A History of Health in Hull - by Rob Bell and Dan Roper
“History” wrote the historian Braudel “is what people make of their geography”.
Hull’s location was the reason for the rise of the port city, a trigger for industrialisation and rapid population growth. Daniel Defoe, on his Tour of the Whole Island (1726) spoke of Hull being “exceedingly close built” – facilitating the spread of disease.
This talk is a summary of a series of webinars written by Rob Bell founder of The History Troupe with Dr Dan Roper – a prominent Hull-based medical practitioner.
The Ice Age left an area of marshland; ideal for malaria – the cause of Andrew Marvell’s death. The Black Death (1346-53) saw 60 per cent of Europe’s population wiped out; Hull’s lack of manpower forced the adoption of cranes and port expansion. Then, the crowded 19th century with an outbreak of cholera and waves of typhus, scarlatina and the Russian Flu.
When and where: Monday, September
11, 1.30pm at Wrecking Ball Arts Centre, 15
Whitefriargate