Segment 1 Chave briefly introduces the series of 8 talks on this subject. He takes as his beginning, the moment in 1832 when the Great Reform Act was passed; he describes how this came about and shows illustrations of urban life for the working poor, including a 19th century factory floor and a squalid urban panorama. He describes how this act took over from the Great Elizabethan Poor Law of 1601. Time start: 00:00:00:00 Time end: 00:05:35:00 Length: 00:05:35:00
Segment 2 Chave looks back in history to the time of the Great Elizabethan Poor Law and describes how it functioned up until the 19th century when it became untenable. We hear about 'Speenhamland', a theory originating from a small hamlet in Berkshire where, in 1795, local justices ruled that poor relief should be tied to the cost of living so that poor relief was more effective for those needing it. However, this backfired and ended up empowering the owners and pauperising the workers, so much so that in 1832 the government set up a royal commission to review the whole system, resulting in the New Poor Law of 1834. Time start: 00:05:35:00 Time end: 00:11:08:00 Length: 00:05:33:00
Segment 3 Chave introduces Edwin Chadwick into the story and shows his portrait along with a portrait of Jeremy Bentham, to whom Chadwick was strongly linked. Chave describes the philosophy of Bentham briefly and then how Chadwick took aspects of it into his initial examination of the Poor Law. He was eventually appointed as secretary to the Poor Law Commission in London and it was while in that post that he became aware of the close connection between poverty and disease. Time start: 00:11:08:00 Time end: 00:14:44:00 Length: 00:03:36:00
Segment 4 Chadwick employed 3 doctors to investigated the diseases prevalent in the poorer parts of East London. Chave shows illustrations of impoverished London streets from this time. These reports so shocked Parliament that they ordered enquiries of the same nature to be made across the whole country. This led to Chadwick's 1842 'A Report on the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Great Britain' - Chave reads 2 quotes from this report. One of Chadwick's key ideas was to change sanitation; this became known as Chadwick's Sanitary Idea and was to inspire the Public Health Movement in England for the next 50 years. Chave analyses the Sanitary Idea in some depth. Time start: 00:14:44:00 Time end: 00:22:48:00 Length: 00:08:04:00
Segment 5 Chave continues to discuss Chadwick's 1942 report, referring specifically to Chadwick's suggestion that there should be a district medical officer active in each borough, independent of private practice. Chave describes how successful Chadwick's report was, more than 10,000 copies were printed and sold. A further Royal Commission was held to verify Chadwick's findings and in 1848 the first Public Health Act in the history of Britain went into the statute book. Chave describes how many of Chadwick's suggestions were watered down and the changes that the act brought about. Time start: 00:22:48:00 Time end: 00:27:55:00 Length: 00:05:07:00