Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Surbiton]
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18
Tolworth, Hook,
& Southborough.
In connection with the recently added portions of the
district, Hook, Southborough and Tolworth, I am not in a
position to report as fully as I hope to be at a later period.
Attention has been given to these localities equally with
Surbiton as regards complaints, the abatement of nuisances,
and infectious illnesses, but there has not as yet been any
systematic inspection. I have experienced no little difficulty
in getting correct returns from the Registrars, owing
apparently to an imperfect knowledge of the boundaries,
ecpecially in the matter of Southborough, and also as to
the dates when these places were taken over, and for these
reasons the vital statistics must be taken only as approximate.
In all these districts there is a large proportion of
cottage property, much of the more recently built being of
a sort that I hope and feel sure will never be tolerated in
the future. Also the condition of some of the side roads
being private roads, in Southborough and Red Lion Lane,
will require attention.
Drainage System
The drainage of the added districts is treated at a
so-called sewage farm of about 11 acres, situate at the
upper end of Red Lion Lane, Tolworth, which there receives
by gravitation the sewage from Hook, Southborough and a
portion of Long Ditton. These places are relieved by two
outfall sewers provided with certain flushing arrangements,
and their contents, after being discharged into a pump well,
are raised by gas engines and passed on into settling tanks,
being chemically treated on the way, the super-natant
fluid, after I believe being filtered, flows over portions of the
farm set apart to receive it, and the effluent discharges into
a streamlet, which after passing under the Ewell Road near
the Royal Oak, and by the Surbiton Hill Recreation Ground
joins the Hoggs Will River and so reaches the Thames.
For some time past there were justifiable and recurrent