‘ After the Romans Left Britain the Progress They Had Made in Public Health Did Not Continue’ Do You Agree Explain Your Answer. (16 Marks)

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‘ After the Romans left Britain the progress they had made in public health did not continue’ Do you agree? Explain your answer. (16 marks) When the Romans left Britain it was difficult for their progress in public health to continue. This was because they took their knowledge and expertise with them. For example, there were no longer any engineers left who knew how to build or maintain aqueducts. This meant that when these structures broke they couldn’t be fixed, and so over time there was less provision for clean water. The local population used the stone from the bath houses and other structures to build their own homes as there was less emphasis on public health. The new rulers of Britain did not think it was as important as the Romans had. By 1350 there were some quite serious public health problems in towns, where the lack of fresh water and drainage was a problem which caused the water to be contaminated by other sources and was not healthy to drink. The government were not willing to donate funds to fixing this problem because they did not think it was their job to improve public health, but sometimes they passed laws requiring people to keep the streets clean especially in times when disease was common however these laws were difficult to enforce. Therefore, the Romans’ progress was not maintained. Meanwhile, animal excrement was common in the street and butchers slaughtered their animals and threw the remains on the streets which lead to disease and germs causing people to get sick. All this suggests that during the middle ages there was no progress in public health and that the standard of public health had gone backwards especially in the towns and cities. Furthermore, some things that the Romans did, did have a long term impact. For example, in the Middle Ages some town councils still offered public toilets and baths, in the form of stewes where the

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