Dr. Gresswell's report to the Local Government Board on the general sanitary condition of the Buckingham rural sanitary district / [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 general sanitary condition of the Buckingham rural sanitary district / [D. Astley Gresswell]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    j UBRAR.Y General Collection^ ess well’s Report to the Local Government Board opi the General Sanitary Condition of the Buckingham ural Sanitary District. +p 265 R. Thorne Thorne, Assistant Medical Officer, August 22, 1889. The Rural Sanitary District of the Union of Buckingham, which forms the subject of this report, comprises 49,014 acres of the N.W. Corner of Buckinghamshire. Its substratum is formed by the Great Oolite, Cornbrash, and Oxford clay. These formations indeed appear largely at the surface, but over a considerable area they are covered by Drift, in the shape of gravel, sand, loam, and alter¬ nating beds of clay. The land is very largely in pasture, much of it hitherto under tillage having been laid down to grass within recent years. The inhabitants are in chief part engaged on the land. They reside in scattered hamlets and villages, of which the largest does not contain 900 inhabitants. In point of numbers the population has been falling off slightly for some years past. It numbered 9,933 in 1871 and 9,833 in 1881; and it has, it is said, further fallen off since. This fall is attributed to general agri¬ cultural depression and conversion of arable into pasture land. It is computed by some that the land, as now laid out, could be satisfactorily worked by two thirds of the present agricultural population. The populations of the larger parishes are shown in Table A. Table A.—Showing the Populations, at the two Censuses of 1871 and 1881, of the 13 larger Parishes of the Rural Sanitary District of Buckingham. Parishes. Census Populations. 1871. 1881. Adstock - 383 352 Akeley-cum-Stockliolt - 378 387 Leckhampstead - 447 340 Maids Moreton - 511 448 Marsh Gibbon - - 876 743 Padbury - 601 530 Preston Bissett - - 485 344 Radclive - 339 367 Steeple Claydon - - 906 852 Stowe - - 370 338 Thornborough - 687 577 Tingewick - 945 787 Twyford - 346 339 The surface of the district is undulating, and the villages are situated in chief part on the slopes of the hills, while brooks or brooklets thread their course through or near by many of them, and for the most part to the Ouse. The villages in general stand upon Drift, a few upon Oxford clay or upon hard rock, or on the loose material, into which the latter has broken and crumbled 150.—9/89. Wt. 5176. E. 8s S. A o 59143.