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To turn from this brief glimpse of the social and physical structure
of the little town a hundred years ago to its cultural and moral pattern
an aspect which in the nature of things is intimately linked with any
community's attitude towards hygiene - would be difficult were it not
that Mr. James Dean, long resident in Tottenham, an agricultural engineer,
surveyor and property owner, and a man who had held many public offices
in the parish, obligingly compiled a short pamphlet in 1843 entitled
"Tottenham and its Institutions." His primary object was to record the
great number and variety of philanthropic and provident societies, endowed
charities and denominational day and Sunday schools to be found in the
place. The list was a substantial one. There was the Garden Allotment
Society which provided garden plots "for the respectable and industrious
labourer"; the Accumulating Fund Society - really a Building Society
"to induce small tradesmen to become provident"; the Savings Bank "under
the management of sixty-three gentlemen of the parish" to encourage providence
in the lower classes; the Ladies Bible Society and the Church of
England Book Lending Library and Clothing Club; the Provident Sick Society
and the Lying-in Charity; the Mechanics Library; the Society for Encouraging
Industries; the Temperance Society; three separate Almshouse
Funds; the free grammar school and various schools for boys and girls
supported as separate enterprises by five religious denominations; two
infants' schools "to provide useful instruction and careful discipline
for the younger children of the poor for a few hours a day while the parents
earn something to supply the wants of their families " a formidable volume,
indeed, of social services, without taking into account the well regulated
poor relief which the ratepayers were providing under the reformed Poor
Law. One drawback, as Mr Dean called it, in his parish's near-perfect
social system lay in "the fluctuations in the manufacturing processes;
at one time active and flourishing and the people get wages and live well,
at another time the works are still, distress ensues, immorality abounds
and the land and houses have to bear the burden of relief," He concludes,
nevertheless, that "few parishes are better off than Tottenham and nowhere
are the blessings of Providence more bountifully bestowed upon the poor
and the needy of good character by the prosperous and rich."
In regard to the general administration of the parish Mr. Dean could
give an almost equally favourable account. The clergy "are earnest and
exemplary"; the two resident magistrates "upright and merciful"; the
parochial officers "perform their several duties efficiently and economically
and there is no expenditure of any sort that does not undergo the
strictest scrutiny." Within recent years too, there had been a number
of progressive developments in the conduct of local affairs. Much parish
business of various kinds, formerly conducted under the centuries old
system of vestry rule, had been deflected, in the main with the approval
of the ratepayers, to newly established "ad hoc" bodies, each of sufficient
independence to levy its own rate. In 1833, for example, the inadequate
parish constabulary had been absorbed by the Metropolitan Police and the
parish now enjoyed "a well regulated police" of a sergeant and twelve