[Report 1938] / Medical Officer of Health, Pontefract Borough.

  • Pontefract (England). Borough Council.
Date:
1938
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1938] / Medical Officer of Health, Pontefract Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    10/52 (page 8)
    On the 23rd June, 1938 a scheme for an alteration of the boundaries of these Wards came into operation. The names and areas of the new Wards are as follows, namely :— Acres. Castle Ward ... 1,340 Park Ward ... 1,203 Carleton Ward 961 TanshelfWard 643 Baghill Ward 536 Central Ward 182 The Registrar-General’s estimate of resident population is 21,340, an increase of 180 on the figure for 1937. According to the rate books the number of inhabited houses was 5,430 at the close of the year. The number in 1937 was 5,296. The rateable value of the Borough is £\ 16,169 and the sum represented by a penny rate /441. Last year’s figures were respectively ^113,724 and ,£415. Pontefract is a market town serving a large rural area, and a considerable amount of farming and market gardening is carried on within the Borough itself, the outlying districts being essentially agricultural in character. The main local industry is coal-mining, and although only one colliery is situated within the Borough boundary, other collieries work seams of coal underlying the Borough. Liquorice confectionery is made by several long-established firms whose premises generally are of good type and in healthy surroundings. Confectionery of other varieties is also manufactured in large quantities. Among other industries carried on in the town are malting, furniture-making, box-making, brick-making and the manufacture of glass-making machinery. The tanning of hides and skins and subsidiary processes is an ancient industry which still flourishes, now carried on under modern conditions. Through the courtesy of the Manager of the Pontefract Employment Exchange, l am able to give local employment statistics for 1938.