HH62/1/DUNBAR/31

Transcription

[Page] 30

plans for a new scheme for the whole locality. Part of Bearsden is
a Special Drainage District - the New Kirk District. The outfall is
at the tank just mentioned, but the arrangement is unsatisfactory
and inadequate.
Cumbernauld village from its high site is well adapted for a good
drainage system. The sewage at present pollutes the burn which
flows through the village, and last summer it caused an intolerable
nuisance, necessitating the cleaning out of the burn through its
whole length within the villiage. From some houses the slop-
water discharges into street channels, and others have private
drains, but all ultimately enter the burn.
In Condorrat the drainage is chiefly into road channels. A
number of houses drain into an abominably foul ditch which
communicates with and pollutes the Luggie.

Drainage of Mining Villages. - In the numerous mining
villages throughout the Eastern District one general plan of drain-
age prevails, with local variations. Slop-water is thrown into open
channels, which are carried along the front of the rows and usually
end in a covered drain connected with a neighbouring watercourse
It will be better to discuss the drainage of these villages jointly
rather than adhere to the grouping of parishes.
Open channels as opposed to covered drains are the salient
features of the system, and, in spite of certain obvious objections,
they appear to me to be on the whole the more suitable arrange-
ment. Even where the water supply is sufficient for the require-
ments of the inhabitants, it is sometimes so arranged as not to
permit of its being utilised for flushing purposes; and a covered
drain without a sufficient flow of water through it, gets quickly
choked and becomes a serious nuisance. To a great extent
scavenging of the open channels takes the place of flushing of
underground drains, and I am glad to be able to report that the
scavenging is as a rule being regularly attended to by the colliery
owners. The main points connected with the channels are their
structure, distance from the houses, scavenging, and flushing.
Twechar. - The village so named includes Twechar Row and Barr-
hill Rows. Twechar Row is situated on the south bank of the Forth
and Clyde Canal. The surface channel is of fireclay, and is about
14 feet distant from the front of the houses. It has a good slope,

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and is connected by a short covered drain with the Canal, which
receives the sewage. But between the end of the open channel
and the beginning of the drain there is a space of several feet
of irregular and unpaved ground, which appears to act as a kind
of catchpit, where much of the solid matter is deposited. Last
summer this was very foul, and the arrangement is very objec-
tionable. A neighbouring burn, apt to be dry in summer,
is said to have been at one time connected with the head of
the open channel, and to have kept a flow of water in it for
a great part of the year. There is no doubt that some flushing
arrangement would be of great advantage here. Meanwhile two
pillar wells have their waste water carried away by the channel,
the wells being placed just beside it. The channel is scavenged
regularly several times a week.
The ashpit and privy accommodation is bad. The distance is
only 15 feet from the front of the houses, the ashpits are too
large, badly built, not roofed over, and not often enough emptied.
The thoroughfare for the row consists of the 15-feet path between
the houses and the privies, and here milk carts, butchers' carts,
&c., do all their trade with the inhabitants.
Barrhill Rows are four in number, and contain the great bulk
of the population of Twechar village. The surface channels are
nearly 40 feet from the houses, and pillar wells are placed as in
Twechar Row. The scavenging is similar. Two of the channels
empty, by a rough trench, into a small quarry hole at the end of
the rows, and the sewage gets lost here, but doubtless ultimately
finds its way into the Canal, having meanwhile undergone an
irregular but perhaps effective filtration. The sewage from the
other two rows gets mixed with coal washings from a neighbouring
pit, and the mixture enters a ditch which ends also in the Canal.
The ashpits, privies, coal houses, and washing houses are all in well
built blocks 24 feet from the houses. The ashpits are roofed over.
Auchinstarry Rows. - There are four rows, with a population of
698. The channels here also are at a good distance - nearly 40
feet - from the houses, are of fireclay, and are scavenged daily.
Pillar wells are connected with them as in the other rows. At
the end of each channel there is a built cesspool for subsidence of
solids. Covered drains pass from the cesspools, and all empty into
a series of three small catchpits, in which there is further deposit