CROYDON. 



HISTORY. 



The following extracts from the Rivers Pollution 

 Commission, First Report, Vol. I., pages 87 to 89 

 (1870), will be of interest :— 



" At the Beddington meadows below Croydon 

 260 acres of an open soil upon a gravelly subsoil 

 have for the last seven years received the drainage 

 water of from 30,000 to 40,000 people. The water 

 supply of Croydon and the copious land drainage of 

 the place together yield a quantity of sewage equal 

 to at least 3,000,000, sometimes exceeding 5,000,000, 

 gallons daily . . . Watercresses, too, have proved here 

 an excellent crop for sewaging, not only from the 

 profit derived from them, but from, their cleansing 

 powers upon the dirty liquid." 



Mr. Marriage (the tenant) paid the rent and also 

 " a profit rent of £1 per acre per annum for the use 

 of the sewage." Periodical analyses extending over 

 a whole year (September 24, 1868, to September 24, 

 1869) were made, and I have worked out the average 

 for the efiluents (see No. 2 below). Figures are 

 given of samples taken on December 23 and 30, 1869 

 (see Nos. 3 and 4 below) : — 



tity." The reference to the successful cultivation of 

 watercress will show how different the views with 

 regard to sewage disposal were in 1870 from those 

 in vogue in 1906. In " Sewage Disposal Works," 

 by W. Santo Crimp (1890, first edition), it is stated 

 " For several years the corporation have given up 

 keeping cattle, but have taken horses and cattle in 

 to graze. A dairy farmer has erected buildings upon 

 the farm, in which about 200 milking cows are kept 

 which consume large quantities of sewage-grown 

 produce" (page 129). 



REPORTS TO THE ROYAL COMMISSION. 



Separate or Combined. — The 

 The SewaRO. separate system is used on about 

 half the drainage area for water 

 from roads and front roofs ; back roofs and back- 

 yards drain into the foul-water sewers. The streets 

 are chiefly macadam. Domestic or Mixed. — The 

 sewage is almost entirely domestic ; about 2 per 

 cent, say 80,000 gallons, is received per diem of 

 laundry, brewery and butchers' effluents. It is 

 estimated that about one-fourth of the sewage is 



" Only on one occasion (August 12, 1869) during 

 the entire year was the effluent water discharged in a 

 somewhat unsatisfactory condition. . . . Suspended 

 matters were never present except in minute quan- 



Suhsoil Water. The normal Dry-weather Flow is 

 4,000,000 gallons, being 3,000,000 gallons from 

 Croydon and 1,000,000 gallons from Thornton 

 Heath and Norbury. The Storm Flow in times 



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