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 Bridgend / by Geo. T. Clark, Superintending Inspector.

George Thomas Clark

Date:: 1850

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 Bridgend / by Geo. T. Clark, Superintending Inspector. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$drained very badly. There is a great want of privy accommodation, and much difficulty in obtaining a supply of water, there not being a public pump in the town. 19. The petitions from each division of the town, state— That the larger portion of the town is altogether undrained, and the remainder is drained imperfectly and insufficiently. That the greater number of the poorer class of houses are not provided with privies, and by many of the inhabitants water (and that often impure), can only be obtained from a river at a considerable distance. 20. I have received also from the vicar of Newcastle, who has paid much attention to the physical condition of the town, a letter, from which the following is an extract: — In the first place, very many (or rather nearly all) of the cottages are without privies, and where they do exist, they are used in common by several families. I believe the general habit of the people is either to make use of chamber vessels at home in their crowded and ill-venti- lated rooms, or to resort to some secluded spots near their dwellings, where no provision is made for hiding or carrying off the nuisance thus caused. Ashes and other refuse from the house are kept on the premises, or on the sides of the streets, in heaps, until the potato planting season, when they are removed and used as manure. During the whole year these heaps are the receptacle of all the slops and tilth of the house. Scarcely any house has a drain from it; open street-drains are the only channels for carrying off the rain-water from the roofs, as well as all liquid manure from the houses. The water used for all purposes is brought from the river, which is at a considerable distance from the upper part of the town, and is often not of the purest kind. With regard to burials in the churchyard, the average number for the last ten years amount to only 14. The ground is not crowded, and the depth tolerably good. 21. The following statement was made to me by the Super- intendent of Police :— Newcastle Lower, Houses with privies . . , ] 33 Houses without privies . . 52 185 Coity Lower. Houses with privies , . . 252 Houses without privies . . 112 ■ 364 Total ... 549 Water is in general supplied to the houses from the river by females, who are employed to carry it in pails, containing from six to eight gallons, and for which they are paid at the rate of \d. per pail. Persons not provided with privies are in the habit of throwing the$