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