Mr. Spear's report to the Local Government Board on sanitary administration in the Bridgend registration district, Glamorganshire, with special reference to the arrangements existing in the district for the discharge of the duties of Medical Officer of Health / [John Spear].

  • Spear, John.
Date:
[1889]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Mr. Spear's report to the Local Government Board on sanitary administration in the Bridgend registration district, Glamorganshire, with special reference to the arrangements existing in the district for the discharge of the duties of Medical Officer of Health / [John Spear]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    of the ivads alone there are some 40 miles in the district. He receives a salary of 60/. as inspector of nuisances, 30/. as surveyor, and 10/. as inspector of dairies, and is required to pay his own travelling expenses. He has one assistant, a working man paid in weekly wages. It seems more than probable under the circumstances narrated that the proper work of the inspector of nuisances will have to be neglected for the exceptionally pressing duty of a surveyor in a new and rapidly increasing district. It was obvious in fact, during my inspection, that this difficulty had already become serious. The medical officer of health, Dr. Thomas, was appointed by the present authority in April 1888, until the 27th April 1889, at a salary of 25/. per annum, one-half of which is repaid from the Parliamentary grant. The same officer held the appointment under the rural authority, and his reports then showed fair appreciation of the sanitary necessities of the district; although they were, as he himself admits, almost entirely without result. To the present authority he had not up to the time of my visit reported on the condition of the district in general, but had confined himself to the notification of two outbreaks of disease (one of typhoid fever and the other of scarlatina), making in connexion therewith certain recommendations as to the drainage and house accommodation severally of two localities. He was about also to make a representation to the authority as to the very grave sanitary defects existing at Blaengarrw; he proposed to attend personally the authority’s meetings. Cowbridge Urban Sanitary District. The little town of Cowbridge is an ancient borough, once enclosed within town walls. Its first charter of incorporation dates back to the time of Charles II., but no sanitary functions were exercised by the Mayor and Corporation until November 1st, 1887, when the town was incorporated under the Municipal Acts ; until then the rural sanitary authority exercised jurisdiction. It is a market town and centre of an agricultural neighbourhood, and moreover possesses an important grammar school, besides two or three private boarding schools. The area is very limited, consisting of only 84 acres; and the population, which is almost stationary, is 1,337. The town is situated near the south-eastern boundary of the registration district; seven miles by road from Bridgend, or by rail about 13 miles. Geologically it stands at the edge of the lias and mountain limestone forma¬ tions, and chiefly upon a thin alluvial soil. A little stream, the Thaw,, crosses the main street, and for a short space skirts one border of the district. Locally the town is spoken of as consisting of the east and west villages, but in the village street, some three-quarters of a mile in length, the houses are continuous, and these, with a few short cross rows on either side, constitute the town. The water supply is derived chiefly from three public wells ; one in the centre of the town fed by water piped from a spring in a neighbouring field,, another a little distance beyond the line of houses on the west, and a third in the east village. This latter is spoken of by the inhabitants as giving water offensive to taste and smell. It stands in the immediate vicinity of cesspools, and its use is no doubt most dangerous. A fourth well has recently been sunk at a new cattle market, but this, like the most satisfactory of the old supplies, is a little to the west of the centre of the town. Such sewers as exist are of very rude construction, consisting chiefly of the old stone highway drains. In the east village and in the further portion of the west (about one-third of the town), even such channels are wanting, and the slop water flows down dilapidated surface gutters in the streets, or is thrown anywhere about the premises. The sewers discharge into the little river Thaw, at a part spoken of as the Poplar Pool, 200 yards or so from the centre of the village, and somewhat nearer the grammar school and other houses. In summer the water here is almost stagnant, and at Poplar House, close by, used as a private day school, the inmates complain of its offensiveness. Moreover, within a mile of its course the stream traverses the village of Llanbleithan, in the rural district,