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SECTION C. 11.
SANITARY CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE AREA.
Personal Note.
This is the 25th Annual Report I have had the privilege
and. honour of assisting in the compilation and I am taking the
opportunity of introducing these few personal reminiscences of
the quarter of a century I have served in the Public Health
Department of the authority.
Chingford, it will be recalled, was promoted to the status
of an Urban District in the year 1895, to that of a Borough in 1938
and the history of the district may be sharply divided into two
periods of about thirty years. Prom the date of the inception of
the Urban District until 1924 may be regarded as a period of quiet
and steady growth, the population varying between 3,277 (estimated
1895) to 9,958 (estimated 1924). Prom 1925 onwards until 1954,
when it could be said that the district was largely built up, the
rate of growth was extremely rapid. The 1921 census had shown the
population of the then Urban District of Chingford to be 9,482;
that of 1931, 22,053, thus gaining for the district the distinction
of being bracketted with Dagenham and Hornchurch as areas in the
administrative County of Essex where population increases in the
decade had exceeded 100%. The respective figures were Dagenham 879%,
Hornchurch 160.9% and Chingford 132.6%,
By the year 1930, then, the district had definitely gained a
more pronounced urban appearance but still there remained much of
its former rural charm. To the north stood the Royal Epping Forest,
as to-day, inviolate; to the west Chingford Marshes, where Flander's
Weir sought to claim an annual victim; to the south-east Roper's
Fields with a public footpath leading to Larkshall Road; again to
the east the Boothby-Heathcote Estate, carefully retained by its
owner notwithstanding offers from prospective developers. No less
than eleven dairy farmers raised their cattle on not too restricted
pastures. One of these, the octogenarian, Mr.James Soper, still
resides at Low Hall Farm and continues, although in a limited manner,
the business he commenced sixty years ago. In 1930 Pole Hill was
still in private ownership and T.E.Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia)
visited his Retreat near the summit. Just to the north of The Ridgeway
was Mount Echo House, formerly in the ownership of Lady Jane Seymour,
overlooking fields which subsequently became the Mount Echo Estate.
To a young Inspector, coming from the industrial midlands in
the spring of 1930, Chingford possessed a freshness and charm
which was all the more accentuated by reason of contrast. Not
only was the district burgeoning, but the entire staff of the
Department was new - during that year not only was there a newly
appointed Inspector, but also a Medical Officer and a new clerk.
Even the Town Hall was newly erected and by mid-summer a new plant