Dr. H. F. Parson's report to the local government board on the sanitary condition of the Stourbridge registration district, and on the late prevalence of scarlet fever therein.

  • Parsons, H. F.
Date:
1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. H. F. Parson's report to the local government board on the sanitary condition of the Stourbridge registration district, and on the late prevalence of scarlet fever therein. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

    18/26 (page 18)
    24* Brierley Hill Urban District. This district is conterminous with the ecclesiastical district of Brierley Hill, but for civil purposes forms a part of the parish of Kingswinford. The area is 1,027 acres, the population in 1871 was 11,046, and is believed not to have increased since that time. The site is elevated and hilly, lying entirely above the 300 ft. contour line. The town is of comparatively modem date, and the population consists almost entirely of the industrial classes, who are employed in collieries and ironworks. The 10-yard seam of coal lies com- paratively near the surface and is extensively worked; hence the whole site of the town is rapidly subsiding with disastrous effects upon the buildings, even new and substantially built edifices being sadly distorted and cracked. Except however for the frequent dilapidations due to this cause, the house accommodation of the labouring people, in spite of the black and dingy appearance of the town, is better than in some of the neighbouring places. The houses are not cramped so closely together, and there are no miserable hovels like those too common in the Worcestershire portion of the Rural Sanitary District. Sewerage.—The majority of the streets are sewered, the sewers being con- structed of glazed socket pipes 9 to 18 inches in diameter, with luted clay joints, clay being considered preferable to cement in shifting ground, since it allows a little movement between the pipes without cracking. The subsidence of the ground necessitates continual attention to the state of the sewers, which have to be from time to time exposed and relaid. The sewage at present runs into the Stourbridge Canal without any purification, but the Authority are negotiating for the lease of three acres of land for filter beds on the intermittent downward principle. The canal at this point being at a high level with a chain of locks descending on either side, the company require for navigation purposes all the water they can obtain, and claim all the drainage water from Brierley Hill. The house-slops are in many cases conveyed by open channels into the sewers. No case was observed in which a drain opened inside a house. Water Supply.—The mains of the South Staffordshire Waterworks Company are now laid in most of the streets, and the Sanitary Authority have an agree- ment with the company to enforce a supply to all houses which are not otherwise well supplied with water. Several polluted wells have been closed, by order of the magistrates, and the tap water substituted. Excrement Disposal.—Midden privies are in general use here as in other places in the neighbourhood; they are open and too large. The Authority themselves undertake the removal of night-soil at annual cost of about 487/.; the work appeared to be fairly well done. The Authority had however under discussion the proposal to let the work to a contractor, this retrograde step having been proposed on economical grounds. Sanitary Administration.—The Local Government Acts were adopted in 1867. The Local Board consists of 18 members who meet monthly; committees oftener if required. The Medical Officer of Health receives a salary of 30/. yearly, of which no part is repaid from the Parliamentary grant; he makes inspections of his district, and visits houses where infectious disease has broken out. He receives monthly returns of deaths from the registrar, and presents a report on the health of his district to the Authority at each meeting. The office of Inspector of Nuisances is held by the Surveyor, who is also an architect by profession. The joint salary is 120/., of which no part is repaid from the Parliamentary Grant. The removal of nuisances appears to be efficiently carried out. The Authority adopted in 1869 a code of byelaws embracing clauses regulating the meetings of the Authority, the duties of officers, slaughter- houses, prevention of nuisances, new streets and buildings, and common lodging houses. The slaughter-houses in the district, however, are not registered as required by the byelaws. The Authority have provided no hospital for the isolation of persons suffering from infectious diseases, and it is considered that, if such provision were made, it would not be made use of by the people. Nor have the Authority any disinfecting apparatus for