View report page

6
The employment of Mr. Williams by this Board in carrying
out the alterations of the Penge and Bell Green Sewer was not
felt to be any bar to his engagement by the Guardians as their
Engineer in laying out a Scheme of Sewerage for the Beckenham
Area, and his suggestion that the drainage of parts of such area
could be carried out more efficiently and economically in combination
with parts of the Hamlet of Penge than otherwise, was,
subject to some modifications, approved and adopted by both
bodies.
The Sewers constructed by the Board during the year have
been of comparatively unimportant character; the total length,
however, of those completed or in course of construction, is 2,543
feet, and the cost to Lady-day, 1874, amounts to £906 11s. 5d.
The owners of various building estates have also submitted
to the Board for approval, pipe sewers for the drainage of such
estates, of a further total length of 5,510 feet.
SURFACE DRAINAGE.
It is an admitted fact that the Metropolitan System of
Sewers is insufficient to receive the surface water under circumstances
of exceptional rainfall, and this is especially the case in
the Lewisham District having only two main outfall sewers, of
which the Ravensbourne and Sydenham Sewer is but 6-ft. by
4-ft. 6-in., and the Ravensbourne and Lee Green Sewer only
3-ft. 9-in. by 2-ft. 4-in., the latter sewer draining also a large
portion of the Plumstead District.
The rapid fall in the surface level of Penge, from the northwestern
to the south-eastern boundary of the Hamlet, being
upwards of 250 feet within a distance of little more than a mile
and a half, has always rendered parts of the Hamlet peculiarly
liable to be flooded, and serious injury having, on several occasions,
been unavoidably sustained by inhabitants, the Board have,
dm in» this year retained the services of Mr. Williams in cutting
oil, as much as possible, the surface water of Penge from the
sewers, and turning it back again into its former, and, to a great
extent, disused channels.
I>\ constant attention on the part of the Engineer to minute
details, the surface drainage system of the Hamlet has to a considi
lahh extent, and at a comparatively moderate cost, been renewed
and improved, and although cases of exceptional rainfall have
on lined since this work was commenced, there has not been any
recurrence of the flooding of houses in the Hamlet.