View report page

SUTTON URBAN DISTRICT.
Area, 1,836 Statute Acres.
Number of Inhabited Houses at Census 1881, 1,537; at Census 1891, 2,200;
at Census, 1901, 2,976.
Population (exclusive of South Metropolitan District Schools) at Census 1881,8,700;
at Census 1891, 12,000; at Census 1901, 15,486.
MEDICAL OFFICER'S REPORT FOR THE YEAR 1904.
Gentlemen,
I have the pleasure to submit my Report on the health and sanitary
administration of the district during the year. The low general death-rate,
infant mortality, and deaths from preventible diseases testify to the
excellence of Sutton as a residential district, which its natural position fully entitles
it to assume, and which, with sound government and good sanitary administration,
it ought to be able to maintain.
I.—Physical Features.
Sutton in its main direction lies almost due north and south, the High
Street continuous on the north with the London Eoad and on the south with the
Brighton Road, intersecting the district in this direction, which is about 2f miles
long between the boundaries. From east to west the town is divided by the
Carshalton Road and Cheam Road, and at this point is about a mile in width. The
whole district has an area of 1,836 acres. The southern portion of Sutton is
beautifully situated, sloping up to the noted breezy Banstead Downs, attaining a
height of about 300 feet above sea level, and having a subsoil of Chalk. The
northern portion also rises from the lower part of the town about Sutton Green (117
feet above sea level) to Sutton Common and Benhilton, both of which are prettily
situated and favourite residential districts. This part of the town is mainly situated
on the London clay, but dividing this from the chalk, which may be roughly said to
extend to a line drawn east to west, about the level of West Street, are two narrow
strips of Thanet sand and plastic clay (Woolwich and Reading beds) an outcrop of
the lower London tertiaries. The natural or surface water drainage is mainly to the
Pyl Brook, a small tributary of the Beverley Brook, and to a small extent on the
east side into a brook running into the Wandle. On the north side Sutton is
bounded by Carshalton and Morden on the south by the parish of Banstead, on the
east by Carshalton, and on the west by Cheam and Morden.
II.—Vital Statistics : Births and Deaths.
1. Population.—The natural increase of population, viz., the excess of births
over deaths during the year 1904 was 211. This, together with the increased
number of inhabited houses, warrants the assumption that as far as the nett
population is concerned the increase has been in about the same ratio as during the
preceding year, and as shown in the last census to have taken place during the
previous ten years. A census taken at the Metropolitan Asylum Board's School at
Midsummer gave a resident population of 497 persons, but the South Metropolitan
District Schools, which have previously added considerably to the gross population,
were closed. The gross population for the purposes of these statistics will therefore
be estimated at 16,997 as compared with 17,168, showing a decrease of 171, and the
nett population, excluding the above schools, as 16,500, as compared with 16,200 the
previous year, an increase of 300 persons.