Victorian Aromas at St Neots Brookside

The view of Brookside from the wooden bridge, under the shadow of trees which have survived the recent cull of elderly nearby timber, is one of quiet peace with a gentle fresh breeze where fisher-folk and swans allow time to flow gently past and automobiles conserve fuel free of District Council charges. A Victorian ancestor of mine lived here around the corner in South Street in an era of horse and cart where his blacksmithing skills founded a business in 1851 still in existence today. He worked amongst strong aromas which would send modern noses into face masks. One of the normal smells of his era was that of the open sewer of the Hen Brook. Back in 1874 the St. Neots Sanitary scheme was inspected and found that there were ‘no drains for excremental matter and provision in the town was by cesspools. In the case of houses on the South side of the Market Place, and in Brook Street, the sewage passes directly into the Brook.’ A scheme costing £6000 was proposed but only one local ratepayer spoke in favour as most were house owners whose chief concern was to keep down the rates. In 1885 a Government inspector remarked that:- “Everywhere nuisances are being allowed to be perpetuated and people really are drinking their own excrement. Many slaughterhouses should never have been licensed in their present state. It is essential that the town should have a public water supply.” There were 300 cases of typhoid in the last month of 1880. The locals regarded their death rate as low. By 1900 there was a local water supply, but it took until the early 1950’s to provide a sewage works. Another nasal stimulant was the intoxicating aroma of the Market Square Brewery whose products were consumed at pubs such as the Bushel & Strike (tall white building) and the Swan Inn (central cottages). Both of these were waterside inns catering for carters and bargemen employed on the Brookside wharf. The Bushel was a lodging house with an ‘ill reputation’ with drunken brawls and an occasional knife fight. The early day aroma of the tramp lodgers would have wafted over the gentle stench of the Hen Brook delivering another nights sewage into the waters of the Great Ouse to flow away on its journey downstream under the town bridge. St. Neots Museum has much more of the heritage of the town and is free to locals. Its shop sells a range of items not available elsewhere in the town.