Dr. J. Spencer Low's report to the Local Government Board on the sanitary circumstances and administration of the Patrington Rural District : with special reference to the prevalence of diphtheria therein.

  • Low, J. Spencer.
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Dr. J. Spencer Low's report to the Local Government Board on the sanitary circumstances and administration of the Patrington Rural District : with special reference to the prevalence of diphtheria therein. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    be carried long distances. Most wells, however, are sunk in proxi- mity to dwellings in back yards and cultivated gardens. The interiors of the wells are constructed of brickwork with open joints. In a considerable number the pump was found to be out of order. The wells are rarely cleaned out, and even when this has been effected they are still liable to recurrence of the contamination from the polluted subsoil. Shortage of water is at times experienced in various parts of the district, wells fail, and householders have to obtain water on sufferance from various sources. On Sunk Island— reclaimed from the Humber and the property of the Crown—the soil is “ warp,” and no potable water is obtainable from wells or bores ; rain-water or water carted from a distance has to be used for domestic purposes ; Spurn Head is supplied in similar fashion. At Winestead water from a well is pumped to a tank from which it is piped to houses in the village ; with this exception water has to be carried to houses from wells. In 1905 Dr. S. W. Wheaton and Mr. Sandford Fawcett reported to the Local Government Board on the water supply of Holderness 5* after describing the sources of drinking water in each sanitary district in that area—including Patrington—they came to the con- clusion that the places (amongst others) most urgently in need of a supply of water were :— “ Certain villages the water supplies of which are especially unsatisfactory, owing to their liability to contamination, or the intrinsically bad quality of the water as shown by its chemical composition, such as Patrington, Ottringham, Keyingham, .... Burstwick, Hollym. Other villages and areas which suffer from either entire absence of potable w'ater, as for instance Sunk Island ; or where the available supplies are situate at such a distance from dwellings as to entail great labour in providing, the amount of water which is necessary for health and domestic comfort, such as Pauli ” The report concluded by stating two alternative sources for the water supply of Holderness :— (l). The waterworks of the Borough of Hull; a proposed water main would run from Hull, a pumping station to be erected beyond the city boundary, to Hedon, there dividing into a branch to Hornsea and another to Withernsea, both seaside resorts; the latter main would pass through the villages of Thorngumbald, Ryhill, Keyingham, Ottringham, Winestead, Patrington, and Hollym, and within two miles or less of Pauli, Welwick, Holmpton, Rimswell, Halsham and Burstwick, all in the Rural District of Patrington. The cost of this scheme with a consumption in the Holderness area of 500,000 gallons of water a day, purchased from Hull at a cost for the first 30 years of 6d. per 1000 gallons, was estimated at a rate (assuming that no water charges were made) of 3s. 4d. in the £ on the annual assessable value of the places to be supplied. * Report on the water supply of that portion of the East Riding of Yorkshire which is known as Holderness, by Dr. S. W. Wheaton and Mr. Sandford Fawcett ; 1905.