Dr. Thorne Thorne's report to the local government board on the sanitary condition of the village of Biddenden, in the Tenterden rural sanitary district, with special reference to the recurring prevalence of diphtheria in the village.

  • Thorne, R. Thorne (Richard Thorne), Sir, 1841-1899.
Date:
1879
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. Thorne Thorne's report to the local government board on the sanitary condition of the village of Biddenden, in the Tenterden rural sanitary district, with special reference to the recurring prevalence of diphtheria in the village. 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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    Dr. Thorne Thorne’s Report to the Local Government Board on the Sanitary Condition of the Village of Biddenden, in the Tenterden Rural Sanitary District, with special Reference to the recurring Prevalence of Diphtheria in the Village. Edward C. Seaton, M.D., Medical Department, June 30, 1879. Biddenden, in Kent, is a parish in the Tenterden rural sanitary district. It had, in 1871, a population of 1,419, and it consists to a great extent of small hamlets and isolated groups of houses spread over an area of about 7,200 acres. By far the largest aggregation of dwellings is at the so-called village of Biddenden, which is ascertained to have a population of nearly 380, .and, except when otherwise stated, it is to this village that this Report relates. Biddenden is a compact little village; the houses lie, as a rule, close together, and they occupy two so-called streets; one, which runs north and south, is the highway from Headcorn to Tenterden, and is generally known as North Street; the other, or Church Street, runs off from the former for a short distance in a westerly direction. The village lies on Weald Clay, and has a steady fall towards the west, Sanitary Circumstances. The water-supply for the village is very scanty, and, as a rule, unfit for human consumption. I only found two wells, both of which are believed to be about 30 feet in depth. Their depth seems to be simply for storage •capacity, as their water must essentially be surface water. One is obviously fouled by soakage of filth from the surrounding soil. The other has the reputation of affording a wholesome supply, but it can only be resorted to by the favour of the publican, on whose premises it is situated. Ponds form the general water-supply. Some of these are so foul that it is almost incredible that they can, as stated, be used for any household purposes, and even the best ones to which the public have access contain a good deal of decaying vegetable matter, and the water they afford is at times greatly discoloured. One, which is stated to be largely resorted to, is also in dangerous proximity to a ditch containing stagnant sewage and slaughter-house refuse. In some instances, too, even these improper supplies have to be procured at a con- siderable distance from the houses of those seeking water. The village has no proper system of sewerage and drainage. On the south side of Church Street the houses drain into a large brick culvert originally constructed for the purposes of road drainage, but the house drains leading to this culvert are of the most faulty construction, and occasion considerable nuisance. Running behind the houses and in actual contact with the walls and foundations is a broad, open, irregularly-bricked channel, with here and there a species of cesspit containing offensive semi-solid matters ; at one point a closet fitted with a pan leans against a cottage and drops its contents into this channel, and in more than one place the sewage is conveyed by imperfect and obviously leaky drains under the cottages, rendering their interior damp, foul, and unfit for human habitation. Ultimately the sewage gets into a ditch at the west of the village, where it is joined by another offensive sewer ditch. On the north side of the same street the house drainage mainly finds its way into ditches which are so foul and in such proximity to the dwellings that they must of necessity be a source of grave nuisance and of danger to health. M 485. 100.—7/79. Wt. 3519, E. & S,