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 Eton / by Edward Cresy, Superintending Inspector.
- Edward Cresy
- Date:
- 1849
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 Eton / by Edward Cresy, Superintending Inspector. Source: Wellcome Collection.
6/20 page 4
![ordinary level of the water in the ditches, on the west and a sides of the town. The houses on each side of the High-street are about 75. number; 300 smaller habitations arc situated in narrow stre< and courts, which branch out, from the ])rincipal fhorouglifa, in the direction of one or other of the ditches already alluded At Eton Wick, at the end of the parish, are several otb small tenements, without drainage or a proper supyjly of watci they amount to upwards of 40 in number, and the open ditch) which have at one time carried away the drainage towau the Common, are stopped up at the lower end, and are in gc sequence in a very bad state. 2. Geological Stratification.— The River Thames, aff passing through a rich and fertile district, flows along one si of the parish of Eton. The valley of the Thames abounds with almost every varic of soil. Sands, clay, marly, and chalky limestones, form t' basis of the deposits ai-ound Eton, and these are oftentin so mixed as at first sight to appear as one mass and not deji sited in lamina or regular beds. The eminence of the cha: on which stands the Castle at Windsor, forms a bold promc taryon one side of Eton^ and formerly might have extend more into the valley, and dammed up the river into the fo i of a lake, where under its broad expanse, the present Broo and fertile soil above Eton were slowly deposited. 3. From the turn made in the course of the river, by li chalk promontory before alluded to, which crosses the vaL below Eton, it is very difficult to determine the natural dir; tion^ to which the Avaters beneath the soil tend, or in otli words, that of the plane upon which they lie, and drain fro? in all probability, before the weir was thrown across the m.: stream, the inclination of the surface of the land was towaii the south. At present it has several directions given to.i either by art, or by obstructions which have been made to 1* ordinary flowing of the water. 4. The quantity of kain which falls upon the 26| acres> land, may annually amount to 2,500,000 cubic feet, the greai portion of which at present passes into the Thames; the wh soil of Eton being generally saturated with water/except af: very long continuance of dry weather, there can be no abso: ! tion ; hence what falls during a continued rain, for the mi part flows away. The only drainage of the land in the ncij. bourhood of the town, is by open ditches, which are in a v( ^ improper condition, and by no means calculated efficiently^ carry away the pluvial waters. The prevailing winds are from the south and south-wc( and in the direction of the valley through which the no ■ Thames takes its course.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b20423342_0010.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
