HH62/1/DUNBAR/27

Transcription

[Page] 26

West Kilpatrick parish. The population is about 4,900. The
supply is plentiful and is from Cochno Loch, on the Kilpatrick
Hills. It is not filtered. In Duntocher all the houses in
New Street and William Street have the water piped into the
tenements, though not always into individual houses. In the
rest of the village the supply is principally by pillar wells. In
Dalmuir the water is piped into the houses. Hardgate is served
chiefly by pillar wells, though the water is conveyed into some
of the new houses. In Faifley pillar wells prevail, excepting in
Dr. Gilmour's new buildings, which have the water taken into
each house.
(2) Bowling District (population 829), also in West Kilpatrick.
This district includes Littlemill. The water is abundant and is
taken by gravitation from Auchentorlie Hill. It is filtered. There
is one pillar well at Littlemill. Otherwise all the houses using the
special supply have it led into the dwellings. But one or two
houses still use private wells.
Thus less than 6,000 of the 20,000 people in the Eastern
District are within Special Water Districts. But in some other
populous places, there are privately formed districts, also provided
with a regular systematic supply from a source outside the
populous places, so that about 11,500 of the 20,000 have a
satisfactory supply, while fully 3000 more have supplies which
have at least the advantage of not being derived from a strictly
local source.
At Milton (population of Milton and Dumbuck, 640) in the same
parish, a new gravitation supply is being taken from Mattock Hill,
provided by Mr. Buchanan of Auchentorlie. It is filtered, and is
plentiful. The works are not yet quite finished. In addition there
is a spring on the roadside that is largely used. Some buildings
that have recently been erected have no proper supply, and
the occupants have to walk an inconvenient distance to get
water from a spout connected with a horse trough. This water
comes from Auchentorlie Hill. At Dumbuck the supply is from
a dip well.
At Old Kilpatrick (population 1313) Lord Blantyre has provided
water from the Kilpatrick hills. It is plentiful, is stored in a
reservoir, and filtered. It is piped into all but three or four of the
houses, and there is only one pillar well on the street. Two or

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three houses use private wells - one a pump well, and another a
dip well, said to be liable to occasional entrance of impure water
from the roadway.
In East Kilpatrick parish, Garscadden Rows (population, 499)
get their water by gravitation from the higher ground behind
the village, but I have not yet learned the exact source, whether
from surface and subsoil, or from old pit workings. It is led by
iron pipes to a tank in the centre of the Rows, capable of holding
about 53,000 gallons. The tank is of concrete, and was cleaned
out last summer. It is covered by heavy boards laid side by
side. Children appear to be in the habit of casting on these
boards all sorts of rubbish, and the water is thus liable to
pollution. As the population is about 500, the tank can hold
only from ten to eleven days' supply, even at the low rate of ten
gallons per head per day, and last summer there was great
temporary scarcity. The water looks dirty, and contains animal
life.
In Bearsden (population, 1561), the admirable Loch Katrine
supply of Glasgow is provided, and is led into most of the houses.
In the miners' rows at Knightswood, Netherton, Drumchapel,
and Cloberhill, (total population about 1900), the Loch Katrine
water is also used, and is obtained from pillar wells.
In Kirkintilloch parish, at Twechar (population, 882) there is a
gravitation supply provided by the owners. It is pumped from
the mines, and is collected in a tank on a "blaes bing", whence it
is piped into pillar wells convenient to the houses.
In Waterside (population, 446) the water at present is about
as bad as can be conceived. The Luggie was at one time a
chief source, but is now so polluted as to be unusable. Dip wells
form the present source. Several of these are private. In one
the water looked very dirty and contained numerous living
organisms. One of the chief resorts for water is to an open dip
well in private ground, but to which it is said there is a right of
way. Steps lead down to the well, and surface drainage enters it.
Analysis shows abundance of ammonia. On standing, a dark
vegetable sediment collected in the bottom of the vessel. Proceed-
ings are being taken to form Waterside into a Special Water
District, the supply to be, by permission of Mr. Whitelaw, from the
pipe conveying the Kirkintilloch burgh water to Gartshore House.