Mr W. H. Power's report to the local government board on scarlatina prevalence in the Easington rural sanitary district ; and on means for isolation of infectious diseases available for use by the rural sanitary authority.

  • Power, W. H.
Date:
1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Mr W. H. Power's report to the local government board on scarlatina prevalence in the Easington rural sanitary district ; and on means for isolation of infectious diseases available for use by the rural sanitary authority. 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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    Mr. W. H. Power's Report to the Local Government Board on Scarlatina Prevalence in the Easington Rural Sani- tary District; and on Means for Isolation of Infectious Diseases available for Use by the Rural Sanitary Authority. George Buchanan, Assistant Medical Officer. December 22, 1879. Easington Rural Sanitary District, situate on the eastern limits of the Durham coalfield, extends north and south 13, and east and west some 4 to 7 miles. It is essentially a colliery district, comprising in 19 townships some dozen colliery villages. Its population, which is mainly contained in these villages, is not certainly known. In 1871 it numbered 24,663 persons ; but after that date, and within the last two or three years, it underwent rapid increase ; now it is thought to be diminishing. In 1878 the Medical Officer of Health, for his statistical purposes, estimated the population at 40,000. Recently members of the Sanitary Authority, estimating the inhabitants, township by township, gave 30,900 as the total population of the district. Probably the actual number lies somewhere between these two estimates. The Colliery Villages, with which this Report will be chiefly concerned, having grown up in each instance around a coalpit, are unequally distributed through the district. They are most numerous along its western border, which is thus somewhat thickly populated from north to south. Other and eastern parts of the district, containing a few villages or hamlets and numerous isolated dwellings, are inhabited by the agricultural class. Access to colliery villages, for coal traffic purposes, is mainly by lines of railway, public or private ; roads thereto are frequently circuitous, and many of them are bad roads. Most of these villages are fairly and openly situated on undulating slopes, giving facilities for natural drainage. The relation of the colliery village to the colliery is in all instances an intimate one. The owners of the colliery, or the company working it, as the case may be, retain in their own hands the dwellings occupied by their workpeople. These dwellings are either rented by the colliery from numerous owners, or are themselves the property of the colliery authorities. In neither case is any direct charge made to colliers inhabiting them, and all necessary repairs are executed by and at the expense of the colliery. In addition, garden ground (with material for fencing it in) is commonly provided gratuitously for tenants who seek it, either in connexion with the dwelling or on land at a distance from it. Further, the colliery authorities provide for each village water supply, scavenging of streets, emptying of ash-middens, emptying of privies where they exist, and coal for domestic use by each tenant. In addition, systems more or less complete of slop drainage are furnished in most villages, and are kept in order by the colliery authorities. Except for leading coal, for which sixpence fortnightly is habitually charged to each tenant, and, in a few villages only, a small water-rate, all the above matters are administered without charge to the workpeople. The colliery authorities in allotting dwellings to their workpeople profess regard for the requirements of the family of each tenant. Nevertheless, over- crowding is not uncommon. Partly this overcrowding is due to insufficiency in the first instance of the accommodation afforded by particular houses, but also it is caused by disuse by many persons of upstairs rooms, and by a habit (tacitly recognized by the colliery authorities) of tenants taking in lodgers.