Dirt, Disease & Death: A tour of Comber's Medical History

Take a walk back in time with Dr Rebecca Watterson and discover how Comber people faced disease, death, and the Doctor! From smallpox to cholera, surgery to quackery, this tour covers birth, death, and everything in between!

This guided tour will tell the stories of those people who lived in this once-rural town learning to face the ever-changing landscape of disease that came with the Industrial Revolution. Disease outbreaks, poverty, and dangerous working conditions were a part of the daily life of the people of Comber. Without the NHS, exactly how did this community manage ill health? What diseases were ravaging the town? Did working conditions have an impact on people’s health? What did they die from? Did class and economic circumstance have an impact on how people experience illness and medicine?

Medical history is an often forgotten but important part of the story of individual lives and of communities. Medicine has often been considered heroic and ever-progressing, but its history can sometimes be darker and more nuanced.

Everyone who lived and working in Comber was a part of its medical history. Learn more about their lives and experiences of health, medicine, and death on Comber’s first medical history walking tour.

This event is free but please reserve a ticket through www.comberhistory.com