Page 25 - The Health OF Redditch

The Health Of Reditch

owners and inhabitants of Alcester Street threatening proceedings if something were not done
‘to•relieve•their•wants’. The Sanitary Committee report stated that the committee found it
impossible to deal with numerous cases of nuisances from the want of sewers. The Public Works
Committee recommended that Messrs. Gotto and Beesley be asked to give a plan and estimate
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for the work.
The British Medical Journal gave•a•detailed•account•of•Mr.•Page’s Second annual report on
the sanitary condition of ... Redditch, for the year ... 1875 and the severity of the problem. The
Journal concluded that the description given of Redditch indicated it was one of the most
unsanitary towns in England.

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REDDITCH .-Mr. Herbert Page's report contains a detailed account of the sanitary condition of
the Redditch urban district, and a more unsatisfactory statement it has scarcely ever been our duty
to consider. Mr. Page commences his report by pointing out the powers conferred on local
authorities by the Public Health Act, and the necessity for their energetic enforcement in Redditch,
although the local board was constituted as long ago as 1859. He especially mentions as being
urgently required efficient sewage, adequate and wholesome water supply, properly constructed
and clean habitations, and a general supervision over the sanitary state of the town. The number
of houses in the town district is 1,540, many of them being very old and in a very bad sanitary
condition. The majority were built for the working classes, many of them back to back, and some
have been so constructed since the formation of the Board. The general unsanitary conditions are
enumerated at length, viz., water in the cellars, damp walls, leaky roofs, floors covered with
broken stones or bricks, filthy condition of the houses, very imperfect or total want of drainage,
saturation of sub-soil, bad water-supply, inadequate closet- accommodation, windows which will
not open, and overcrowding in many of these wretched dwellings. He also advises that a rough
sketch of proposed dwellings should always be laid before the sanitary committee, so as to prevent
the erection of any more houses back to back. He also advises that all works executed under the
orders of the sanitary committee should be carried out under the immediate superintendence of
the inspector, and the work not passed unless his requirements were strictly fulfilled. A
house-to-house inspection has recently been made of all the houses in the town, to ascertain the
state of their drainage, closet- accommodation, and water-supply. It appears that there are 700
middens in the town, most of which are built of brickwork, uncemented, and larger than the
regulation size. Many adjoin the dwelling-houses, are open, undrained, and contain the refuse of
the house as well as the ordinary contents of a midden-cesspool, and give off most offensive
effluvia. No fewer than 458 are uncovered, against 242 which are covered; and in one part of the
town there are only “72 closets amongst 3,000 inhabitants, or 41.6 persons to each closet”,•and•
there• are• “332 persons without any closet-accommodation•whatever”. All kinds of sulliage are
thrown into the cesspools, because no provision for house-drainage has even been attempted.
Mr. Page observes on this that the disposal of the sewage is an engineering question into which
he will not enter, but strongly advises, until proper sewers are provided, that the dry earth or
charcoal system should be adopted.

Bad as the midden system is, the sewerage is worse, as it appears that there are only about
one- seventh of all the streets in the old-town district that are properly sewered. The return
is as follows.• “Total length of streets sewered sufficiently deep, 3,421 feet; insufficiently
deep, 5,374 feet; not sewered at all, 16,818 feet.” It appears that the Board, “several years ago”, had

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Worcester Journal, 6 November 1875.
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The British Medical Journal, 1 July 1876.

Angela Webster Page: 25 of 26