Dr. H. F. Parson's report to the local government board on the sanitary condition of the Stourbridge registration district, and on the late prevalence of scarlet fever therein.
- Parsons, H. F.
- Date:
- 1879
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Dr. H. F. Parson's report to the local government board on the sanitary condition of the Stourbridge registration district, and on the late prevalence of scarlet fever therein. 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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![-239 0 to proceed with the sewerage scheme on the ground of the expense involved in a system of draining for Amblecote alone. The authority also consider it advisable to put the streets into proper repair before constructing sewers, as otherwise the sewers would be si] ted up with the mud washed off' the streets. Thus the matter stands in abeyance. Privy Accommodation.—The old-fashioned midden privy is in almost universal use throughout the district. Nothing can be worse than the condition of many of the older privies and middensteads. The privies are in many cases dilapidated and unventilated, with floors lower than the ground, and in some instances were found almost inaccessible by reason of the filth, solid and liquid, which surrounded them. The middensteads are of large size and deeply dug out; they are invariably open, and in most instances receive the drip off the privy, and sometimes off other roofs ; in some cases they are made use of to receive the house-slops and drainage of the back yards. In consequence the contents are very wet and sloppy, a condition which favours putrefaction, leakage over the surface of the adjacent ground, and percolation into the wells; while it renders emptying more difficult. To illustrate the size and wetness of these filthy holes, it may be mentioned that in one case, the weather being frosty, some boys were sliding on one. Not a few, especially in the Worcestershire division, are without any side walls, and where there are walls, they are in many cases so dilapidated as to allow the contents to leak out. The privies and ashpits are in some cases too near dwelling-houses, one midden being observed under a sitting-room window, and they are very frequently within five yards of wells the water of which is used for drinking. In the Staffordshire division, some attempt has been made to improve the condition of the ashpits by building up the side walls and spouting the privy roofs. In some newly-built privies the roof is spouted, the ashpit is of smaller dimensions, 5 feet by 4 feet, the bottom being level with the ground, and the walls are built up to a height of 7 feet, and provided with a side door. In the Worcestershire division, scarcely any attempt seemed to have been made to improve the existing state of matters. About the only instance which came under notice in this division where the privy arrangements had been treated as a nuisance was a row of 58 new houses which were provided with dry ash-closets, not indeed in all cases entirely satisfactory in construction, and some of them only 9 feet from the houses, yet vastly superior to any of the midden privies, and at the time of inspection entirely free from offensiveness. There are no public arrangements for the removal of night-soil; each occupier has to get it done for himself. The work is undertaken by the farmers, and it was stated that there was not often any difficulty in getting the night-soil removed. The removal is effected at any hour of the day, and owing to the wetness of the contents of the middens, they are got out and allowed to lie in a heap to dry for two or three days before their final removal ; in the meantime the filthy liquid spreads itself over the yards or runs along the open gutters which are the only means of drainage. Water Supply.—The mains of the South Staffordshire Waterworks Company are laid down in Halesowen, Cradley, Pensnett and Brockmoor, and those of the Stourbridge Waterworks Company in Wordsley, Amblecote, The Lye, and Wollescote. These companies derive their water from wells in the New Bed Sandstone; it is somewhat hard, but otherwise appears of good quality, and is laid on by a constant service. Very few of the inhabitants, however, take the tap water, and some cases were observed in which it had been formerly laid on, but had been subsequently cut off’, the parties refusing to take it on account of the expense. The water used by most of the inhabitants is drawn from wells, springs, and rain-water cisterns. The wells, which in many cases are open ones, are generally shallow, and frequently situated within a few yards of privy middens, porous dumb-wells, and other collections of foul matter. In the western part of the district, situated on the Red Sandstone, there is no cla}^ bed to intercept percolation of water, and in the other part of the district, though clay beds exist which may prevent or impede its passage downwards, water diffuses itself laterally through the soil with great readiness, as shown by the fact that the P 870. p> •](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24997183_0011.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
