3 - ‘Good Servants, but Bad Masters’ Fire and Water

Summary

Water we pump, the Copper we must fill,

Or tend the Fire; for if we e'er stand still,

Like you, when threshing, we a Watch must keep,

Our Wort boils over if we dare to sleep.

Mary Collier, The Woman's Labour (1739)

The two elements fire and water were central to early modern life. Without water not only would people and animals go thirsty but a wide range of manufacturing and production processes could not have taken place. Additionally, trade and travel during this period relied critically upon an extensive transport network of internal watercourses and coastal routes. Fire provided heat in winter and an energy source for cooking, baking and brewing all year round. It was also vital to various manufacturing activities. The successful continuity of urban life depended on a good, plentiful and wholesome source of water, and also on regular supplies of fuel in the form of wood or coal. Such commodities underpinned the social and commercial well-being of towns and cities, and the rulers of such places went to considerable lengths to ensure adequate supplies and good and proper uses; but when things went wrong both fire and water could be transformed, sometimes in the blink of an eye, from a benevolent helpmate into a terrifying monster. The risk of injury or death in such circumstances was amplified by the often chaotic environment, higher densities of population and more intensive approach to productive and economic activity found in urban situations.

Of all the physical hazards of life in the pre-modern age, fire was perhaps the greatest and most persistently feared by those who dwelt in towns. The potential danger presented to individuals and the built environment by the universal use of naked flames can hardly be overstated. With even superficial burns presenting a lethal risk, and an absence of effective means to extinguish large-scale fires, the hazard was significant. That larger urban fires were also often spectacular events with long-lasting impacts simply enhanced their perceived threat.

On the other hand, the danger presented by water in the urban environment was somewhat less effectively, or at least more ambiguously, expressed. Aside from the occasional multiple-drowning event, little attention was paid to those who suffered such a fate on an individual basis, yet drowning accounted for the greatest number of sudden violent deaths in early modern London – far more than those associated with fires.