Dr. Reginald Farrar's report to the Local Government Board on the sanitary circumstances and administration of the borough of Pontefract.

Farrar, Reginald Anstruther, 1861-1921.

Date:: 1910

Credit: Dr. Reginald Farrar's report to the Local Government Board on the sanitary circumstances and administration of the borough of Pontefract. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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$2IS kept. In one of them (Barber’s) water-closets and sanitary bins had recently been installed in substitution for privy-middens. A new code of by-laws in respect of common lodging houses, repealing former by-laws adopted in 1878, was sanctioned on February 12th, 1909, but had not come into force at the time of my visit. In some instances, beds for married couples were not screened off from one another, as is required by the new by-laws. Dairies, Cowsheds, and Milkshops.—‘There are 32 registered eowkeepers, dairymen, and purveyors of milk in the borough. I visited nine of the largest farms and one or two milkshops. The majority of the cowsheds I saw were clean, adequate in respect of cubic accommodation, well paved, light, airy and well ventilated. A few of these have recently been remodelled by the Duchy of Lancaster. I found one cowshed in which the beasts were over- crowded, and in this instance the ceiling was in bad repair and leaky : another cowshed, which was very ill-ventilated, contained nine cows, of which one was ill and emaciated, its appearance suggesting general tuberculosis including udder disease. On the whole, the condition of dairies, milkshops, and cowsheds in the borough appeared to be good, and I was informed that several of the worst cowsheds, on which Dr Kaye commented unfavourably in 1902, either were no longer in use or had been pulled down and re-constructed since that date. Slaughter-houses.—There were 15 registered slaughter-houses in the borough at the time of my visit; two of these had, however, been closed, and one was in course of re-building. This latter had a midden privy and a large over-full manure heap in close proximity to it; I recommended that these should be required to be removed. I visited about half-a-dozen other slaughter-houses, and found them cleanly kept and, save that repairs were needed to the flooring or to the pavement of the curtilage in one or two instances, in satisfac- tory condition. Under Section 59 of the Pontefract Corporation Act, 1906, the Corporation have acquired powers to establish a. public slaughter- house and to secure the disuse of private slaughter-houses upon such terms and conditions as may be arranged between the parties, provision being made for arbitration in cases of dispute. So far they have not availed themselves of their power in this respect. Provision for dealing with cases of infectious disease.—There is an isolation hospital, opened in 1902, which serves jointly the Borough of Pontefract, the Pontefract Rural District and the Knottingley Urban District, and is the property of a Joint Hospital Board composed of representatives of these districts: it stands at Chequers Field, a well-isolated site 2 acres 7 perches in area, about a mile from the centre of the borough. The hospital build- ings, which are enclosed by a brick boundary wall 6 ft. 6 in. high, comprise :— Administration block, containing 10 bed-rooms, 2 sitting-rooms, kitchen, scullery, and quarters for a married couple acting as porter and portress ; Pavilion block, containing tAVO wards of 12 and 4 beds respec- tively, and a ward kitchen ; a bath-room communicating on one$