| Administrative history | An Act of 1745 (19 George II cap.5) ("An Act to prevent the spreading of distemper now raging among horned cattle") and later continuing and amending Acts enabled rules and regulations to be made to prevent the spread of disease. It was the responsibility of the Justices in Quarter Sessions to administer both these Acts and Orders of the Privy Council in London. The North Riding Justices were making rules under such Acts and Orders from 1748 to 1752, presumably while cattle plague was rife in the North Riding. These rules were mostly concerned with the regulation or prohibition of the sale and movement of cattle and raw hides in the Riding, the closure of markets and fairs, the prevention of movement of cattle in the Riding, and arrangements for the payment of compensation, together with the appointment of inspectors to enforce these orders.
Further serious outbreaks of cattle plague took place in the years following 1865 and the Justices of the Peace in Quarter Sessions were again empowered to appoint inspectors, to arrange for diseased cattle to be compulsorily slaughtered, and to pay compensation.
The responsibility for the registration of cowkeepers and dairymen was added by the Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act of 1878 (41 & 42 Victoria cap. 74) and the Dairies, Cowsheds and Milkshops Order of 1879
Further information about the Justices' responsibility for the prevention of the spread of cattle plague may be found in the North Riding Record Office's Annual Report for 1968 |