MY recent article about Greenock’s old cemetery in Inverkip Street referred to an application in 1816 for its extension to Duncan Street.

I mentioned it was fortunate a larger burial ground had been created when the town’s death rate increased due to epidemics of fever, smallpox and cholera in the 1830s.

The cholera outbreak of 1832 caused around 2,000 deaths. The following decade saw a typhus epidemic in 1847 claim 353 lives.

Aside from epidemics, many people were dying because of appalling living conditions.

In the 1860s an official called the Government Inspector stated: “The excessive mortality was due to the deaths of children, who are produced in remarkable numbers.

“In every poor man’s room in Greenock the atmosphere is fetid.

“The action of the authorities in sanitary matters until lately scarcely extended beyond the paving of the town and the construction of main sewers. Very little attention was paid to the homes of the poor until the appointment of the present Inspector of Nuisances in 1863.

“Powers should be obtained to make new streets through the crowded parts, and to pull down houses that impede ventilation.

“Out of hundreds of lodging houses 15 only are licensed and the rest are well known to be in a deplorable condition of dirt and overcrowding.”

Greenock Corporation was among the first in the country to adopt the Artisans’ and Labourers’ Act of 1876.

It led to the demolition of 605 houses deemed unfit for habitation in lower parts of the town, and the construction of what were described as working-class tenements.

Living conditions for the poor did improve, and there was a marked decrease in mortality. Greenock had finally acted to lose its reputation as the most unhealthy town in Scotland.