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The principal burial ground was the yard attached to the
church, in which 600 to 700 interments were made annually,
with the result that the bones were repeatedly turned up.
The construction of improved sewerage and drainage systems
occupies a large part of the report, and the necessity of joint
action by the civil and military authorities, and of an extension
of the main drainage of London for the sake of
Woolwich is pointed out:—
" But however this may be settled, one thing is clearly
requisite, namely, the complete drainage of Woolwich
and the freedom of the river from any taint opposite
to that town at any time of the tide; and this latter
condition is only to be accomplished by continuing
the proposed outlet sewer from the top of Woolwich
Reach along Greenwich Marshes, beneath the town
of Woolwich (as proposed to be accomplished for
Greenwich), and through Plumstead Marshes, ' below
Woolwich to some point near Erith,' as indicated by
the Engineer to the Metropolitan Commissioner of
Sewers. No scheme short of this ought to be satisfactory
to the Government, as having so large an
interest in Woolwich, or to the inhabitants of that
town, as it is the only practical remedy to free them
from a nuisance, which (if established) would place
them in a more unhealthy condition than they are at
present."
As is now well known the construction of the. southern
outfall sewer, which was doubtless to some extent the result
of this report, had the efEect not only of improving the
drainage of Woolwich, but of draining the marshes, and
ultimately of ridding the neighbourhood of malaria. It is