Rushden Research Group: Tuberculosis 1919

Rushden Echo, 15^th August 1919, transcribed by Kay Collins

Tuberculosis in the Rushden District

Rushden House was built in 1870/71.

It was purchased by the County Council in 1919 for use as the Rushden Sanatorium, where cases of TB were to be treated.

The Tuberculosis After Care Committee was formed in 1929 to raise funds for the patients and for the hospital.

Later it specialised in treating all types of chest illnesses. After several other uses in health care, the house was finally boarded up in 2008.

Rushden Sanatorium - opened in 1921 - formerly Rushden House

Rushden, Higham Ferrers, and Raunds occupy an unenviable position with regard to the death-rate from tuberculosis, compared with the rest of the county, the three towns named having the heaviest mortality from that dire disease among the urban districts in Northamptonshire, and being considerably above the average for the past year in the Northamptonshire County Council's area. From the annual report of the County Medical Officer of Health we learn that the total number of cases of tuberculosis notified in the county during the past twelve months was 444, including nine members of the naval or military forces. The total number of deaths among Civilians from tuberculosis was 289, and of these, 158 belonged to the urban districts and 131 to the rural areas, so that the mortality, it will be seen, was fairly evenly distributed between town and country. We would direct our readers' attention to the following table showing the number of deaths in Northamptonshire from all forms of tuberculosisand not merely from pulmonary tuberculosis uring the past few years and the death-rate per thousand of the population:

Year	No. of Deaths	Rate per Thousand
1913	250	1.15
1914	228	1.05
1915	261	1.23
1916	302	1.49
1917	284	1.49
1918	289	1.50

The mortality for the past three years, it will be seen, has been practically stationary. When we come to the details regarding the urban districts of the county we find that, arranged in the order of their tuberculosis death-rate, they stand as follow:

	Per thousand of the Population
Oundle	0.50
Rothwell	0.78
Desborough	0.80
Daventry Borough	0.95
Irthlingborough	1.28
Wellingborough	1.57
Finedon	1.80
Kettering	2.00
Brackley Borough	2.08
Rushden	2.17
Higham Ferrers Borough	2.25
Raunds	2.65

In the eighteen rural districts the rate ranged from 0.76 in the Gretton area to 2.32 in the Northampton rural district, the Wellingborough areawhich includes Irchester, Wollaston, Earls Barton, and other villagesoccupying a favourable position as the fifth lowest in the list with a death-rate of 1.00, and the Thrapston areawhich includes Stanwick, Chelveston, and other villagesbeing the eighth, with a rate of 1.31. It is not possible to compare last year's figures with any of the years prior to 1913, as before that time only cases of pulmonary tuberculosis were taken into account, whereas now every form of tuberculosis is notifiable. Rushden's high proportion of deaths from tuberculosis is the one blot upon an otherwise remarkably healthy town, but when the deaths from all causes have been includedconsumption, of course, amongst the numberRushden has a lower death-rate than any other urban or rural district in the county.

Rushden Echo, Friday, August 15th, 1919, transcribed by Kay Collins.

Two more snippets in the same paper.

''There will be 35,000 soldiers discharged from the Army, suffering from consumption, and these will need providing for."Mr. W. Bazeley,.J.P., at the Rushden Urban Council meeting.

The half-yearly report of the Boot Operatives' Union, which has just been published, states that during the six months 100 members and members' wives have died from tuberculosis, and of these no fewer than ten per cent, are from the Rushden, Higham, Irthlingborough, and Raunds district branch of the Union, viz., seven members and three members' wives.

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