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them to permit the drainage into the Metropolitan sewerage
system of parts of parishes beyond the Metropolitan boundary,
and the general question was fully considered by the Board, but
their Engineer reported against the admission of any ex-Metropolitan
parishes except Hornsey and Beckenham. Still, however,
nothing was done to admit either.
In the year 1869 the nuisance had grown so intolerable
that this Board, in self defence, were constrained, as a temporary
measure, to permit the drainage of a large number of houses on
the Beckenham Tongue to be connected with their sewer, and
entered into agreements with two public companies, owners of
estates, for such purpose. This concession almost wholly abated
the nuisance, but an appeal having been made by the inhabitants
to the Secretary of State, he directed an Inquiry to be instituted
into the subject under powers then Tested in him for the pnq>ose.
The Inquiry was held at the Penge Parochial Offices on the
28th February, 1870, when it was proposed that the Tongue of
Land should be formed into a Special Drainage District under
the Sewage Utilization Acts and, subject to the approval of the
Metropolitan Board, that an agreement should be entered into
between the Vestry of Beckenham and this Board, by which the
area in question should be drained into the Board's sewers,the
Parish of Beckenham being charged a fair proportion of the cost
of their construction and maintenance.
The general terms were approved by this Board and also by
the Vestry of Beckenham, but when the details of the arrangement
came to be considered, difficulties in negociation arose, and
the Metropolitan Board required that the proposed agreement
should have the sanction of Parliament.
In the mean time the necessity for some comprehensive
scheme of drainage for the whole Parish of Beckenham had been
urged by many of its inhabitants, and an Engineer had been consulted,
who projected a scheme by which the greater portion of
the parish was to be drained by means of sewage farms and the
Tongue of Land to be connected with the Metropolitan system of
sewers. The scheme was accepted by the Beckenham Vestry,
and the necessary parliamentary notices were issued accordingly
in November, 1870, and a Bill prepared for introduction into
Parliament in the then next session for effecting the twofold