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Esholt: A suitable case for treatment! (2) |
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a trip back in time! |
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In
the first of a series in which West Yorkshire people look back at
the county's hidden history, we report on research by Bradford College
student Breedge Garnett who has been proving
the truth of the old Yorkshire saying: "Where there's muck, there's
brass!" |
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It
was the state of the Aire that eventually forced Bradford's city
fathers to begin to sort out the problem. In February 1869 William
Stansfield of Esholt Hall, which was almost alongside the river,
could no longer stand the smell!
Although the council could claim he was part of the problem, as
he owned a number of mills that poured waste from cleaning and
dying into the Aire, he was granted an interim injunction ordering
the Corporation to improve the sewage system in order not to pollute
the Beck. Work begun in 1862 on a new sewage works was far from
complete and the 30 miles of sewers finished by 1870 (at about
the same time the City Hall was being erected) only made things
worse. The effluent was still emptied into the Beck.
To sort things out Bradford Corporation proposed a sewage works
at Frizinghall that would treat the waste before water went into
the river
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| Esholt
Hall (Photo: Breedge Garnett) |
In
an early example of public-private partnership, the city was to
build the works and lease the site to a company that agreed to
provide the service free of charge for three years. It hoped to
make its money by charges and by selling the purified fertiliser
produced as a by-product.
But
it was not to be. Bradford's sewage was too rich in chemicals
and grease from the textile trade to be of any use as a fertiliser
it just would not dry out. The company went into, well,
liquidation, in 1874. A new injunction prohibited the discharge
of any sewage into the Beck. The Corporation took over the operation
and a new process of cleansing was found so that by 1876, 30,000
gallons of sewage were being treated each hour.
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