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 Braintree / by Edward Cresy, Superintending Inspector.

  • Cresy, Edward, 1792-1858.
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

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 Braintree / by Edward Cresy, Superintending Inspector. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    12/22 (page 12)
    and for an abundant supply of pure water; it now communicates?* by a railway, via Witham, with the metropolis, and there is every reason to expect, that the land around the railway station, whicn . is to be disposed of in small plots, will soon be taken by builders.^ and it will be a matter of regret, if in the several streets whiclil are set out, a better arrangement for the supply of water andi sewage be not made than is usually observable for the smaller class of tenements. The town is placed upon the side of a hill, whose ridge formai the upper part, the ground falling on both sides, and very rapidly, towards the rivers at no great distance from this high ground.! One of these rivers is the Pant or Blackwater (the Indumania ob the Romans), the Hoppitt, which afterwards flows on to Withamj In Domesday-book the town is called Raines and Branchtrue, the< former probably of British, the other of Saxon derivation. Morant,^ in his history, seems to think the latter name signifies a town on aa rising hill, or the bank between two rivers, which bank separates^ Booking from Braintree. From the road wliich traverses its- summit, a view is obtained over the two towns, as well as through i their respective valleys, which are fertile pastures of no greatt width. Drainage at present.—^We shall now proceed to detail thee' condition and present state of drainage. There is a flat-bottomedl brick drain 21 inches wide, covered with a segment of the samee material, which runs from near the Horse and Groom public-- house in the Raine road, continues by Sandford's Pond-lane, thenii on the north side of the churchyard wall, passing the vicarage,', down Pond-end, to the bottom of Hodges garden; discharging: itself into a celebrated ditch called Crocker's-hole, which receives^ all the filth of the town. This drain about 30 years ago was am open water-course. Another brick drain, with a flat bottom 9 or 10 inches wide,, covered with an oak plank, is placed a few inches only below the? surface of the road, it commences somewhere in New-street,, passes through Back-lane, across the great square, under audi through several gardens, at the back of the gas-works, where it; receives the ammoniacal liquor, and a little further, or under the- large 21-inch drain above described, at a place called Pond End.. The privies connected with these two drains are all without; cesspools, and discharging their contents at once into them : the consequence is truly disagreeable, every place being infected by the noxious gases, which arise from the putrid matter they contain.. No flushing ever takes place except during heavy rains, when i the sewers frequently burst; and the effects are deplorable in the- streets as well as in the houses. Another brick drain commences at the back of the Freemasons' Lodge, in High-street, passes near the office of the registrar, ther