Concern about Sanitary Conditions in Cowbridge
21st June 1875
A walk in & out among the houses of Cowbridge is anything but pleasing. There are a number of very dirty cesspools, and pigs, which are numerous, stink horribly. At the back of the market-house, which belongs to the Corporation, there is a set of privies which serve the market and slaughter houses as well as a row of 5 or 6 cottages. These privies empty into an open pit, the contents of which lie reeking in the sun & give out abominable odours.
In front of this row of cottages, only a yard from the doors, is a ditch. What may be cast into it we know not, but after flowing a short distance it passes other houses, possibly receiving more refuse, then runs under an arch in the very middle of the town and joins the river Thaw…..it ought to be covered in…..the other part of the Town Ditch is covered and empties itself into the river.
Then, behind Cowbridge School, just between this point, the sewer from the school discharges into the same river. Thus within 100 yards of the school, and within 200 yards of the town, three big drains run into a stream which is some 3 or 4 yards wide.
The Corporation used to join with the occupant of the mill in periodically cleaning the stream, but now they decline to co-operate in the work & Mr Harding, the present tenant of the mill, has to do it at his own charge.
In Cowbridge itself there are two big open gutters, one on each side of the principal street. They run down to the river and are not permitted to become dirty, but with a house drain running in to them, you can never guarantee what use they may be put to.
Drinking water is procured from 3 town pumps and private pumps; water for other domestic purposes is often fetched from the river.
The wells, it is feared, are not in a good state. The water from the pump near the Market-house has anything but a pleasant taste, and the stones around it are believed to admit of percolation from the surface. Surface drainage is also suspected at another of the pumps at the west end of the town.
In a court not far above the slaughter-house there is an open well, totally unprotected, and the water there looks filthy -people say it is used simply for washing purposes.
Until a few years ago the inhabitants of Llanblethian used to drink the water from the river Thaw, notwithstanding the outpourings of the Town Ditch & the College drain. Now however, by the energy of Mr. Thomas, Mr. Davies, Mr. Nicholl, and others, two wells have been sunk, one on each side of the stream, so that no one need drink river water except he is too idle to go to the pump.
South Wales Daily News