[Report 1896] / Medical Officer of Health, County Council of the Palatine of Chester / Cheshire County Council.

  • Cheshire (England). County Council.
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: [Report 1896] / Medical Officer of Health, County Council of the Palatine of Chester / Cheshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    9/367 (page 4)
    WIRRAL, Rural District. Population at Census, 1891—18707. Estimated population, December 1896 —16520. Houses at Census, 1891 — 3052. Houses in December 1896—3084. Area in acres —38608. It will be noted that the estimated population of this District is much below the population recorded at the time of the Census. This is due to the fact that among those enu- merated at Whitby, Netherpool, Hooton <k Eastham, were 2432 persons engaged in the construction of the Manchester Ship Canal. These formed no part of the local population after 1892. Since the Census the Rural District of Birkenhead has been added to Wirral. This small Rural District consisted of Bidston-with-Ford and Noctorum, the whole area being 2043 acres, and the enumerated population 456. More recently 6 l acres have heen taken from Wirral and added to the Brom- borough Urban District. Wirral is bounded on the north by the sea and the Birkenhead Union. On the west are the tidal waters of the River Dee, and on the east the tidal waters of the River Mersey. Except Shotwick Brook and two or three nameless streams near Heswall, which run to the Dee, all the water-courses in the district are in the Mersey watershed. The named streams flowing to the Mersey are the Birket, Arrowe Brook, Greasby Brook, the Fender, Prenton Brook, Dibbinsdale Brook (which is a part of Bromborough Pool). Sutton Brook, Brimstage Brook, Spital Boundary Brook, Raby Brook and Willaston Brook. Only a small proportion of the houses in this District are provided with water-closets. The number is not known to the Local Authority. At Moreton, having a population (including Lingham) of 464 at the Census, the only public drain laid by the Authority is about 150 yards long. It is of 12-in. pipes and discharges foul farmyard drainage into a ditch by the road side, which runs to the Fender. The vicarage is unoccupied and Old Moreton Hall, drains to a cesspool, apparently without over- flow, but Moreton Hall (Mr. Smith’s house) is drained into the Fender. The Arrowe Brook, as it passes under the Bridge on Old Meolse Road, was noticed to be polluted. This appeared to be from the sewage of Saughall Massie, Greasby, Frankby and Irby. At Saughall Massie, having a population of 189, the sewage runs by the roadside and includes drainage from cow- houses, stables and piggeries. It is conducted to an open cutting and so to 12 acres of meadow land, for the irrigation of which it is used. The cutting can be flushed by turning water from the