Dr. H. F. Parson's report to the local government board on the general sanitary condition of Ince-in-Makerfield.

  • Parsons, H. F.
Date:
1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. H. F. Parson's report to the local government board on the general sanitary condition of Ince-in-Makerfield. 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 General Sanitary Condition of Ince-in-Makerfield. George Buchanan, Assistant Medical Officer, December 22, 1879. General Description.—Ince-in-Makerfield is an Urban Sanitary District in Lancashire conterminous with the township of the same name. It is bounded on the west by the borough of Wigan, of which it may be considered a suburb ; on the south-east by the township of Hindley, and on the north by that of Aspull; the two latter being also Urban Sanitary Districts. It is in the Wigan Union and Registration District, and in the Hindley sub-district, which comprises the townships of luce, Hindley, and Abram. The township of Ince, which has an area of 2,320 acres, is of a somewhat triangular shape; the surface slopes gently from an elevation of 250 feet above ordnance datum on the N.E. to 100 feet on the S.W. The geological formation is the coal-measures, which are here exceedingly productive; the deepest collieries in Britain are situated in the township, and the aggregate thickness of the seams of coal worked amounts to 50 or 60 feet. Very little of the surface of the township is cultivated land or pasture ; the ground, where not occupied by houses, railways, and collieries, being mostly waste, and often converted into a swamp or pool by the subsidence caused by the removal of the coal from beneath. This subsidence does not take place equally over the whole surface, for where the surface land belongs to the colliery proprietors all the coal is removed from beneath it, whereas under roads or buildings, for damage done to which the colliery proprietors are liable, pillars of coal are left to support the roof. The effects of the subsidence upon buildings are, however, sufficiently obvious in frequent cracks, and in walls and chimneys out of the perpendicular. Owing to the greater subsidence of the ground in the spaces between the streets, it is necessary, when a new street is constructed, to fill up the ground to the proper level. For this purpose shale from the spoil heaps of the collieries, or cinders, are generally used. The coal shale in this district contains less pyrites than is generally the case in other coalfields, it does not ignite spontaneously, and it was stated that offensive gases are not given off as the result of its decomposition. The Medical Officer of Health has on more than one occasion complained to the Local Board of the practice, on the part of the night- soil contractor, of depositing, at the request of the owners, privy refuse as filling-up material on ground intended for building. The Local Board have on each occasion, as I am informed, promptly put a stop to this disgusting practice, and insisted on the removal of that which had been deposited. The population of Ince consists almost entirely of the labouring classes, and of the small shop-keepers who supply them with the necessaries of life. Besides the collieries before mentioned, there are in the township extensive iron works belonging to the Wigan Coal and Iron Company, and other companies, and three cotton mills, and many of the inhabitants are employed in mills in Wigan. There are two or three larger houses, formerly gentlemen’s residences, but these are now used as offices. Owing to the commercial depression felt here as elsewhere, there are a good many houses now empty. Overcrowding is said to exist to a certain extent, owing to the bad times; the elder children of a family remaining at home, or two families occupying the same house, in order to save rent. There is a colony of Irish in one part of the township. Streets and Dwellings.—Two main roads, the high roads from Wigan to Manchester and Warrington respectively, traverse Ince in a N.W. and S.E. direction, and are connected by a third road, Ince Green Lane. These, with a street called Belle Green Lane, lately taken over by the Urban Sanitary Authority, are all the roads in Ince repairable at the public expense. The houses grouped along the Manchester Road are called Upper Ince; those along the Warrington Road, Lower Ince. The greater part of the houses in Ince are cottages, in continuous rows either along the main highways, or in streets leading out of them at right angles. These streets are 30 to 36 feet wide, and open at both ends ; there are few closed courts, and those only in the oldest part of the town. There are about 100 back-to-back O 428. 100.—12/79. Wt. 10725. E. & S. A