Victorian England's Most Dangerous Jobs

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After writing the story of Christiana Edmunds, I signed a contract with my publisher to write a book about the most dangerous jobs in Victorian England. The idea for this book came from the story of England's "mad hatters." I had always believed that the mad hatter from Alice in Wonderland was the product of fiction but actually, Lewis Carroll drew his inspiration from real life. Victorian hatters were well-known for their eccentric behaviour and having the shakes.  Of course, we now know that hatters went "mad" because they routinely came into contact with mercury while manufacturing felt hats, but the Victorians believed their madness to be the product of drunkenness and vice. So the idea of the mat hatter was a well-established stereotype long before Caroll ever ventured into Wonderland.

Image result for mad hatter lewis carroll

The hatters weren't the only Victorian workers to come into close contact with dangerous substances on a daily basis, nor were they the only occupational group to be associated with insanity. Part of the problem for Victorian workers was that there was very little legislation in place to protect them. In fact, our understanding of occupational medicine (and much of our legislation to protect workers) was really born in the Victorian era. What's more, there has been relatively little research done in this field.

Although I have decided (for lots of different reasons) not to go ahead with the publishing of this book, I am going to publish a series of posts on this blog with some of my findings. I hope they will be of interest to anyone keen to know more about the day-to-day lives of ordinary Victorians.

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Face-Reading and Christiana Edmunds: The Wonderful World of Victorian Physiognomy

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When Christiana Edmunds stood trial for her poisoning spree in January 1872, her physical appearance was heavily scrutinised by the press. This was not uncommon among murderesses, as I'll discuss in a later post, but it was, in part, a response to the rise of a pseudo-science called Physiognomy. As a rough definition, Physiognomy is the belief that studying a person's facial features or expressions can be indicative of their personality or behaviour. Though it's centuries old, the Victorians had a particular love for Physiognomy and believed that it had a myriad of uses. It was used, for example, to depict the so-called differences between racial groups, like the Jews and the Irish. It was also used by Hugh Welch Diamond, the Superintendent at the Surrey County Asylum (1848-1858), as a means of both illustrating insanities (in its various forms) and as a method of treatment. Diamond believed that if a patient saw a photo of herself, she might recognise her madness and beg...
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Christiana Edmunds: The Venus of Broadmoor (Part One)

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On this day - 5 July - in 1872, Christiana Edmunds was transferred from the Sussex Country Prison to Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum in Berkshire. Built in 1863, Broadmoor was England's answer to the long-standing question of where to house the criminally insane. Previously, the provision for such people was haphazard and generally inadequate, with many criminal lunatics housed in ordinary asylums or prisons. By 1860, it was felt that such provision was undesirable, as stated by a Select Committee of the House of Commons: To mix such persons, that is criminal lunatics, with other patients is a serious evil;  it is detrimental to the other patients as well as to themselves. In the same year, the government passed the Criminal Lunatic Asylum Act which authorised the creation of Broadmoor and gave the Home Secretary control over its management and the admission of patients. Construction began shortly after and, three years later, on 23 May 1863, Broadmoor welcomed its first ...
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Christiana Edmunds: The Venus of Broadmoor (Part Two)

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In the first part of this article , I looked at how the infamous institution, Broadmoor, came into being and the sort of asylum that it was when Christiana arrived there in July 1872. (If you missed it, you can read it here ). In this post, I'm looking at life for Christiana once she was admitted and as under the care of Dr William Orange, Broadmoor's resident superintendent. All of our knowledge of Christiana's time in Broadmoor comes from her medical file, a document filled out by Dr Orange and based entirely on his observations. As you can imagine, her file makes for interesting reading, not just because of its contents but because it is one of the few impressions of Christiana that remains in existence. According to Dr Orange, Christiana confirmed her diagnosis of insanity in the first few weeks of her arrival at Broadmoor. Though she was a "quiet and orderly" in her behaviour, she showed no remorse for the crimes that she had committed nor did she offer a...
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