Dr. E.P. Manby's report to the Local Government Board upon the sanitary circumstances and administration of the Urban District of Ince-in-Makerfield.

  • Manby, E. P.
Date:
1912
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Dr. E.P. Manby's report to the Local Government Board upon the sanitary circumstances and administration of the Urban District of Ince-in-Makerfield. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    structural defects in houses and many accumulations of water upon unoccupied land are met with. It was thought that the limit of subsidence had been reached about the time that Dr. Parsons made his reports, but since then old workings have been re-opened and subsidences continue. Broadly speaking, the reports of Dr. Parsons made in 1879 and 1886 present a picture of the district to-day, though a good deal has indeed been done in the way of sewerage, paving of streets, reducing the size of privy middens, and in improving the system of scavenging since 1879. But many streets remain unpaved, and the town must be classed still as a privy-midden one. In regard to street paving, it is but fair to state that the council have scheduled recently some 50 streets under the Private Streets Works Act, 1892. A small ill-designed hospital for infectious diseases was erected between the dates of Dr. Parsons’ first and second report. The remarks made by Dr. Parsons upon the probable causes of the high rate of infantile mortality in Ince remain as true to-day as they were in 1879 : — (1) Local insanitary conditions. (2) Social and domestic conditions and habits unfavourable to health. The medical officer of health has not failed to refer to these causes of high infantile mortality in many annual and special reports which he has made to the council since his appointment. The infantile mortality rate was 181 per 1,000 births when Dr. Parsons reported in 1879, and the average for the ten years 1899-1908 was 199. In 1909 the rate was 212, but in 1910 it fell to 165, probably in consequence of the summer being a cold and wet one. In 1911 the infantile mortality rate was 184. The council have adopted the Notification of Births Act recently, and a female health visitor has been appointed who will act under the direction of the medical officer of health. Sanitary Circumstances. The 'water s'U'pply of Ince is derived partly from wells in the new red sandstone at Golborne, five miles south of Ince, and partly from the Rivington Waterworks of the Corporation of Liverpool. The water is of good quality and the service is a constant one. About 40 houses at Little Westwood are supplied from a well there. Dwellings in Ince are mostly two-storey brick buildings; many of them are very old. It is thought that there are about 400 back-to-back houses. A number of other houses are without through ventilation upon one or other floor. Many houses are dirty and are in need of thorough stripping and cleansing. Eaves troughs of wood exist very generally. Especially dilapidated or dirty houses were met with in Albert Street, Edward Street, Johnson’s Yard, Bridgwater Street, Peter Street, Bellgreen Lane, Tolketh Street, Water Street, Fox Street^ Cann Row, and Margaret Street,