Volume 2

First-[second] report of the Royal Sanitary Commission.

  • Great Britain. Royal Sanitary Commission
Date:
1869-1874
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: First-[second] report of the Royal Sanitary Commission. 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.

    244/418 (page 224)
    Constitution of Local Board. Qns. 1, 8-12. Districts. 2.7, 49-50. Officers. Medical Advice. Inspection. 13-15, 19. Hospital Acconmioda- tion. Treatment, &c., of Disease. 16-18, 20-28. Sewerage, &c. 29-34. Water Supply, &c. 35-38, 57. 15. Bowness. (Westmoreland). Acts adopted under § 12, Jtme 1867. Boundaries of dis- trict previously settled by order of Home Secre- tary. Provisional order under § 17, in- corporating a portion of a turn- pike road, made 9th Nov. 1868, and confirmed by 32 & 33 Vict, c. 124. The district comprises apart ot the township of Undermilbeck. A. (besides water) 825. R. V. - £6733 5 0 P. 1,312. H. D. R. (not known). There is no adjoining dis- trict which should be included. Clerk, Treasurer, Surveyor, who is also Inspector of nuisances and pleasure boats and Collector of rates. No district health officer; no In- spector vmder the Factory or Workshops Acts; no Certi- fying Surgeon. No advice from a medical source. No regular sys- tem of inspec- tion. No inspection of food. No contribution to hospi- tals. No disinfecting. Infected patients are not removed. Coroner not a medical man (a solicitor). No registration of disease. The place being small, the Board trusts to its members hearing of any outbreak of epidemic immediately it takes place. There has been no necessity to act since the Act was adopted. No record of death pub- lished. No outbreak of disease since 1853.) No unhealthy district. Public sewerage sufficient, the district having been tho- roughly drained by the Local Board. The district lies on a solid rock. Sewej-s ventilated by man-holes, in which charcoal is placed. Sewers and house draiyis are trapped. Sewage is discharged into Lake Windermere after being passed through char- coal, and means taken to pre- vent a nuisance. Houses generally have water- closets which drain into the sewers; some few have cess- pools, which are not deodorized. Water supply is by wells at present, butan Act has lately been obtained for supplying water from a stream sup- posed to be pure. RainfaU is utilized privately. Present water supply is not sufficient in quantity, but good in quality. There are tenements without water, § 76 P. H. A. and 51 L. G. A. have not been acted upon. No works havebeen attempted 16. Brainitree. (Essex). P. H. Act applied in 1850 by order in Council upon petition of the inhabitants. The district is contermi- nous with the parish of Braintree. A. - - 2,242 0 0 R. V. - £13,882 0 0 P. - 4,620 D. R. (not known). There is an adjoining populous place called BocKiNG End, which ought to form part of Braintree district; any proposal to annex it would meet the violent opposition of all owners and occupiers. Clerk (salary not fixed). Trea- surer (no salary), Surveyor and Inspector, 104Z. Collector, 2 per cent, on amount collected. No advice from a medical source. No regular in- spection. No contribution to hos- pitals. . No hospital in district. No disinfecting. Coroner is a solicitor. No special means for ascertaining epidemic disease. No record published of death or disease. No outbreak of disease since 1853. No unhealthy district. The town portion of the district has been sewered. The dis- posal of sewage is difficult. The Board (1) irrigate ; (2) sell the solids; (3), filter ; each as far as practicable. Changes have been frequently made ; cannot say how difficulties can be removed. Proceeds little or nothing. Houses generally have watei-- closets, and drain into the Water supply is by the board, from an artesian well. It is laid on to each house, and is constant. Rainfall is not utilized. There are no tene- ments without water. No abandoned works. No imperfectly constructed works. 5,000Z. nearly has been spent on the waterworks. Bocking End is partly supplied. 17. Charlton Kingr's. ( Gloucestershire). L. G. ,^ict adopted November 1861. The district is conter- minous with the parish of Charlton King's. A. - - 3,120 0 0 R. V. - £20,000 0 0 P. (1861) 3,443. H. (1861)768, (now) 781. D.R. There is no adjoining dis- trict which should be included. The district is to a large extent rural, and the parishioners wishing to preserve the integrity of their parish con- sented to the local sani- tary government ex- tending over the whole, instead of a part being put under it and part left out, thus causing a division of rule, and consequently of interest therein. [See No. 77.] Clerk; Surveyor; Inspector of Nuisances (who is also assistant surveyor), 48/. per annum. Col- lector. No health officer. No inspector under the Fac- tory or Work- shops Acts. No certifying surgeon. No medical ad- vice except from the medi- cal officer of the union. There is a regu- lar system of inspection by a committee ap- pointed by the Board. No inspection of food. No contribution to hos- pitals. No disinfectingapparatus. Filtration of the streams polluted by sewage has been tried to some ex- tent. Coroner not a medical man. It is believed that the guardians have not ob- tained sanitary reports of their districts. No registration of disease. Epidemic disease would be ascertained by the officers of the Local Board and union, and when brought under the consideration of the Board, in such a way that they may be acted upon, the Board takes proceedings. There have been measles, small-pox, and low fevers, but they have not been general or extensive, and there has been no cholera. The cause of these attacks is crowd- ing, want of ordinary cleanliness, and dissi- pated habits of life. No unhealthy district. No general system of setverage has been carried out. A portion of the district drains into the Cheltenham sewers, and for this compensation is paid; but this arrangement is unsatisfactory. Subsoil is not ivaterlogged. In some cases the sewage is collected in cesspools, and is used as manure by private individuals; in others it drains into the culverts and drains originally made for road drainage, and finds its way to the streams. The connexion of several of these drains with the streams has lately been cut off, and the sewage disposed of partly by irrigation and partly by mixing it with dust and using it as manure. There are lands in the district on which a large proportion of its sewerage might be utilized without artificial Jifting, but the proprietors object to this. In 1864 a system of sewerage for the most populous part of the district was devised, and tlie consent of the Home Secretary was obtained to borrow money for the pur- pose, but opposition was raised, chiefly by the Chel- tenham Commissioners, and the scheme was abandoned. The better class of houses are supplied with waterclosets; the poorer with cesspools, or earth closets, which are not deodorized, but cleansed. While the difficulty about the outfall continues, it is desi- rather to diminish the num- ber of houses which drain into the sewers or culverts. Water supply is mainly from wells; many houses resort to the public springs and streams; and partly from the Cheltenham Waterworks Company, which cuts off the water at its sources in the district, and impounds it in a reservoir mainly for the supply of the town of Chel- tenham ; this latter supply is constant. Rainfall is utilized in private houses. The water supply is defective, and there are several tene- ments without a proper water supply, and the Board cannot supply the want, on account of the springs being diverted. There was a fixed portion of water reserved by the Water Company's Act still to pass down some of the ancient channels; but that is insufficient for agricul- tural purposes, and utterly inadequate to domestic de- mands, and for the re- plenishment of the sand bed waters, in which bed the wells are sunk. Of some springs taken by the com- pany, no portion has been reserved. The natural rights of the inhabitants of the district have been sacrificed at the solicitation of trading capitalists to the interests of others. A scheme for sewerage works was commenced, but aban- doned. The cost incurred was for the plans only. No imperfectly constructed