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being thrown away, and sewage farms and treatment
came under discussion.
It was then that a Board was formed, and
representatives of all towns from Barnes, Mortlake
and Isleworth upwards, on both sides of the river,
including Teddington, Richmond and Kingston to
Hampton, united under the imposing title of the
lower Thames Valley Main Sewerage Board. It
held many meetings, and went into the merits of
many plans, and after holding the field from 1877
to 1885, and having presented many lengthy and
exhaustive schemes for enquiry, was finally dissolved
by Act of Parliament without having done
anything whatever of practical value towards solving
the question under consideration, as unanimity
or anything like it was never attainable.
*
Then Kingston evolved a scheme of its own
to which we ultimately become a contributor.
Surbiton entered into an agreement with Kingston
for the treatment of its sewage for a term of twentyfive
years, which came into being on the 1st July,
1887, and will expire on the 30th June, 1912. The
first essential work was the collection of the sewage
of the entire district, for at that time, Tolworth,
Hook and Southborough formed a separate special
drainage district within the area of the Kingston
Rural Sanitary Authority, and they devised the idea
of, and started, the present Tolworth Sewage Farm
ultimately taken over by Surbiton.
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