The Hastings and St. Leonards pamphlet : being abstracts of reports of the London and local press on the new drainage system of Hastings and St. Leonards : also scientific and statistical information in reference to the water supply, health and death-rate, and climate of the borough of Hastings / by John Charles Savery.

Savery, John Charles.

Date:: 1868

Credit: The Hastings and St. Leonards pamphlet : being abstracts of reports of the London and local press on the new drainage system of Hastings and St. Leonards : also scientific and statistical information in reference to the water supply, health and death-rate, and climate of the borough of Hastings / by John Charles Savery. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

17/68 page 15

$It is soniewliat veninrkaLle that the more ancient portion of the borough -was, \iutil quite recently, the better drained. A rude system of sewers was here in operation, flushed twice a week from a pond situate at the upper part of the town. ]?iit in the newer parts cesspools Avere all but universal, and Avhen drains were first made they were devised to carry off the surface water, and.it was l)ositively forbidden to discharge foul matter into them lest they should be choked thereby. In the houses facing the sea it was then customaiy to keep a tuh for solid refuse, and to empty the contents daily on the beach. In 1856 the evils of such an imperfect system became unbearable, and the town was drained at a cost of £16, 000 on a system adapted to the natural levels. But the effect was simply to transfer the entire pollution of the town to the sands. The sewage was discharged immediately in front of the most fashion- able quarters. The hollows of the beach were frequently fiUed with filthy mud, to the infinite disgust of bathers, Avhose comjilaiuts some two or three years ago bid fair to destroy the reputation of the place. Moreover, the sewers were open to the sea, wliich, at high tides, advanced and filled them in some cases for a length of half a mile from the outlet, and the mixture of sewage and sea water caused a deposit which choked the smaller drains, and gene- rated oficnsivc gases, which were forcibly driven into the houses of the upper portion of the town. These gases became a continual source of fever. Ugly rumours went abroad, and the inhabitants, threatened mth a loss of their prosperity, and stimulated by the rivali-y of other imjiortant bathing places, set aboiit the adoption of remedial measures. In this they seem to have been particxilarly fortunate in securing the services of a most competent local engi- neer, and of a contractor ready to do the necessary Avork on the lowest possible terms, because he is himself—as an oMTier of house property—most deeply interested in the result. This is most appa- rent from the fact that the highest tender for the works required £49,000, and tliat they have been satisfactorily completed by Mr. Howell for £26,000. A main intercepting sewer has been con- structed on the frontage of the town, connnencing at St. Leonard's Archway, and terminating in a tank at the eastern suburb. This tank is capable of holding 1,500,000 gallons of sewage, and is emptied into the sea by means of a 4-feet iron culvert half a mile long, the extremity of which is perpetually ujider water. The tank is discharged twice a day at low Avater, when the current of$

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