William Nuttall

Surgeon - Taylor & Nuttall, 75 Market Street, Little Lever.

Qualified as a doctor in 1890. Worked in Little Lever from 1894 until 1926. Medical Officer of Health from 1926.

Represented Stopes Ward from 1895.

When he was first on the Council the public sanitation situation in Little Lever was appalling. There were many privy middens and unpaved backyards. Sewage used to percolate through the soil and contaminate the water supply. This was the cause of frequent typhoid outbreaks. In one street alone in 12 months there were 5 cases of typhoid in 12 houses.

It was his chief aim to improve the health of the district and he gave the Medical Officer of Health, Doctor J S Pickford, every assistance he could in his fight for better sanitation. He suggested the whitewashing of the inside of the privy middens while conversions were being carried out to repel the scourge of flies. He didn't expect any results but it would illustrate, as a form of propaganda, the importance of waging war on the insects. By 1926 conditions had improved beyond recognition.

He was Chairman of the Higher Education and Finance Committees.

He was also the authority's representative on the Joint Gas Board and the Farnworth Joint Hospital Board until the Council ceased to be represented - something that the Farnworth Journal said he was responsible for when there was a dispute between Little Lever and the Hospital Authority concerning children and convalescence.

He was one of the first 2 permanent Magistrates to be appointed for Little Lever.

He was a Trustee of Ainsworth Chapel. In 1926 he forecast Little Lever would be amalgamated with another authority within 2 years and thought "Ainsworth" would be better than "Radcliffe."

The heading of his obituary was "Medical Pioneer."

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