[Report 1912] / Medical Officer of Health, Wigan County Borough.

  • Wigan (England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1912
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1912] / Medical Officer of Health, Wigan County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    19/208 (page 17)
    General Considerations. The County Borough of Wigan, including Pemberton, covers an area of 5,082 acres, and had a population at the 1911 census of 89,171. The estimated population on the 1st of July, 1912, was 90,504, on which figure the statistics in this report have been based. This population is essentially an industrial one, and is concentrated in densely populated areas in Wigan and Pemberton. A considerable portion of the area of the Borough is rural and agricultural, but the proportion of the population living under these conditions is in¬ considerable. The presence of this agricultural community is none the less of great importance from the public health point of view, inasmuch as it supplies a large proportion of the milk consumed in the town ; and the existence of farming operations in close proxi¬ mity to densely populated areas is always fraught with a certain degree of danger. The Borough area forms a considerable part of the Valley of the Douglas. This stream enters the Borough close to its most northern point, and practically traverses the old Borough from north to south, when it turns to the west and then bends northwards forming a loop. During its course through the Borough the stream falls considerably, the bench marks showing that its bed at entry is at a level of 150 feet above sea level, and near its exit 75 feet. It acts as a feeder to the Leeds and Liverpool canal—another waterway traversing the Borough, roughly, from east to west. The Douglas is already polluted on entering the Borough, and further sources of pollution within our area still persist. The periodical cleansing of its bed is a constant source of expenditure to the Sanitary Works Committee ; and complaints of nuisance have in the past been dealt with by the application of large quantities of chloride of lime— an expenditure which it would be difficult to justify by results. Practically throughout its course the Borough rises steeply from the banks of the stream ; the maximum elevation being 214 feet at Whelley, and 254 feet at the northern extremity of the Borough. The lowest ievei is in St. Andrew’s Ward, near the Leeds and Liver¬ pool canal, where the land is liable to floods. Geologically, the whole of the Borough rests on the Lower Coal-measures or Gannister Beds, which are here very superficial, and in fact outcrop in several parts of the district. The sub-soil is