Report to the General Board of Health on a preliminary inquiry into the sewerage, drainage, and supply of water, and the sanitary condition of the inhabitants of the town of Newmarket / by Geo. T. Clark, Superintending Inspector.

  • George Thomas Clark
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report to the General Board of Health on a preliminary inquiry into the sewerage, drainage, and supply of water, and the sanitary condition of the inhabitants of the town of Newmarket / by Geo. T. Clark, Superintending Inspector. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    11/18
    •/#, we f4\^< s «*, dean. Swat the Moaltoi: ys-pond, at the] he filled np, la; icli ail the hoaie iproach ko the la few Terr dirt? he drainaje fills C re aresoneL the want off a;.. hJ iSainU [hiilaiis sererai each of If of I on the 2 own of Newmarket. , 9 le. The premises are dirty, and the drains smell most ofTcn- lively. A privy drain passes under the floor of one house, and he soil is collected in an open pit, complained of by the whole 'ard. Bowel complaints have been frequent here; in fact the dace is almost as bad as the yard behind the Post Office already lentioncd. 38. Malting-house-yard and the adjacent premises are badly lolf for privies, and the stench from bad drains is most offensive. [These nuisances close up Colonel Anson’s property on one side, as does the town ditch on the other. 39. This Town-ditch is the chief nuisance in Newmarket, and [is thus referred to in the petition :— “There is an open ditch, running across the centre of the said town, and close to the main, or High-street, into which a sewer empties itself, such ditch being also made the receptacle of great masses of filth, and the same is, during hot weather, and at other times, so offensive as to be extremely prejudicial to health.” South of High-street this ditch is open. It commences at the end of Mr. Isaacson’s garden nearest the street, dividing it from Col. Anson’s, and that of the Jockey Club, and receives from the latter privy and house drainage. It passes beneath an arch under High-street, and runs, open and dreadfully offensive, between lines of houses built upon it, to the bridge on the Exning road. At this part, in Braham’s cottages, has occurred recently the only case at all resembling cholera. From the road downwards, behind Lord Exeter’s and Mr. Phillips’s premises, this ditch is covered over as far as the Sandpit-lane ; below this it is again open, and most offensive. It is a marvel how any town can have allowed so serious a nuisance to remain open in its very centre. It is difficult by words to convey a just idea of its appearance; but the amount of disease produced by it, and the depreciation of valuable property on its line, were stated to me on the spot by various competent persons. ' 40. Sewers and Drains.—The petitioners state— “ That the public sewers of the town are in a noxious and dan- gerous state, for the want of the due cleansing thereof.” 41. I have received from Mr. J. F. Clark, architect and sur veyor, a report, from which the following is an extract:— “ The common sewer commences opposite the Bull Inn, and dis- charges itself into the watercourse which intersects the centre of the High-street. This common sewer is 4 feet in height, and is two-thirds full of depos t. The common sewer, above the watercourse, running from the top of the Iligh-.street, eastward, is a 2-feet barrel drain, and is in a good state. The corMnon sewer running from the old work- house down the Sun-lane, is 3 feet in diameter, and discharges itself into the 4-feet sewer in the street, and was laid down last year to re- ceive the surface water from the adjoining lands and parishes; there are, however, about four drains for sewage discharging into it from the adjoining houses.