[Report 1892] / Medical Officer of Health, Isle of Wight Rural District Council.

  • Isle of Wight (England). Rural District Council. n 83204987.
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: [Report 1892] / Medical Officer of Health, Isle of Wight Rural District Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    65/70 (page 65)
    are about to carry out the work at an estimated cost of about £500. At a place called Buddie Hole there are very strong springs, and this should be the site of the reservoir; but the owner of Brighstone Mill claims the right to prevent water being taken from the head of the stream. The purchase of the mill at a price, the sinking fund and interest of which would be provided by the rent and the balance of the water income, would meet the difficulty. The improvement in the sanitary condition of Shorwell Shorwell. continues. Some of the inhabitants drink from the stream which is polluted almost to its source. A private pump to the north of the village supplies several cottages from the Upper Greensand. The head of the stream is formed by very strong Upper Greensand springs on private grounds within the village. It would be a very simple and comparatively inexpensive matter to give Shorwell an independent supply of water. At Blackgang, the majority of the houses are supplied [{]1ialc]1jsans and independently from the Upper Greensand Cliff, and their sewage finds its way to the shore, via Blackgang Chine. Chale, on the Gault, may be supplied with the water it so much needs, from the same formation. With the exception of one or two gutter nuisances at Chiiierton and X Cy ^ i l Chiiierton, which recur occasionally, the sanitary condition of 7‘1 com e‘ Chiiierton and Gatcombe is greatly improved as regards obvious nuisances. Situated in valleys of the Upper Greensand, water is abundant, but the wells are nearly all “ dip ” wells, and are not sufficiently protected. The provision of an independent water supply for Gunville Gunville and i jl * Forest Side and Forest Side should have been made by your Authority. The benefit of the supply is limited in certain places in which you have been negligent of your duty in this respect, because the rate insisted on is larger than that permitted by the Act, and, consequently, you cannot compel owners to lay on the water to their cottages. In Gunville, many of the tenements are small, and the water rate charged by the Corporation of Newport is prohibitive in many instances. It is upon the poor cottagers that the suffering falls, and the subject ought to engage your very serious attention. With the water main running through Gunville Lane, carrying water obtained in the parish, and at the cost of the water supply of the parish, for the wells are being lowered in parts of it, it is lamentable to see persons—sometimes old and decrepit, sometimes children, sometimes poor women worn with the labour of a large family—toiling a quarter-of-a-mile with buckets to get impure water from “ dip ” holes by the roadside. When water is supplied outside their District by an Urban Authority, it should be done through the Authority of the District