Report to the General Board of Health on two preliminary inquiries into the sewerage, drainage, and supply of water, and the sanitary condition of the inhabitants of the townships of Burton Extra and of Horninglow, in the parish of Burton-upon-Trent / by William Lee, Superintending Inspector.

  • Lee, William, 1774 or 1775-1853.
Date:
1853
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report to the General Board of Health on two preliminary inquiries into the sewerage, drainage, and supply of water, and the sanitary condition of the inhabitants of the townships of Burton Extra and of Horninglow, in the parish of Burton-upon-Trent / by William Lee, Superintending Inspector. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    sties and privy-liole, witli great stench. Tlie dead carcasses of a rabbit, a dog, and a duck, were floating in the hole. The inspection at Horninglow was on the 20th, and was chiefly confined to the village. I was accompanied by the following persons interested in the inquiry:—Abraham Bass, Esq., solicitor ; Mr, Samuel Turner, guardian and overseer of the poor, and surveyor of highways; Mr. George Greaves, surgeon ; Mr. Jolm Upton; Mr. Ralph Bennett; Mr. Eichard Tunley ; Mr. J ohn Marston, brewer ; Mr. William Laverock, farmer ; and Mr. Charles Biley. The following are the minutes made at the time :— 20th May. Below Mr. Marston's brewery, in a field, there is a large OPEN cesspool, 21 by 57 feet, into which all the drainage above enters. It is used below for irrigation by open gutters, and has produced disease. It killed some cattle, and caused a malignant fever, of which some persons died. That is about 12 months since. The stench could then be smelt strongly on the road two fields distant. The difier- ence now is that it does not accumulate. The sluice is not put down, but the sewage goes at once to the land, and there has been no disease since. It is found to produce large crops of grass. There is a very unhealthy row of 7 cottages belonging to the Marquis of Anglesea, with a foul stagnant channel near them in the back premises, containing the drainage of a cowhouse and other refuse. Thomas Harlow lives in one of these houses, and says,— I have lived in it tbree months. I lived before with my father in the same row. I have not had very good health. I do not know what has been amiss. I have been unwell since about a month before Christmas. My pains were on each side. I was confined to bed for a good deal, but not all the time. I have gone to work before I was fit to do so, and am not so stout now by a good deal. At the time when I began to be sick I was working for Mr. Greaves, at the farm. I had not been doing anything I was not accustomed to do. I am a sober man, and am married. I have been married ten months. I was off work three months altogether, and then worked a few hours in the middle of the day. My wages last summer were 2s. per day, and I was able to get good food. I am 24 years of age. Mr. Greaves, surgeon, said that he visited the man, and that his complaint was continued fever, wliich he attributed to the local cause in this neighbourhood, namely, inefficient drainage, &c. There were many other cases of fever in the same row, and in other houses.