Liverpool & South West Lancashire FHS - Forum

Does anyone know of any first hand written records or memoirs of people who lived in the courts houses of the 1800's? Or any books about it? I am wanting to know how people lived in them, what they were like inside, etc. Kind regards

Hi and welcome to the forum.

I've often looked at this site http://www.mersey-gateway.org/server.ph ... rative.107 which includes a photograph and a few other links to insanitary housing.

There is a Report to the Health committee on the borough of Liverpool on the sewage, paving, cleansing, and other works, under the Sanitary act , from 1856 to 1862 inclusive (c1863) which you can read online http://archive.org/details/reporttohealthco00liverich

If you google you will also find a few others including a good post by "Kev" on the yoliverpool forum, referring to a number of photographs, thumbnails at the bottom of the page http://www.yoliverpool.com/forum/showth ... 2f64adc67d

Ken Pye has also written an excellent article Local History & Heritage: Tales and Fascinating Facts here http://www.discover-liverpool.com/24/section.aspx/3

Hope these help give you an insight into life in the Courts.

Mary, Many thanks. Ken Pye's article was very good. I have seen lots of photos to date, but no real description of how the people survived in these places. Would buy his book but its out of print!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Discover-Liverp ... 1905266359 available on Amazon, not cheap but very good and including the DVD which is like a few guided tours of Liverpool. It is however of modern day, not 19th Century Liverpool.

Autobiography of a Liverpool Slummy by Pat O'Mara gives a pretty vivid description of the courts at the beginning of the 20th century. It seems to me that conditions didn't change very much over the years.
Hope this is of interest
Barbara

I have been trying to get hold of a paper written by Hugh Shimmin which has a lot of information regarding the state of the courts and cellar dwellings. He makes his report from a health angle, although I understand it has quite a lot of information in it, but no personal stories.

If anyone knows if it is in print again or if a digital copy is available, could you let me know please?

Bibliographic information
QR code for Liverpool life ; The courts and alleys of Liverpool
Title: Liverpool life ; The courts and alleys of Liverpool
Rise of urban Britain
Author Hugh Shimmin
Edition reprint
Publisher Garland Pub., 1985
Original from the University of California
Length 201 pages
Subjects History
Housing and health/ England/ Liverpool (England)Also the Gutenberg Project has free books online.

The following link is 'Recollections of Old Liverpool', and mentions lots of places familiar to many of us:
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/21324/21 ... 1324-h.htm
Sheila Davis

I've found this PDF book on Google. I've downloaded it but not read it yet. It seems quite good though for what i've seen

http://www.c-s-p.org/flyers/978-1-4438- ... sample.pdf

That looks a very good book Linda, and it also mentions Hugh Shimmin, so might give some information that Sheila is looking for too.

The more I look at it the more interesting it becomes. Linda please post the link on our websites board so that it is kept, will be so useful for others looking at the social history of their families.

MaryA wrote: Linda please post the link on our websites board so that it is kept, will be so useful for others looking at the social history of their families.

Will do Mary. It does seem very interesting I'll get around to reading it all soon.

LindaS wrote:I've found this PDF book on Google. I've downloaded it but not read it yet. It seems quite good though for what i've seen

http://www.c-s-p.org/flyers/978-1-4438- ... sample.pdf

Unfortunately it seems it only has the introduction so only up to about page 30. What a shame I would love to be able to read the whole lot.

All the interesting books seem to be very expensive - Amazon has a copy for £37.99.

Looking at that book on Amazon you can read more than is in the Sample I posted. Grim conditions

Maybe your library either has a copy or could get hold of a copy on inter library loan. In Sefton we have to pay a reservation fee but that was the only charge. Once one arrived from the British Library complete with a pair of gloves. I had to read it in the library.

MaryA wrote:That looks a very good book Linda, and it also mentions Hugh Shimmin, so might give some information that Sheila is looking for too.

This book looks excellent. Unfortunately the link provides only the Introduction, plus Contents pages. Its full details are:
"Living in Liverpool: a collection of sources for family, local and social historians"
Author: Alastair Wilcon/ Publisher: Cambridge Scholars/ publication date: June 2011;
PRICE: UKGbp: 39.99

Fairly costly but would be such a good purchase for your library.
I will have to try and source a copy from an Australian library
But its great to know this book exists!

MaryA wrote:That looks a very good book Linda, and it also mentions Hugh Shimmin, so might give some information that Sheila is looking for too.

Thank you for that information ladies, but unfortunately the sample is only 30 pages and the court and cellar dwellings is on page 75 - but I will try to get hold of it another way.

When I was studying 'The History of the Family in the North West 1700-1914' Hugh Shimmin was one of the papers we could study as extra background information to the study. This was 5 years ago and I still have not been able to get a copy.

Sheila Davis

You can read a bit more in the book by going to this link

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Living-Liverpoo ... 1443829110

Its got about the Courts in it Just click on the Document three in the index.
It is supposed to be copyrighted So I dont know if i'm allowed to put the link on here

This is an interesting account:-

http://www.old-merseytimes.co.uk/Cholera.html


Blue

Google ebooks has Hugh Shimmin's "Liverpool Sketches" the chapter "Sunday in the Slums" visits a number of Liverpool streets describing the conditions of the houses.


Blue