The water supply to the rural districts of Essex. : Report presented to the county council, April 4th, 1905 / by John C. Thresh.

  • Thresh, John C.
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The water supply to the rural districts of Essex. : Report presented to the county council, April 4th, 1905 / by John C. Thresh. 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.

    11/114 (page 7)
    TO THE RURAL DISTRICTS OF ESSEX. The county of Essex comprises an area of close upon one million acres, forming almost a square, bounded on the south by the Eiver Thames, on the east by the North Sea, on the north by the Eiver Stour, and on the west by the Kiver Lee and its tributary the Stort. The population also is close upon one million, but the larger portion is in the urban districts just over the borders of the metropolis. The rural districts have a population of close upon a quarter of a million and there must be in these districts an average of three acres to each person. So much land has recently been taken up for dairy farming that, doubtless, there are as many cows as families in the rural areas, but the acres and the cows are not uniformly distributed with the population. With five times the present population there is space for each family to have its three acres and a cow. The county is fairly w^ell supplied with railways, and the development by means of light railw^ays is proceeding so that there are unusual facilities for getting farm and garden produce into London and into the large urban districts on the Essex side where there is an enormous and continually increasing demand. The county is remarkably healthy. The death-rate in 1902 was only 12-3 per 1,000 population and in 1903 the phenomenally low rate of 11‘6 was recorded, whilst