The first quarantine act introduced in 1710 to reinforce Common Law restricted the illicit landing of people but only obliged the townspeople to maintain a watch during daylight hours. This was followed by an Act for enlarging and regulating trade into the Levant Sea and an Act to oblige ships to perform quarantine in 1753 as a result of the threat of plague. This required all ships loading in the Levant to undergo quarantine at the Lazaret in Minorca in the Mediterranean Sea. In 1799 an act to encourage trade into the Levant Sea was introduced allowing ships to perform their quarantine in the Medway off the Thames Estuary so as to compete with the Dutch who did not apply such rigorous quarantine controls.

 

The Quarantine Act 1825 required vessels with any infectious disease (defined by later orders) onboard to be subject to quarantine at local quarantine stations potentially for up to forty days. This was enforced by customs or coastguard officers and was overseen nationally by the Privy Council.   

 

Map showing route from Levant Sea to Europe

 

Work by Charles Maclean, a ships surgeon, Edwin Chadwick and Southwood Smith together with the spread of cholera to Great Britain prompted the General Board of Health to produce a report leading to the first National Sanitary Conference in 1851 with the British taking the view that enforced detention of ships in quarantine was only necessary when the disease was on board and that if the ship was in a foul condition it should be cleansed and disinfected before pratique was granted, a practice largely followed today.

 

In 1849 the General Board of Health by order empowered Poor Law Authorities at endangered ports the power to deal with shipping arrivals suspected of having cholera on board and this was followed by the introduction of the Sanitary Act in 1866 which made ships the subject of jurisdiction of the Nuisance Authority of the district in which they where moored.

 

This would appear to be the case with the existence of the Truro Sanitary Authority and the Falmouth Port Sanitary Authority. On the 12th March 1874 minutes where recorded of a meeting of the Borough of Falmouth Port Sanitary Authority and these would appear to indicate that this was not an inaugural meeting. It is worthy of note that the foundation stone for the Falmouth Dock Company had already been laid on the 28th Feb. 1860 whilst Falmouth had been nominated as a base for fast mail boats in 1688.  The minutes of the 7th October 1874 show that the meeting was held in the hospital, presumably the isolation hospital belonging to the authority (the first public hospital not being opened until 1893) and again since this did not appear to be an opening ceremony indicates that the hospital was already in use (the practice of using such hospitals was common place by the 1860’s).

 

These provisions were impeded when there was more than one Nuisance Authority in a port. Confusion occurring as to whom was the relevant authority when the vessel was moored midstream between the authorities. Section 20 of the Public Health Act 1872 empowered the Local Government Board to constitute one Port Sanitary Authority with jurisdiction over the district in any port established by the Commissioner of Customs which in the case of Falmouth was defined by a treasury warrant, a copy of which was recorded in the London Gazette dated 10th February 1851. These statutory powers were consolidated in 1875 and in consequence the first meeting of the newly constituted Port Sanitary Board for the ports of Falmouth & Truro was held on 28th April 1876 at the Town Hall, Falmouth and was chaired by the Mayor of Falmouth.

 

Dr. Edward Cator Seaton (an ancestor by marriage!), Chief Medical Officer of Health for the Local Government Board published a memorandum in 1878 titled ‘The Systematic Action in use in England to Prevent the Importation of Infectious Disease’ which highlighted the complexity of the Privy Council governing quarantine (to regulate international health) whilst the Local Government Board were responsible for Port Sanitary Authority’s (to regulate local public health).

 

On a similar note the Falmouth and Truro Port Sanitary Authority on the 3rd July 1878 wrote to all port sanitary authorities within the UK, having recognised that their work had a national impact, asking for support in persuading the Local Government Board to provide a greater share of the costs. This action may well have precipitated the formation of what is today the Association of Port Health Authorities founded in 1899 for the very same purpose.

 

 Edward Cator Seaton

  Wellcome Library London

 

On 15th March 1881 the Local Government Board ordered a joint board to be termed the ‘Falmouth & Truro Port Sanitary Authority’ and described the limits of their jurisdiction, powers, liabilities and apportionment of expenses. The expenses were portioned amongst the Sanitary Authority’s electoral districts whose board members sat on the Authority. The Local Government Board issued subsequent Orders in March of 1882, 1883, 1884, 1885, 1886, 1887, and 1888. A local enquiry was held in the Town Hall Falmouth on the 6th June 1887following public advertisement which subsequently led to an Order coming into force on the 29th September 1888 which permanently constituted the Port Sanitary Authority.

 

1892 and 1893 saw the introduction of the Borough of Falmouth Order and Local Government Board Orders, which changed the port limits of the Authority. In addition, the 1893 Local Government Board Order introduced a membership numbering sixteen to replace the previous fifteen members. The membership remained relative to the financial contribution and was to comprise six sixteenths Borough of Falmouth, one sixteenth Borough of Penryn, four sixteenths City of Truro, one sixteenth the Rural Sanitary District of Falmouth Union, one sixteenth the Rural Sanitary District of Helston Union, three sixteenths the Rural Sanitary District of Truro Union.

 

The same year an audit, by the Local Government Board Medical Inspectorate, was carried out by Dr. H. T. Bulstrode on 20th and 21st March. He reported that the Medical Officer Of Health, Dr. King Bullmore, “ is an energetic and strong officer, but he has to carry out his work in the face of an authority who do but little to aid him, and a good deal to make his position a difficult one”. The Port Sanitary Hospital was found to be situated on a well-isolated site overlooking the sea (being situated adjacent to the cemetery at Swan pool now Penance Road, formerly Love Lane), constructed of wood and had two wards of three beds each. A conference was held with the Falmouth & Truro Port Sanitary Authority on 12th May 1893 where four recommendations were made including the necessity for the regular inspection of vessels and the supplementing of a very scanty hospital provision. The authority informed Dr. Bulstrode before the report was published in August and October of 1893 that they had made arrangements for procuring additional land in case of necessity and the erection thereon of tents and had also made arrangements for inspecting medically all vessels from infected ports. At this time the inspector of nuisances was Charles Barnicoat who did not hold a sanitary certificate being part time whilst a mason by trade.

 

Original Isolation Hospital at Swanpool

 

Arguably quarantine was being used as an international tool to enhance trade from 1872 until it was abolished by the Public Health Act 1896 which repealed the Quarantine Act 1825. However, the Public Health (Ports) Act also introduced in 1896 effectively passed the tool ‘of quarantine’ in its broad sense to Port Sanitary Authority’s.    

 

The Local Government Board introduced a further Order in 1898 that detailed the provisions of the workings of the board members and confirmed the duties required to be performed by the Authority under the Public Health Act 1875 and 1890, The Public Health (ships) Act 1885 and the Public Health (Members and Officers) Act 1885.

 

In 1904 agreement was reached between Falmouth Town Council and the Port Sanitary Authority to each provide their own isolation facilities on a joint site at Kergillack, Hill Head, Penryn with the top part of the site being occupied by the Port Sanitary Authority, the site being leased for 100 years at a rent of £12 per year from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. The total cost of the project was £420 being constructed of wood with a corrugated iron roof although not to the specification of the Local Government Board who’s recommendations would have cost in the order of £2-3000.An opening ceremony was held on the last Friday of May 1905.The new hospital had an equally impressive if not better view than the previous site overlooking Falmouth Bay, Estuary and Penryn.

 

                   Port Sanitary Hospital at Hill Head                                                         Smallpox ward and kitchen

 

On the 21st September 1906, The Falmouth & Truro Port Sanitary Authority under the 1875 Public Health Act introduced   it‘s own regulations to enable the removal to hospital of persons arriving by sea infected with a “dangerous infectious disorder”. Vessels with infectious persons on board were obliged to moor in St. Just Pool until the Medical Officer of Health had boarded them.

 

During the 1914-18 war the hospital site was requisitioned by the military authorities for hospital purposes and additional buildings were constructed. At the end of the war the Port Sanitary Authority purchased some of the buildings with the remainder being purchased by the Falmouth Corporation as additional facilities for their respective hospitals.

 

Following the introduction of the Local Government Act 1929, 1934 saw the introduction of the Cornwall Review Order that altered electoral boundaries within Cornwall, which impacted upon some of the Port Sanitary Authorities riparian authorities boundaries. This was followed by the 1936 Public Health Act, which changed the title of Port Sanitary Authorities to Port Health Authorities re-enacting the consolidated powers of the 1875 Act. The 1936 Act together with the Local Government Act 1933 empowered the Minister of Health to make a further order ‘The Falmouth and Truro Port Health Amendment Order’ which was introduced in 1938 to be sited as the ‘Falmouth & Truro Port Orders 1888 to 1938’.This order reaffirmed the application of the Local Government Act 1933 making clear that it was to be considered a “Local Authority” rather than a “parish council” and the limits of the authorities jurisdiction.

 

Mr Frank Jacket was appointed Port Health Inspector on the 1st October 1940 and remained in post until 1968.He held the qualification of the Certificate of the Royal Sanitary Institution, which had been constituted in 1904 having originally been founded in 1876 as the Sanitary Institute.

 

In 1943 the Cornwall C.C. set up isolation hospital facilities to provide treatment to the residents within the whole of Cornwall and thus the Falmouth Corporation’s hospital adjacent to the port health isolation facility continued to be used for non-infectious cases only as well as a disinfecting station.

 

In 1945 J.H. Lake & Co. Ltd. of Market Strand, Falmouth published the Falmouth & Truro Port Health Authority Regulations, which formalised the structure of the Authority. The representation of the Authority at this time was ; The Council of the Borough of Falmouth six sixteenths, the Council of the Borough of Penryn one sixteenth, the Council of the City of Truro four sixteenths, the rural district  council of Kerrier two sixteenths, the rural District Council of Truro three sixteenths.

 

On June the 25th 1948, it was reported that the Chairman and Clerk to the Authority visited the Isolation hospital and found it to be “in good condition”. A “register of patients” is held at the County Archives for the years 1901 to 1948 although it was in use by 1874 until the early 1950’s. Following the National Health Service Act 1946 which introduced the concept of free health treatment the Falmouth Corporation hospital was no longer required whilst the port health isolation hospital was taken over by the Regional Hospital Board. The Falmouth Corporation continued to use the disinfection station until 1949 when the work was transferred to the West Cornwall Hospital Management committee.  The Regional Hospital Board still had an interest in the site on the 31st March 1953, which at that time precluded the Falmouth Corporation from disposing of it. The site is now visible from the A39 Penryn bypass, opened in 1994, having been converted to accommodate three bungalows.

 

Disinfection chamber at Isolation Hospital

 

The principles of the 1969 International Health Regulations that succeeded the 1951 International Sanitary Regulations were incorporated into UK legislation by the 1970 Public Health (Ships) Regulations. These were amended in 1974 and 1978 extending the definitions of “infected ship” and substituting “medical officer” for “authorised officer” being consolidated by the 1979 Regulations.

Following re-organisation of Local Government boundaries in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972 and the introduction of the Control of Pollution Act 1974 a new Falmouth Port Health Authority Order was proposed making clear the new constituent authorities which now only included Carrick and Kerrier District Councils with a representation of fourteen members to two respectively. The financial aspects of the transition had been enabled by The Port Health Authorities (England) Order 1974.to be followed by a more detailed review by the Department of Health which commenced the following year to bring up to date the existing Port Health Orders. However, the new constitution with a large majority favouring Carrick prompted a decision by the Board in 1975 to seek for Carrick District Council to become the Port Health Authority although Kerrier D.C opposed this. In all, five draft orders to revise the authority were submitted by the department of Health for consideration by the constituent authorities but no agreement was reached. The 1979 draft legislation (proposed in 1978) drew attention to the land boundaries and jurisdiction of the Port Health Authority which caused further anxiety with the district Local Authorities so it was not surprising that when the Port Health Officer, Mr David Rye, Member of the Association of Public Health Inspectors (formed in 1957 having evolved from the Association of Public Sanitary Inspectors founded in 1883 together with the National Association), resigned in February 1982 having been in post since 1968, the operational work was contracted out to Carrick D.C.Within the contractual term two consecutive Port Health Officers were nominated “Proper Officer” namely Mr Ian Holmes (Carrick’s Chief Environmental Services Officer)appointed 1st March 1983 followed by Mr John Mellor(Carrick’s Head of Environmental Health Services)on 22nd June 1989 to satisfy legislative requirements whilst the then part time Clerk to the Authority Mr Vivian Eddy(also employee of Carrick D.C. ,but finance dept.) remained in post to oversee the authorities administration.

 

Mr Eddy had been appointed by the authority on the 1st Jan 1977 to succeed Mr Colin Aumayer (another Carrick D.C. Finance Dept. employee) and remained in post until his retirement on 31st Dec 2005 when the position was combined with that of the Chief PHO who became the Chief Executive whilst Karen White, the Senior Administration Officer, became the Responsible Financial Officer, thus satisfying recent auditing requirements.  Mr Douglas Hall who commenced his appointment on 21st Feb 1952 also held the position of Town Clerk, Falmouth and preceded Mr Aumayer who joined the Authority in 1974 at the time of the Local Government re-organisation. Whereas a part time Treasurer, Mr J Odgers (manager, Lloyds Bank, Falmouth) had been appointed in April 1964, the role would seem to have been absorbed by Mr Aumayer and certainly Mr Eddy’s position became known as Clerk and Financial Officer.

 

Meantime, the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984 incorporated the provisions of the previous 1875 and 1936 PH Acts serving to confirm the establishment and functions of port health authorities. The provisions of this legislation supported much of the disputed provisions of the proposed draft port health orders as put forward by the Department of Health which undoubtedly assisted with the introduction of the new Falmouth & Truro Port Health Order which came into force on 1st December 1988 whilst the employees of the PHA and Carrick were currently one of the same. The Board remained with sixteen members in total comprising fourteen representatives form Carrick and two from Kerrier District Councils. A Centenary Dinner was held at the St. Michaels Hotel to commemorate exactly one hundred years from the permanent constitution of the Authority as a joint board as well as celebrating the timely new Order.

 

The contractual agency arrangement with Carrick D.C. remained in place until Feb.1991 when arising from increased shipping activity, a cost analysis exercise lead to a staff review with a return to direct employment, I was appointed Chief Port Health Officer having previously worked for the Authority as a contractor in the employment of Carrick D.C. since 1986.

 

The Association of Port Health Authorities held it’s 92nd Annual Conference in Falmouth with the assistance of the PHA in June , the same year, and fittingly the local historian Peter Gilson was invited to give an after dinner presentation on “Falmouth for Orders”.  The event was such a success that by popular demand the conference was again hosted in 1998.

 

In 1998 following considerable negotiations with the Environment Agency over a new proposed sewage outfall an abatement notice was served on the water company resulting in a judicial review of the Authority which was eventually heard by the Court of Appeal who passed judgement on the 30th March 2000 resulting in new case law which consolidated and reformed over 100 years of case law for the benefit of public health whilst confirming the need for port health authorities to retain what had been perceived as draconian powers.

 

In 1999 the Port Health Authority requested from the Secretary of State through the Department of Health a new order to further extend the boundary of the Port Health Authority to the South and West to encompass the entire coastline of Kerrier and Carrick District Councils and similarly to the north coast thus providing a more robust cost effective service. In addition the number of board members was reduced from sixteen to twelve to streamline the Board’s management. Simultaneously a new headquarters was commissioned with the assistance of European aid that included a border inspection post and marine visitor centre for passengers arriving within the docks primarily to kick-start the developing cruise industry. The border inspection post became a necessity to safeguard local employment in terms of casualty shipping visiting the Docks for repair following the introduction of European legislation introduced in the early 1990’s to control the import of animal protein into Europe from Third Countries (i.e. Those outside the EU) and allow the possible development of cargo handling trade. The building was officially opened by Lady Mary Holborow on 25th August 1999 with a large hand carved mahogany copy measuring 18” across of the Authorities seal by my father Jack Hopson later being presented to further mark the occasion. The Authority still has the original seals pre and post the 1936 Public Health Act. The new order came into force on 1st February 2001 titled the “Falmouth & Truro Port Health Authority (Amendment) Order 2001”. The twelve members consist of eight from Carrick District Council and four from Kerrier District Council.

 

Existing Port Health Authority facilities at Falmouth Docks

 

New International Health Regulations were introduced in 2005 to reflect new emerging disease threats exacerbated by the increase and speed of international travel. They impose a new focus to control the spread of infectious disease with the possible need for an enhanced infrastructure that has yet to be agreed with the Health Protection Agency who were established in 2003 to provide an integrated approach to protecting UK public health.

 

The Government reached it’s conclusions on two tier government following the debate it launched in December 2005, following which an invitation was issued to Local Authorities to make proposals for local unitary government. A bid was submitted by Cornwall County Council in 2007 which found favour with the government and this was quickly followed by ‘The Cornwall (Structural Change) Order 2008’ which paved the way for the six District Councils and the single County Council in Cornwall to form one unitary authority to be called Cornwall Council. At the time of writing the impact of local government re-organisation within Cornwall on Port Health Authorities is not yet known. However logically, at the very least it will involve the existing membership of Kerrier and Carrick District Councils transferring to Cornwall Council members.                                   

 

 

Andrew Hopson

Chief Port Health & Executive Officer

FCIEH, FRSH

Chartered Environmental Health Practitioner

 

November 2008