Dr. S.W. Wheaton's report to the Local Government Board on the sanitary circumstances of the Bettws-y-Coed rural district, and on the prevalence of enteric fever and diphtheria in the district / [S.W. Wheaton].

  • Wheaton, S. W.
Date:
1898
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. S.W. Wheaton's report to the Local Government Board on the sanitary circumstances of the Bettws-y-Coed rural district, and on the prevalence of enteric fever and diphtheria in the district / [S.W. Wheaton]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    largely dependent upon catering for visitors who come during the summer months. There are several large hotels and numerous boarding-houses in each of these places. A great deal of butter, milk, and other .farm produce is sent from the district to neighbouring large towns, such as Llandudno, and even as far as Liverpool. The market town for the district is Llanrwst, at which an important weekly market is held. In the summer time the population of the district is, in all probability, nearly doubled by the influx of visitors ; there is also an increasing resident population, “ retired ” persons, who are attracted to the district and who build villa residences for per¬ manent occupation. Condition of Dwellings.—Most of the villages are fairly compact; outlying dwellings comprise a few groups of cottages, built for quarrymen in the neighbourhood of slate quarries, and some isolated farmhouses. Dwellings are for the most part well built, and their interiors are cleanly kept, but old cottages are to be found in most of the villages which each contain two rooms only. Such dwellings are without through ventilation, either from the absence of door or windows at the back, or owing to their having been built into or against a sloping bank. Collections of such dwellings were especially noted at Cwm Penmachno and at Trefriw. The surroundings of dwellings are, however, not satisfactory in the majority of instances. House-yards are unpaved, or paved with loose stone or slate, and are undrained, so that after rainfall water, along with slops and liquid filth, stands in pools in the neigh¬ bourhood of dwellings, and eventually soaks into the ground near at hand. In a number of instances, down-spouting not having been provided for conducting away rain water from the roofs of dwellings, water from the roofs causes dampness of their foundations and of their walls. Water Supply. — For Bettws-y-Coed water is obtained from the river Llugwy, at a point just above the Swallow Falls, two miles above the village. Here a dam has been constructed across the river the water of which Hows directly into the iron main by which the village is supplied by gravitation. There is no storage or filtration of the water before use. I am informed that this water supply is frequently not sufficient for the needs of the village in the summer time, and that the District Council have declined lately to supply a number of dwellings near which the main passes on its way to the village. The pressure of the water in the pipes is inadequate in some parts of the village ; a defect which, together with the inadequacy of the supply in summer time, is probably due partly to blocking of the pipes by debris carried into them from the stream, and partly to leakages. I found at the time of my visit that water from one of the ball-hydrants in the village was leaking in considerable amount into an adjoining- sewer man-hole. The supply of water would appear to be amply sufficient for the needs of the district if only it were efficiently controlled. On following the course of the river Llugwy above the Swallow Falls intake, I found between this point and the Royal Hotel at Capel Curig, a distance of 3^ miles, abundant evidence of gross pollution of the river by sewage from dwellings. There is no system of sewnrage at Capel Curig; but the result of my observations was to show that nearly the whole of the slop water and liquid refuse from that village, and also the discharges from nearly all the water closets, of which there are many in the different hotels, are delivered directly or indirectly into this stream. In addition privies are, where in use, in many instances built directly over small watercourses falling to the river. As regards two rows of cottages the slop water and liquid refuse from which were discharged on the surface of a field (and these cottages appeared to be the only dwellings from which such matters did not escape into the river), I found that the contents of pail privies, with which these dwellings are provided, were habitually thrown directly into the river, which is close by. In addition to all the before-mentioned sources of pollution much solid refuse from dwellings, both ashes and larger household refuse, is thrown into the river. The drainage from cowsheds, farm-yards, manure heaps, and stables also enters the river. In its course between Capel Curig and the intake at Swallow Fails the river flows through fields which are cultivated, and at the time of my visit I observed several which were heavily dressed with manure from cowsheds. The population of the Ecclesiastical parish of Capel Curig, in 1891, was 447 persons, living in 91 houses. Nearly all the dwellings in this parish are