Dr. Gresswell's report to the Local Government Board on the sanitary condition of Cradley in the rural sanitary district of Stourbridge, and on the recent prevalence of enteric fever there / [D. Astley Gresswell].

  • Gresswell, D. Astley (Dan Astley)
Date:
1889
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. Gresswell's report to the Local Government Board on the sanitary condition of Cradley in the rural sanitary district of Stourbridge, and on the recent prevalence of enteric fever there / [D. Astley Gresswell]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    1/8
    (OFFICIAL COPY.) Dr. Gresswell’s Report to the Local Government Board on the Sanitary Condition of Cradley in the Rural Sanitary District of Stourbridge, and on the recent Prevalence of Enteric Fever there. R. Thorne Thorne, Assistant Medical Officer, August 15th, 1889. Cradley,—a parish under the jurisdiction of the Stourbridge Rural Sanitary Authority,—like many neighbouring places in the coal and iron districts of Worcestershire and Staffordshire, has long been known to the Board for grave sanitary shortcomings and for prevalence of filth diseases. And a severe outbreak of enteric fever having occurred in Cradley in the latter part of 1888 and the early part of 1889, an inspection of the district was ordered with a view of learning the circumstances which had attended this disease- prevalence, and the nature and extent of the improvements effected by the Sanitary Authority in regard of the recommendations of the Board, addressed to the Authority after three several inspections, the first by Dr. Ballard in. 1873, the second by Dr. Parsons in 1880, and the third by myself in 1886. Cradley parish, in North Worcestershire, occupies 732 acres within a semi¬ circular bend of the River Stour. It is separated by the latter from Hawn, Cradley Heath, and Quarry Bank, while to the west and south it adjoins Lye, Wollescote, Lutley, and Hasbury. The portion of the river which bounds Cradley flows north-eastwards, then north-westwards, and finally south-westwards; and in its course falls from a level of 330 feet to one of 250 feet above Ordnance datum. Cradley lies at an average elevation of some 400 feet above the same datum. The inhabitants of Cradley, 5,284 in number at the census of 1881, occupy for the most part the summit and slopes of a straggling ridge, which, speaking generally, takes the same direction as the river, and which, from an elevation of about 500 feet above Ordnance datum at Parkside in the south, descends in a course of 2 miles or so to a level of about 300 feet at Lane’s End in the north¬ west. The main line of dwellings is, however, not continuous; broadly speaking, there are two groups of population, of which the northern is much the larger. The dwellings of the southern group are situated for the most part on or towards the summit of the ridge, those of the northern are situated chiefly on the sharp slope from the ridge to the river, where they form a small compact town reaching from near the summit of the ridge down to the river’s edge, with one main street (the High Street, continued on as Lyde Green) and smaller streets and lanes at right angles thereto, together with some courts. Hereafter it will be convenient to speak of the northern group of dwellings as Cradley proper. The lower part of this group, perhaps a third of it, is built upon clay of varying thickness; most of the dwellings of the rest of the district stand upon sandstone or on the rubble and sand, into LONDON: PRINTED FOR HER MAJESTY’S STATIONERY OFFICE, BY EYRE AND SPOTTISWOODE, EKINTEKS TO THE QDEEN’s MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY. And to be purchased, either directly or through any Bookseller, from EYRE and SPOTTISWOODE, East Harding Street, Fleet Street, E.C.; or ADAM and CHARLES BLACK, 6, North Bridge, Edinburgh ; or * ***__»_ HODGES, FIGGIS, & Co., 104, Grafton Street, Dublin. .wLLCOMB . „ . 7. LIBRARY 1889. Price Threepence. ‘/vrner&J Collections No. 45.