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
Catalogue details

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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    At Buxhall some dwellings are provided with water-closets, and the drainage from these houses—not including surface water, which is removed separately—passes by a sewer across the adjoin- ing road to a cesspool situated, at a considerable distance from the houses, by the side of a pond in a meadow. The cesspool over- flows into the pond, and the latter has, in course of time, become converted into a fair-sized lagoon of black sludge. In other places in the district, here and there, drainage pipes for house-slops have been connected with road-drains, but there is no public sewerage in the proper sense of the term. House-drainaye.—In the urban part of Stow Upland most of the houses are provided with drains for house-sloj^s which are connected with the public sewer; but there are a few dwellings situated beyond the limit of the sewer and at a level too low to admit of connection with the sewer. There are two such houses on the Newton Road, and the drains of these discharge into a cesspool, in the garden, which was overflowing and a nuisance, at the time of my visit. At Combs Ford some of the dwellings have drainage for slop- refuse which is discharged into the sewer. The drainage of houses at Haughley and Buxhall has already been referred to above. House drains communicating with the sewers are usually provided with vent pipes, and many of them with inspection chambers. Elsewhere, throughout the district, drains for house-slops are either altogether absent, or communicate when provided with cess- pools, ditches, or ordinary road drains. In the former case—and there are very many houses entirely without drains-—bumby- holes ” in gardens are in use in some places, while in other places slops are thrown on the surface or into adjacent ditches. Nuisances arising from this cause are, nevertheless, less frequent than would be expected, and few such nuisances were observed at the time of my inspection. At Buxhall nuisance was noted in one instance from absence of drainage, slop-water being thrown into a channel near a back door and conveyed to an adjacent ditch; and at Old Newton fouling of a ditch through the discharge from a cottage drain was observed, but in this case the ditch had been cleaned out, and the owner had the matter in hand. As a rule houses of the working class have outside drains only; occasionally they have sinks in the dwelling which discharge over traps in the open air. Gulley traps are in use, but there are also many iron dip-traps which are not usually regarded as of a satisfactory character. Excrement Disposal.—In the urban portion of Stow Upland all the houses are provided with water-closets of the short hopper type. Many of these are hand-flushed, and of these some were observed to be in a dirty state through insufi&cient attention. To tlie occupiers of dwelling's to wliich water is laid on there is, I am informed, no extra cliarge for supply to a single water-closet; l)iit an extra charge is made for each additional closet. In these circumstances there can be no sufficient excuse for failing to supply flushing cisterns.
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