When 56 year old, Robert Haworth, a tobacconist residing at a place  called Church, near Accrington sadly passed away on Wednesday, 7th  February 1906 – the fears of Dr. Fox and Dr. Greenhalgh as well as local  government officials became all too real.

What was originally thought to be cases of isolated food poisoning  that had struck the residents within a small catchment of Accrington at a  place called Woodnook, it would quickly transpire that the numbers were  much higher than originally thought and to the horror of the  authorities and public alike, it wouldn’t just be Accrington that would  be affected.

The first reported cases of ptomaine ‘food’ poisoning appeared in the  Manchester Evening News on the 3rd of February when it appears a large  number of sufferers had been medically treated in the town of  Accrington, more specifically, the Woodnook district.

The Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Greenhalgh, had visited all those  affected and it seemed they all had one thing in common. Upon  investigating further, all those who had become ill had consumed locally  bought tinned ‘potted meat’, which in this case was pork. Being an  affordable source of meat which was already precooked, it had a long  shelf life, making it suitable as an emergency food supply should  families struggle long term financially, as it can be bought and the  stored for when needs must.

What at first seemed to be a straight forward case, Dr. Greenhalgh,  having soon identified the cause of the wholesale poisoning to that of  the potted meat, it didn’t take long for him to find the source of the  supply.

However, many more people would soon become ill, with entire families  suffering from the effects. In the family of James Annis there were  four sufferers; the mother and three children and even the family cat  which had been fed some of the meat suffered the same fate! All of them  were suffering from distressing stomach pains which were accompanied by  vomiting and diarrhea.

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