Abstract
Statutory nuisance is a concept that originated in the huge changes and adverse environmental conditions brought about during the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain. It was fundamental to the social legislation that was first enacted in the 1840s and 1850s, and which continued into the twentieth century in the Public Health Act of 1936. Some of this early sanitary legislation continues in the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (‘EPA 1990’), either virtually unaltered from its original formulation or in an amended form; some early formulations are to be found in other legislation, such as the Building Act 1984.