Mr John Spear's report to the local government board on the sanitary condition of Shadwell, in the rural sanitary district of Wetherby, Yorkshire.

  • Spear, John.
Date:
1880
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Mr John Spear's report to the local government board on the sanitary condition of Shadwell, in the rural sanitary district of Wetherby, Yorkshire. 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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    Mr. John Spear’s Report to the Local Government Board on the Sanitary Condition of Shadwell, in the Rural Sanitary District of Wetherby, Yorkshire. George Buchanan, Medical Department, December 14th, 1880. This inquiry relates to Shadwell, a suburb, as it has been called, of Leeds, and was instituted chiefly with the view of ascertaining the sanitary cir- cumstances of houses, erected as suburban houses, in a district where no building regulations were, at the time of their erection, in operation. Shadwell is situated on an elevated and picturesque site on the north-west boundary of Leeds borough, in the Wetherby Union. The geological for- mation is the sandstone of the coal-measures, underlying beds of variable thickness of loose shale and clay. Urban powers were granted to the township in 1878, and in that year building byelaws were adopted. But shortly before this time, speculative builders, it is said from Leeds, had recognised the favourable circumstances of the site for building operations, and had commenced a work that, as I shall show, can scarcely fail to prove of permanent mischief to the interests of the district concerned. The township has an area of 1,240 acres, and a population now estimated at 650; the enumerated population in 1871 having been 454 only. It con- sists of the old village street, and of new houses; the latter erected mostly in rows at considerable distances from each other, so that the population is still essentially a scattered one. It is with the new houses that this Report mainly deals. Nearest to Leeds, close by the boundary of the parish, is a row of houses built before the passing of the byelaws, and known as Valley Terrace. The houses are of nine rooms, and each has its stable and coach-house. The stable is built against the kitchen wall, having “ a J fall roof ” from the latter, and, if occupied, is calculated to become a nuisance. The buildings aflbrd many evidences of hasty construction and careless workmanship. The drainage is by cesspool (with the exception of two houses at a lower level, which appear to drain into a brook); each cesspool being in the middle of the garden, away from the houses, and either unventilated or uncovered, and in the latter state forming, as is to be supposed, a dangerous pitfall. These cesspools are either emptied into the gardens or the filth is allowed to soak away or overflow, according to the habits of the house- holder, and the circumstances of the cesspit construction. Ofiensive smells were noticed to come from some of the drain-gullies close by the kitchen doors, the drains being probably ill-constructed. The privies and ashpits, 12 yards from the back doors, are of the ordinary middenstead class. Drinking-water must be fetched from a “ dip well ” that is fed by a spring from the side of a hill, on the top of which other houses, with overflowing cesspools, are placed. The “ dip well ” is unprotected from sur- face washings, although many people resort to it for water. From the houses it is situated at a distance varying from 90 to 200 yards, and is moreover difficult of access. The back yards are unenclosed and unpaved. The rent of these houses is said to be properly 35L per annum ; but they appear to be mostly let to tenants of a class difierent from that originally intended; and, I was told, at a much reduced rental. The houses of the next row, Hawthorne Terrace, are somewhat smaller, and have no stables. In wet weather, it is said, their unpaved front yards or gardens are flooded. Their cesspools are not ventilated, unless the stone Q 2452. 100.—12/80. Wt, 6824. E. & S.