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21
Infant Mortality.
The figure obtained under this heading is regarded as a valuable
index of the sanitary conditions of a district. Furthermore,
as it is based on definite figures (i.e., the actual number of births
and infant deaths), it is more reliable than the death-rate, which
is calculated on an estimated population.
The rate for 1930 is 49.75 per 1,000 births. The rates for
England and Wales and for London during the same period were
60 and 59 respectively.
PHYSICAL FEATURES OF THE DISTRICT.
The Urban District comprises an irregular rectangular district
of approximately eleven square miles, the average elevation
lying between 16 and 104 above ordnance datum, the higher part
being Osterley and Heston, and the lower part along the margin
of the river from Brentford to the boundary at Twickenham. The
Western end is also low lying and the water level comparatively
near the surface, this part of the district being bounded by the
River Crane. The greater part of the district is on valley gravel
with pockets of clay at the western end. The district is bounded
on the Eastern side by the River Thames, the Grand Union Canal
and the River Brent, and crossed from West to South East by the
River Crane.
Taken on the whole, the district may be said to be comparatively
flat from end to end.
The district is roughly divided into two by the main Bath
Road which intersects it from East to West. Large tracts of the
district formerly occupied by market gardens are being rapidly cut
into by new housing schemes. There are two large private parks,
one surrounding the residence of the Earl of Jersey at Osterley
Park, and one at Syon House, the property of the Duke of Northumberland.
The greater part of the rest of the district is largely a dormitory
for workers in London.