Dr. W.W.E. Fletcher's report to the Local Government Board upon the sanitary circumstances and administration of the East Stow Rural District.
- Fletcher, Wilfred W. E.
- Date:
- 1912
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Dr. W.W.E. Fletcher's report to the Local Government Board upon the sanitary circumstances and administration of the East Stow Rural District. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![giivS engines in tlie ease of Stow [Jpland, and electricity in the case of Combs Ford, to sewage disposal works situated in the rural district, and owned jointly by the Stowmarket Urban and the East Stow Rural Districts. The sewers for the parts of these two parishes which have been designated are of modern construction, and the work was effected by means of loans sanctioned by the Board. In vStow Upland there are three ventilation shafts of a height of 30 feet, and 9 inches in diameter. At the sewage disposal works, which are under the supervision of Mr. Lingwood, the surveyor of Stowmarket Urban District, the sewage, after being pumped up both from the rural district and from Stowmarket, passes through a screening chamber to one or other of two filters, where it is dealt with by upward filtration, thence to a broad irrigation area on the sewage farm, which com- prises some 30 acres, and is used mainly for growing beets for feeding stock, and withies for basket and hamper- makers. The sludge from the filters is from time to time drawn ofi and run into trenches, dug out on the farm, in which it is left exposed for a time to dry, and is afterwards covered up. The contour of the land surface is such that sewage can be dis- tributed over the upper part of the farm and the effluent sub- sequently distributed over a lower portion. The final effluent from the land passes into watercourses which discharge into the River Dipping. At the time of my visit the farm was in good order, the final effluent was bright and clear, and the streams into which it was being discharged afforded no ground for complaint. There appears, however, to be some doubt as to whether the whole of the dry-weather flow is, or is not, always pumped to the sewage-works.^ There is not any other systematic sewerage in the district, but tiiere are attempts at such provision at Haughley and, to some extent, at Buxhall. At the former village the drains from dwell- ings on both sides of the street discharge house-slops into open street channels, of which some complaint is occasionally made. The channels finally discharge the sewage into an open ditch running at right angles to the line of the houses and passing beyond them to the fields. This ditch was in a filthy condition, and contained a considerable deposit of black sludge, the deposit extending for some length along the ditch, and undoubtedly causing a nuisance at no great distance from dwellings. Recently an application for a loan has been made to the Local Government Board by the Stowmarket Urban District Council for the purpose of relaying the sewers, constructed of butt-pipes, in certain streets of Stowmarket. The loan has been refused, I understand, on the grounds that, (1) the scheme does not embrace all the streets in the town in which the sewers are faulty ; (2) the receiving tank, into which the sewage of Stowmarket passes before it is pumped up to the farm, does not afford sufficient storage capacity, and sometimes overflows, causing pollution of the River Dipping ; and (3) the Board’s Engineering Inspector, who held the inquiry, was not satisfied with the filters at the sewage farm. He considered that they required improvement and enlarge- ment so as to deal with the whole of the sewage, and not merely with the ])ortion pumped up to the sewage works, the remainder being allowed to flow into the River Dipping untreated. He described the land and effluent from the farm as being “ in good order,” and the effluent itself as “ satisfactory.”](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28143188_0008.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
