Dr. H. F. Parson's report to the local government board on the prevalence of "fever" in the Enfield urban district, and on the general sanitary condition of the district.

  • Parsons, H. F.
Date:
1880
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. H. F. Parson's report to the local government board on the prevalence of "fever" in the Enfield urban district, and on the general sanitary condition of the district. 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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    Dr. H. F. Parsons’s Report to the Local Government Board on the prevalence of “ Fever ” in the Enfield Urban District, and on the general Sanitary Condition of the District. George Buchanan, Medical Department, December 7, 1880. The Urban. Sanitary District of Enfield, co-extensive with the parish of the same name, is situated in the north-eastern corner of Middlesex, between the counties of Herts on the north and again on the sonth-west, and Essex on the east, from the latter of which it is separated by the old channel of the Diver Lea. Eor registration purposes the same area constitutes the Enfield sub-district of the Edmonton Registration District. It is included by the Registrar-General in his “ Outer Ring ” of London. The population was in 1871 16,054, having been 12,424 in 1861; at the same rate of increase it would amount at the present time to 20,220. Local estimates place it as high as 24,000, but it does not appear that these estimates rest on any ascer- tained facts. The number of inhabited houses on March 25th, 1880, was 3,400 ; reckoning 5‘5 persons to each inhabited house—the proportion found at the last census—these would contain a population of 18,700, but owing to the large influx of persons of the labouring class and the frequency of sub- letting, it is probable that the average proportion of inmates to each house is greater now than in 1871. The number of inhabited houses in 1871 was 2,893, the number of families or separate occupiers 3,515. Topography.—The Enfield district is an extensive one, having an tarea of 12,653 acres, and reaching eight miles in length from east to west, and three miles from north to south. I shall describe it as consisting of three portions. I. The western portion of the district, comprising about half its area, is purely agricultural, pasture, and woodland. In olden times it formed a portion of the royal forest of Enfield Chase, which was disafforested in 1803. The surface is very undulating, the hills rising to a height of 300 to 400 feet above the sea. A watershed called the Ridgeway, along which the road from Enfield to Potter’s Bar runs, traverses it from S.E. to N.W. The tract S.W. of this ridge is drained by Salmon’s Brook, that to the ISLE, by the Turkey Street Brook, both tributaries of the Lea. Geologically this portion of the district is composed of London clay, capped on the summits of the hills with patches of glacial gravel and boulder clay. With the exception of an outlying area at the extreme west on which some 30 or 40 houses, forming part of Hadley village, are situated, this portion of the district has a scanty and scattered population, dwelling in isolated mansions, farmhouses, and cottages. There is no public water supply and no sewerage, except that a tank has been constructed to receive the drainage of the houses at Hadley. Cesspit privies are the chief means for the disposal of excrement. II. The central portion of the district contains the old town of Enfield. Erom this two parallel streets, Chase Side and Baker Street, run northwards, and are connected by a few transverse lanes. Brigadier Hill, Clay HilR and QK34. 100.—12/80. Wt. 4665. E. & S. A