500 EEPOBT— 1886. 



Bromwich, Wednesburj, Darlaston, Tipton, part of Wolverhampton, and 

 a number of other urban or rural sanitary districts, forming the major 

 part of what is known as the 'Black Country,' is situated near the summit 

 of one of the great watersheds of England — that of the Trent — beino- 

 drained by the River Tame, which, with its various feeders, forms a small 

 stream, dischai-ging into the Trent about midway between Tamworth and 

 Burton. Whatever may have been the benefits derived by the large 

 population of the Black Country from being situated high np in the 

 watershed, one great disadvantage — that of sewage pollution — soon 

 became apparent owing to the naturally diminutive character of the 

 watercourses and the large amount of liquid refuse poured into them. 

 The Corporation of Birmingham, as the principal local authority, was 

 early made aware of the responsibility thus incurred, and was earnestly 

 combating the sewage difficulty at a time when the authorities of many 

 towns considered it, if not exactly the right thing to do, at any rate only 

 a venial oS'ence, to discharge their sewage into the rivers or streams that 

 flowed in their vicinity. 



At the time the formation of the Drainage Board was suggested none 

 of the authorities of the towns or districts draining into the Tame had 

 made, so far as the author is aware, any really systematic attempt at 

 sewage purification except those of Birmingham and Wolverhampton. 



The Corporation of Birmingham constructed, as far back as 1853, 

 two main intercepting sewers whereby the sewage from those portions of 

 the borough draining to the Biver Rea and Hockley Brook was conveyed 

 to the general outlet at Saltley, where subsequently a system of tank 

 purification had been adopted, and which was developed from time to 

 time, until at the period when the Drainage Board was formed the Cor- 

 poration possessed land and works thoroughly capable of purifying, so far 

 as precipitation by lime could purify, the sewage of the borough. The 

 Manor of Aston Local Board had caused plans to be prepared in 1874 

 for the intercepting sewers for diverting the sewage of its district from 

 the River Tame and the Hockley Brook, and by agreement the Handsworth 

 Local Board, whose district is situated on the same watersheds but 

 higher up, became joint owners of such sewers. These sewers were con- 

 structed in 1876, and although the sewage was thus diverted in detail it 

 was only to cast it into the Tame again in one united volume, pending the 

 decision of these boards as to the method of sewage treatment to be 

 adopted ; a problem that threatened to be very difficult of solution had not 

 the Drainage Board about that time been formed, and so relieved those 

 authorities of further trouble. The authorities of the district of Balsall 

 Heath, a small but somewhat thickly inhabited area draining to the Rivers 

 Rea and Cole immediately above the Borough of Birmingham, had esta- 

 bli:=hed some precipitating 'works of an elementary character at the outlet 

 in the River Cole area, but owing to the great increase of population all 

 around the use of these works had become objectionable, and as the only 

 outlets for this district lay through the Borough of Birmingham, it became 

 necessary, if great expense were to be avoided, that some arrangement 

 should be made for the Corporation to provide the requisite outlets. The 

 district of Harborne, likewise situated in the watershed of the Rea above 

 the Borough of Birmingham, had also established a system of tank purifi- 

 cation, but open to similar objections to those above named in Balsall 

 Heath, this district also suffering from precisely the same difficulties as 

 to outlet. These, then, were the only districts in the neighbourhood of 



