Mr. John Spear's report to the Local Government Board upon a re-inspection of the Ebbw Vale and Abertillery urban sanitary districts, and of the Bedwelty rural district, Monmouthshire / [John Spear].

  • Spear, John.
Date:
[1885]
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Mr. John Spear's report to the Local Government Board upon a re-inspection of the Ebbw Vale and Abertillery urban sanitary districts, and of the Bedwelty rural district, Monmouthshire / [John Spear]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ■ r: - .sral Collet - ' — i ll Mi— ♦P 170 Mr. John Spear’s Report to the Local Government Board upon a re-inspection of the Ebbw Vale and Abertillery Urban Sanitary Districts, and of the Bedwelty Rural District, Mon mouthshir e. George Buchanan, ■■ _Medical Department, March 12, 1885; The registration district of Bedwelty, so far as it embraces the above-named sanitary areas, was inspected by me on behalf of the Board at the close of 1882. The mortality from scarlatina and enteric fever, then the main subject of inquiry, continued high during 1883, whilst the Board obtained little evidence from the communications which reached them from the several local authorities that the sanitary action shown to be required was being forwarded. Hence this second inspection. I propose in this. Report to deal separately with the three districts. I.—The Ebbw Yale Urban Sanitary District. Area, 6,150 acres. Population 1881 (corrected), 16,086 ; estimated at the end of 1884, 17,000. Rateable value, 42,000Z. Rate (1884), 2s. 4d. in the £.* The district, it may be remembered, comprises several detached villages—Briery Hill, Chapel Town, Church Town, and Hew Town, on either side of the River Ebbw, in the centre of the district, Beaufort about two miles up the stream, and Victoria, Cwm, and now a new village, Wainellwyd, one and a half to four miles lower down. The population, except for a few traders living principally in Briery Hill, the central village, is almost exclusively dependent upon employment given by the Ebbw Coal and Iron Company. Of the houses in the district, now nearly 3,000, some 1,350 are owned by this company, and 170 others are leased by them for the accommodation of their work¬ people. The building now going on is mainly at the instance of the same body, the exceptions to this rule being found in the central villages. Vital Statistics.—Table No. I. (on the other side) shows the mortality from various causes in recent years. Sanitary Progress and present Sanitary Condition.—The recommendations made to this Authority by the Board after consideration of my last report were as follows :— 1, to provide for the sewerage of the more populous places ; 2, to improve the privy- accommodation of the district; 3, to provide for the regular and systematic emptying of privies, and the removal of refuse; 4, to deal with polluted water-supplies and to extend the public water mains ; 5, to take action under section 97 of the Public Health Act, 1875, in respect of houses unfit for habitation, and under sections 92, 94, and 95 as to the removal of nuisances generally; 6, to adopt byelaws based upon the Board’s model code; 7, to provide hospital accommodation for the isolation of infectious diseases. It will be convenient to deal with these matters seriatim. 1. Sewerage.—A sewer has been laid at Cwm, a small outlying hamlet, and one is now being constructed at Wainellwyd. At Chapel Town a plan of sewerage has been * This includes the rate levied by the Authority 1‘or all purposes ; and an amount equal to about 7\d. in the £ of this rate is devoted to the repayment of loans, &c., on account of waterworks which are in the hands of the Authority ; the water-rate being, of course, correspondingly lightened, o 15759. 200—3/85. Wt. 1S661. E. & S.