Page 24 - Life in Langham 1914-1919

Langham’s Health Services

A dentist inspected the children once a year, arriving in a mobile

wooden dental surgery pulled by horse from village to village. In 1915

Mr M Jackson, the school dentist, treated thirty-one Rutland children;

fifty-four teeth were ‘stopped’, seventy-seven extractions carried out
with gas and thirty-four without! There were often extracted teeth to

be found on the ground once the dentist caravan moved on.

A local charity, the ‘Rutland Dispensary’, which gave help with

medical expenses to the poor of Rutland, must have helped some

Langham folk, especially war widows with young families.

Langham workers

began the ‘Sick and

Dividing Club’ at the

Wheatsheaf public

house, paying in a

weekly amount so

that if they were

unable to work they
could make a claim

on the club for

financial assistance.

At the end of the

year any money left

over was divided up

between the The Wheatsheaf, Langham

members. During 1916, fifty-seven adults received 10s each, five

juvenile members 5s each and £3 3s was paid out to sick members.

Langham’s health and longevity of the residents was said to

compare well with other Rutland villages despite ongoing problems

with pollution of the brook or washdyke.

Langham’s water supply came from
wells and pumps around the village;

in an effort to reduce the pollution

the tub system of night soil removal

had been adopted. The ‘pan man’

came each week with his horse

drawn wagon, later a lorry, and

replaced the full pans from the

outside WCs with empty ones

disinfected with a pink powder.
Well St Langham, East Pump