These returns continued until 1873, when weekly death returns began to be published by the newly appointed Medical Officers of Health for Manchester and Salford. The Association became involved in public campaigns against the adulteration of food, sewage and poor housing; it also campaigned for the introduction of isolation hospitals for infectious cases. The MSSA was also involved in the establishment of the Manchester Nurse Training Institution in 1863, which provided district nursing in the Manchester area.

In later decades, some of this campaigning impetus was lost, partly because of financial problems, and partly because of the greater activity of municipal public health authorities. However, the energy of the Association's secretary, Fred Scott, ensured that its public profile was maintained. Increasingly the Association was dominated by health professionals, and the role of the clergy declined correspondingly.

Committees of affiliated societies were also formed Ladies Branch (until 1879 the Ladies Sanitary Reform Association), the Noxious Vapours Abatement Association, Committee for Securing Open Spaces for Recreation, Children's Holiday Fund and the Cheap Meals Committee. The Association continued until 1934 concerning itself with all matters relating to health and sanitation, including the provision of public parks, sanatoriums for tuberculosis sufferers, pollution of the air and rivers, the care of the mentally ill, and the use of poisons.

The material is divided into the following series:

• MMC/13/2/1 Annual Reports
• MMC/13/2/2 Reports of meetings
• MMC/13/2/3 Weekly Returns
• MMC/13/2/4 Quarterly Reports
• MMC/13/2/5 Mortality Returns
• MMC/13/2/6 Published Reports
• MMC/13/2/7 Conference Reports
• MMC/13/2/8 Tracts
• MMC/13/2/9 Cuttings
• MMC/13/2/10 Historical material re. the Association.
• MMC/13/2/11 Other material

The archive of the MSSA is held by Manchester Local Studies and Archives (ref. M126), and includes minutes and reports of visiting committees.