[Report 1937] / Medical Officer of Health, Stourbridge Borough.

  • Stourbridge (England). Borough Council.
Date:
1937
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1937] / Medical Officer of Health, Stourbridge Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/48 (page 16)
    The supply is obtained from three boreholes : (i) Coalbournbrook, 501 feet deep, mottled sandstone and pebble beds ; (2) Mill Meadow, 350 feet deep, sandstone ; (3) Tack, (Wordsley), 210 feet deep, mottled sandstone and pebble beds. The latter two are standbys. Nos. 1 and 2 are in the Urban District of Amblecote and No. 3 in the Urban District of Brierley Hill. The Corporation Baths and several works pump water from their own wells. A considerable number of houses supplement the water supply by having rain-water cisterns on their premises, many being underground. The recently erected Council Houses have underground rainwater cisterns. Several houses and three farms at Pedmore have a private water supply, the water being from two underground springs, connected with field drains to a collecting chamber from which pipe lines lead to the houses. In addition, two surface water drains were also connected. Samples of the water taken during December from two of the houses and one from the collecting chamber were submitted to the County Bacteri¬ ologist. The reports on two of the samples were to the effect that though of good quality chemically, the existence of large numbers of coli-aerogenes organisms indicated that the water was polluted and unfit for drinking. Some of the organisms were B. Coli of faecal type. The report on the third sample stated that the water was unfit for drinking and that from the nature of the organisms present it was probable that the pollution was derived from surface water. A sample was also taken at the same time from a spring in the same locality supplying one residence only ; this sample was fit for drinking. The supply was chlorinated, the water being tested each day to ascertain the extent of chlorination, and at the same time I wrote to the users advising them to boil the water before drinking. In the course of a Supplementary Report to the Public Health Committee in January, 1938, I stated, inter alia : “In view of the facts that the ‘reservoir’ is shallow and the surface of the water is about 12 feet below the ground, and that some of the water finding its way into the reservoir is surface water from pasture land, I consider that its use should be discontinued for domestic purposes. The Stourbridge and District Water Board main is available, as some houses adjoining those using the private supply are already connected to the Stourbridge main.’’ During the early part of the year, however, the surface water drains to the reservoir were cut off and the springs properly fenced round, which resulted in an improvement in the water supply. Drainage and Sewerage. The Stourbridge area was sewered in 1887 and the Lye and Wollescote area about 1900. The Main sewers in the Stourbridge area are under the control of the Stourbridge Main Drainage Board, consisting of repre¬ sentatives of the Stourbridge and Amblecote Councils. The Sewers in