[Report 1911] / Medical Officer of Health, Godstone R.D.C.

  • Godstone (Surrey, England). Rural District Council.
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1911] / Medical Officer of Health, Godstone R.D.C. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    J3 The closet accommodation, as a rule, consists of the pail system, and in most cases the gardens are large. About 75 per cent, of the cottages are connected with the public water service, the remainder having shallow wells. One notification of infectious disease was received from Horne in 1911. RIVERS AND STREAMS. There are very few streams in the Rural District of Godstone, the largest being the River Eden. During the year complaints were received as to the Eden being polluted by drainage from cottages in close proximity to the stream, and an exhaustive search was made, especially from Ray Bridge, Blindley Heath, to the Outfall of the Lingfield Sewage Works. In two cases it was discovered that the drainage from cottages went direct into the Eden ; notices were served on the respective owners to drain the premises to properly con- structed cesspools, and I am given to understand that this work is being put in hand, and will give further details hereon in the next Annual Report. Complaints were also made as to the watercourse which receives the effluent from the installation of sewage works at the Homes of St. Barnabas, Dormans Land ; a sample of the effluent was taken and submitted to the Public Analyst for examination; the report was decidedly unsatisfactory, and notice was given to the Authorities to do such things as are necessary to the works to enable a satisfactory effluent to be produced; this matter is still under consideration. Lingfield Training Colony. Complaints were also received as to the effluent from the installation of sewage works at this Colony polluting the River Eden. I went carefully into this matter and traced the effluent from the works to the point where it enters the Eden about a mile distant, and a foul black mass was discovered here showing that the land over which the effluent passed was doing but little work as regards filtering the effluent. As a matter of fact, the soil being thick clay, very little good would result from land treatment of this sewage.