James Hills' Evidence
Opposed private bill committee evidence on the Sunderland Improvement works. James Hills, the local ironmonger, gave evidence in favour of the introduction of the Bill, despite its possible repercussions on his business.
To find out more, please click ‘Transcript' above.
James Hills Evidence
1847
Parliamentary Archives HL/PO/PB/5/13/10
Transcript
Mr James Hills is called in and examined by Mr Paget as follows.
Q: You are a shopkeeper in Sunderland
A: I am
Q: An Ironmonger
A: An Ironmonger
Q: And therefore one of those parties who have been alluded to who would suffer by this Clause
A: Yes
Q: Notwithstanding that suffering do you wish for the Bill
A: I do
Q: Notwithstanding you would have to pay for your shop at a higher rate than your neighbour for his shipbuilding yard you still regard the Bill as a benefit to the Borough
A: A very great benefit indeed.
James Hills Evidence
Opposed private bill committee evidence on the Sunderland Improvement works. James Hills, the local ironmonger, gave evidence in favour of the introduction of the Bill, despite its possible repercussions on his business.
To find out more, please click ‘Transcript' above.
James Hills Evidence
1847
Parliamentary Archives HL/PO/PB/5/13/10
Transcript
Q: In what way of the Trade are you?
A: An Ironmonger
Q: And I believe the largest retail iron-monger in Sunderland, one of the largest at least. Whereabouts is your shop
A: It is in the High Street in Bishop-Wearmouth
Q: You heard the evidence given by the last gentleman with regard to the slaughterhouses in the High Street, is that correct
A: It is quite correct
Q: From your observation
A: Yes
Q: You heard also the evidence which he gave with regard to the great deficiency of common offices to the houses
A: Yes
Q: Is that the fact
A: Oh yes, I Know it of my own...
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...knowledge
Q: Where do you reside
A: In the High Street in Bishop-Wearmouth
Q: Do you reside in the same house as your shop is
A: I do
Q: Then you are fortunate enough to have a water closet
A: No, there are no drains in the neighbourhood
Q: Are you obliged to have recourse to a common privy
A: Yes
Q: And you have no means of getting rid of the filth expect by having it carted away
A: No other means whatever
Q: Is that the case with the houses and shops generally in High Street
A: yes, but many of them have not the advantages that I have...
James Hills Evidence
Opposed private bill committee evidence on the Sunderland Improvement works. James Hills, the local ironmonger, gave evidence in favour of the introduction of the Bill, despite its possible repercussions on his business.
To find out more, please click ‘Transcript' above.
James Hills Evidence
1847
Parliamentary Archives HL/PO/PB/5/13/10
Transcript
Q: Do you mean to say that there are any shops and houses actually in the High Street of Sunderland that have not common necessaries of that kind
A: Many
Q: In what possible mode do the inhabitants of those houses get rid of the accumulated filth that arises
A: They have a kind of square tubs placed under the stairs which go up and which are emptied every night, or should be emptied every night by the night cart, and they have to bring them up through their houses in many instances,
Q: Do I understand you that that is the case not merely with the poorest and wretched inhabitants of Sunderland, but actually in the houses...
James Hills Evidence
Opposed private bill committee evidence on the Sunderland Improvement works. James Hills, the local ironmonger, gave evidence in favour of the introduction of the Bill, despite its possible repercussions on his business.
To find out more, please click ‘Transcript' above.
James Hills Evidence
1847
Parliamentary Archives HL/PO/PB/5/13/10
Transcript
...houses in which respectable tradesmen reside.
A: Actually in the houses in which respectable tradesmen reside that are rated from 50 and 60 to 70 a year.
Q: Can anything exceed the necessity of getting rid of this accumulated filth
A: Nothing can exceed the necessity
Mr Warren being asked whether he disputes any of these facts states that he does not
Mr Wright being asked whether he disputes these facts states that he does not dispute the necessity of the improvement of Sunderland, but that does not admit the high colourings of the witness.
Mr Paget: Are you telling me simple facts with regard to the extremely wretched accom...
James Hills Evidence
Opposed private bill committee evidence on the Sunderland Improvement works. James Hills, the local ironmonger, gave evidence in favour of the introduction of the Bill, despite its possible repercussions on his business.
To find out more, please click ‘Transcript' above.
James Hills Evidence
1847
Parliamentary Archives HL/PO/PB/5/13/10
Transcript
Q: ... accommodation of these respectable houses or is it a fiction
A: I know it
Q: It is not a creature of your brain and mine
A: No. My own Brother occupied a house in the High Street entirely devoid of any accommodation whatever except of the description I have described, and I think he was rated at 80 a year
Q: Your own Brother
A: Yes
Q: What was he by trade
A: A Tea Dealer
Q: Your own Brother occupied a house in the High Street of Sunderland inthe wretched state that you describe and rated at the same time at 80 a year
James Hills Evidence
Opposed private bill committee evidence on the Sunderland Improvement works. James Hills, the local ironmonger, gave evidence in favour of the introduction of the Bill, despite its possible repercussions on his business.
To find out more, please click ‘Transcript' above.
James Hills Evidence
1847
Parliamentary Archives HL/PO/PB/5/13/10
Transcript
A: Yes
Q: With no resource but a Night Cart
A: None whatever
Q: If that be the case with respectable Ship Keepers in the High Street of Sunderland if possible is the condition of the lower orders in the poorer parts of the Town, the working classes, even more dreadful
A: It is - no doubt of it
Q: Have there come under you knowledge circumstances similar to those given to the Committee by the last Witness, that the lower story of the house is used for accumulating filth
A: Yes, I have visited them in my capacity of Guardian
Q: Are you a Guardian of the Poor
A: I am Vice Chairman of the Board...
James Hills Evidence
Opposed private bill committee evidence on the Sunderland Improvement works. James Hills, the local ironmonger, gave evidence in favour of the introduction of the Bill, despite its possible repercussions on his business.
To find out more, please click ‘Transcript' above.
James Hills Evidence
1847
Parliamentary Archives HL/PO/PB/5/13/10
Transcript
A: ...of Guardians
Q: Are you also one of the Commissioners
A: Yes
Q: Under which Act
A: The Bishop Wearmouth and also the Highway Act
Q: Of the Bridge
A: No, not of the Bridge
Q: Then you were one of those parties who were promoting another Bull with the same objects
A: No, I never sanctioned the promotion by the Commissioners
Q: but the Commissioners did promote a Bill
A: Yes
Q: Was the object of that Bill also to remove in another mode these great nuisances
A: Yes, precisely the same
James Hills Evidence
Opposed private bill committee evidence on the Sunderland Improvement works. James Hills, the local ironmonger, gave evidence in favour of the introduction of the Bill, despite its possible repercussions on his business.
To find out more, please click ‘Transcript' above.
James Hills Evidence
1847
Parliamentary Archives HL/PO/PB/5/13/10
Transcript
Q: Then there is no dispute locally at Sunderland as to the pressing necessity for a measure of this kind between the Corporation and the Commissioners
A: It is admitted by all parties
Q: Can there be the slightest doubt
A: Not the slightest
Q: You said that in your capacity of Vice Chairman of the Board of Guardians you had occasion to visit the residences of the lower classes of Sunderland<
A: Yes, in Bishop Wearmouth more particularly
Q: In what state are they
A: I visited on district called Numbers Garth in which a vast number of poor reside and where there are a great number of lodging houses principally occupied...
James Hills Evidence
Opposed private bill committee evidence on the Sunderland Improvement works. James Hills, the local ironmonger, gave evidence in favour of the introduction of the Bill, despite its possible repercussions on his business.
To find out more, please click ‘Transcript' above.
James Hills Evidence
1847
Parliamentary Archives HL/PO/PB/5/13/10
Transcript
A: ...occupied by vagrants. In some of these houses the deposit of manure which was kept for a long period until there was sufficient for a cart to take it away was most offensive. They keep it in their cellar dwellings in order to realize a sum of money upon it, and in one of the houses which I visited they had it deposited in a place at the back of ht house, and it was up to the top, and actually oozing down underneath a bed in which a man lay ill that my attention happened to be called to
Q: Do you give that as an isolated instance of filth and wretchedness or is it a fair representation as to the accumulation of filth of the condition of the poorer classes in Sunderland
James Hills Evidence
Opposed private bill committee evidence on the Sunderland Improvement works. James Hills, the local ironmonger, gave evidence in favour of the introduction of the Bill, despite its possible repercussions on his business.
To find out more, please click ‘Transcript' above.
James Hills Evidence
1847
Parliamentary Archives HL/PO/PB/5/13/10
Transcript
A: It exists to an amazing extent
Q: So that I presume at last the wretched being who live in this state are unconscious of the misery to which they are exposed
A: Yes, we have them always applying for relief almost - wither one party or another is ill of fever or other complaints
Q: It is productive of disease of course
A: Yes
Q: I presume you wish very much for a supply of water to cleanse it away
A: Very much indeed
Q: And to have it under the control of the Municipal body
A: Yes, it would be desirable
Q: And you want light also - gas light
A: Yes, and day light too
Q: You have practically no sewerage at present
A: Nothing that can be called Sewerage