A feature of the recent Heritage weekend was an exhibition of Alnwick residents who had turned their hand to inventing something useful.
One of these was George Wilkin, who was working as a plumber in Alnwick in the mid-1800’s. This date is extremely relevant, as the great Alnwick cholera outbreak took place in 1849, taking the lives of 136 residents in a matter of a few weeks. The cause of such carnage was debated at the time, but there seems little doubt now. Most housing had no proper sanitation, and human waste was dumped all around the town. Worse still the outpourings from these dung heaps were leached into the groundwater from which the flow to Alnwick’s many pants were fed.
Besides helping to carry out the installation of proper sanitation and water feeds to households in the town, George addressed his mind to the more challenging situations where users of the new water closets would not necessarily use them properly
.See more fascinating details about George -including the link to Robbie Burns, poet Click here