A SQUALID scene during the Westgate slum clearance of the 1930s. We are looking from the North Beck in the foreground towards the Turkey Street area beyond the buildings in the background.
In his annual report for 1934, the Keighley medical officer of health commented on how “a colony of nineteen itinerant hawkers and ten children established themselves in nine caravans and seven tents in a populous part of the town where they created a serious nuisance”.
Fortunately “the service of statutory notices produced the desired effect”.
During this period the second week in November was always National Rat Week. In 1934 the Keighley health services obtained results at 83.1 per cent of 981 baited locations, whilst members of the public received rewards of three-halfpence each for 71 rats’ tails they handed in.
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