Sheffield Independent – Saturday 02 February 1884
Doncaster and Neighbourhood.
Doncaster Rural Sanitary Authority.
Dr. Mitchell Wilson, medical officer of health, Doncaster, has just issued his annual report. There are now 25,431, the increase of population over the preceding year being 416. The area of the district is 106,326 acres. The registration sub-districts are enumerated thus:
Barnbro’: Population, 3,918; area in acres, 21,600.
Bawtry: Population, 613; area in acres, 35,078.
Campsall: Population, 4,941; area in acres, 26,323.
Tickhill: Population, 10,491; area in acres, 22,265.
The births during the year are numbered 870, which is at a rate of 34 per 1,000, and nearly equal to the average of the previous five years. There have been 445 deaths, which is at the rate of 18.2 per 1,000. There have been 94 deaths from infectious diseases.
Scarlet fever has been most widely prevalent, the most serious outbreak being at Adwick-upon-Dearne and neighbouring hamlets. Notice was sent to the Local Government Board. Nineteen cases of scarlet fever and seven deaths took place where families living in a block of houses where the drains were untrapped.
Nearly fifty cases of the same fever and six deaths were reported in the parish of Denaby, including the colliery houses at Denaby, the glass works, and the village proper; constant attention was necessary to see that the more thickly crowded parts were kept in a reasonably satisfactory condition.
Of sanitary work carried on during the year the near completion of the main and major parts of the Balby sewerage scheme is the most important.
The need for an enlargement of the churchyard at Conisbro’ was briefly referred to, and this question will, we believe, be brought forward at a meeting of the Burial Board shortly. Of twelve samples of drinking water analysed two were satisfactory, two only just passable, four so polluted as to be regarded with suspicion, and four quite unfit for the purpose. At Misson and Skelow the wells needed protecting against surface and subsoil percolation. At Denaby the water was good, but not of sufficient quantity, and the doctor hinted that an abundant supply was much needed among a mining population.