Then and Now: Sewers improved to fight typhoid fever

Manners Street was at the end of the sewerage system, as was Dudley Road, writes Ruth Crook of Grantham Civic Society.

In 1896 a shaft was built behind Mr Weightman’s Maltings and two on Dudley Road to aid the flushing and also ventilate the system. There were regular reports by the Medical Officer of the number of cases of typhoid fever, so cases could be alleviated as soon as possible.

Mr William Boaler Weightman also owned a Maltings on Elmer Street. He was a maltster and miller in Oasby, born in Heydour in 1848 to his father William and mother Martha (Boaler), who had held the mill before him.

In the 1891 census, William junior lived at Oasby Mill with his wife Rose and seven children, a governess and three servants. Martha Boaler, William junior’s mother was born in 1819 and baptised in Cuckney.

Her father was the park keeper and gamekeeper on the Welbeck estate and when he died in 1848, he left £1,500.