In 1857 doctors in Greenock were very concerned with public health and the unsanitary conditions arising from ordinary people keeping pigs in back courts of houses. Stanners Street in Greenock's east end was one of the town's older streets and very overcrowded. It ran from John Street north to Main Street where Hutcheson's Court stood (almost across from the shipyard entrance). In 1856 the Nuisance Removal Act had been passed, and Greenock had its own Inspector of Nuisances - John Walsh.
The pig problem in this area was described:-
"It is a densely populated district, and within a court till recently
wholly undrained, a yard of seventy feet by sixty, a congeries of piggeries,
occupied by not fewer than forty swine, imbedded in stagnant ordure, emitting
foul and offensive smells, which the tenants of the neighbouring houses declare
to be so abominable that they dare not open their windows which look into the
yard, and which the medical gentlemen employed to inspect the place pronounce
to be prejudicial to the public health.
It appears from another witness, the proprietor of the premises, that
the place had been, for a great number of years, occupied as a piggery; and we
are therefore not surprised to find, on the unimpeachable testimony of DrWallace, that the street had, during epidemics, produced a greater number of
fever patients, in proportion To its size, than any other street in the
town. Fifty-three cases of typhus fever
were admitted into the Infirmary in 1847-1848 from the Stanners; and last year
there were nine cases. So recently as
the month of January last, Dr Wallace was called to attend a case of typhus
fever in Hutcheson’s Court, which looks into the piggery yard."
John Walsh reported:- "On the 11th December the pig-houses were in a very filthy
condition, the pigs were very badly bedded; and in some of them, being lower
than the general area of the court, the filth was allowed outside, along the
front of another property into a cesspool in Main Street. I took Dr Wallace
down with me to inspect the premises and he gave me a certificate. I saw the premises upon the 3rd February,
when I served the complaint. The houses were
in the same state, but a small drain had been made on one side of the court,
but it was not acting. There was a foul
and offensive small in the court at that time.
I was frequently at the place last summer, the smell was More offensive
in warm weather. I was there again on
Thursday, Friday and Saturday. There
appeared to be a quantity of clean sawdust put into the pig-houses. I examined them in presence of Dr
Marshall. The houses had a quantity of
ordure and filth under sawdust. I served
each of the defenders, on the 18th January with notice to remove the swine."
The pigs were not removed and the case was taken to court. On the first day of proceedings in February 1858, Daniel Macfarlane, one of the proprietors of land in the area announced that he would represent the 14 people accused of keeping piggeries in Cartsdyke. they were – Murdoch
Robertson, Thomas Beith, Hannah McNeill, Hugh McConnell, Janet McFeat, Malcolm
McKechnie, George Croiley, Helen Barr, Susan McGlaughlan, Elizabeth McBride,
Mary Lyons, Michael McAnulty, John Gray and James Brown. Many of the men were at work and were represented by their
wives in court. He was informed by the sheriff that he needed to either
speak just for himself or be represented by a lawyer.
Macfarlane explained that he was not receiving payment
because most of the others were too poor to pay for legal representation. The Sheriff replied that if the others could not afford to
employ an agent he would appoint one for them. Macfarlane was not permitted to address the court. However, when the others were called to plead Macfarlane seemed to be advising them on what to say and occasionally
made remarks to the court. Many said that they were widows and had no other means of making a livelihood than keeping a pig and without that they would be unable to pay rent or taxes and would have to go on the poor roll. Eventually the Sheriff who, as the local newspaper
reported:-
“had shown great forbearance during the “scene”, at length said, Now,
Sir, listen to me; I have never known the dignity of this court assailed in
such a manner as it has been by you.
There is a power vested in me to protect the court against
contempt. That power is imprisonment. Take care; don’t force me to use it”.
Macfarlane replied “I am here to represent these poor
people; I know my rights, I am neither a child nor an interloper”. The Sheriff again warned
Macfarlane to be silent and appointed lawyer Andrew Boag as agent for the others.
In his statement to the court Macfarlane stated:- "I reside in Glasgow. I have known the pig yard behind Stanners for
40 years. I am a proprietor in the
neighbourhood. My property is about 100
yards from the spot. I never heard any
complaints from parties in the neighbourhood but rather the reverse. The opinion was that both the keeping and
eating of pigs fortified against disease.
I inspected the piggeries in this locality several months ago. I saw them again today. The yard is in a very proper state. I have rarely seen a place of the kind in so
good a condition. The pig houses are very
clean indeed many people are lying in worse beds here and elsewhere. The pigs are confined to proper beds and
houses. I felt no smell, beyond what is
usual among cattle ... The value of
the pigs in the neighbourhood is about £2000."
The Sheriff decided that the pigs should be removed from the
area, but gave the defendants three weeks to find a better place in which to
keep them. James Brown who lived in Stanners Street and was the proprietor of the ground was to pay three
quarters of the cost and the other defendants the rest.
Stanners Street - in the book "Greenock Place Names" by Sandra Macdougall and Joy Monteith, the name of the street is said to be from the fact that the official inspection of weights and measures was made from a shed in this street - Standards Street became Stanners Street.
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