— Lake
It may seem ridiculous to us today, but water pollution was very much in people's minds
Not just unsihtly — Filthy
And Smelly
Nut also seriously dangerous
Associated of course with Cholera, Typhoid, Dysentery
The "nuisances" i the ponds were deployed against Earl Spencer, in the fight to demand local democratic ownership and control of the Common
[Ownership and control of the means of recreation"]
This means a paradox.
Having said how awful the ponds were, and the need the Common and to drain and
Ponds no the Common were the result of gravel working - itself a dangerous activity. There were pits all over the Common. People had to take detours to avoid falling into them, and walkers fell into them at night.
On Monday evening a person named William Thorne, a compositor, was conveyed to St. Thomas's Hospital, having unfortunately broken both his legs, under the following circumstances: it appears that on Sunday night he was going across Wandsworth-common, when he thought he heard the shrieks of a female, at some distance, as if in distress; he immediately proceeded with all speed towards the spot, to afford assistance, in doing which he sprang from a bank which lay in his way, and not being aware of the height he had to jump, it being dark at the time, met with the dreadful accident. The poor fellow, we understand, is likely to live.
[BNA: Link]
Gravel digger buried alive on Wandsworth Common
MAN BURIED ALIVE ON WANDSWORTH COMMON.
Mr. J Payne opened and concluded inquiry last night at the Bull's Head Inn, Old-town, Clapham, into the circumstances attending the death of William Puttyfoot, 60 years of age, who died on Sunday last through injuries sustained on the previous Thursday by a fall of several tons of earth, whereby he was for some time buried alive.
John Clegg, a labourer, said deceased had just gone down the pit to commence work, and while he was breaking some lumps of earth there was a heavy fall of gravel from the right side of tbe excavation.
The deceased was buried in the fall of the gravel, and another young man, who were working near him, had a very narrow escape. The sides of the pit were slanting, and they had not shored up or barred the sides of it, because it was considered useless, and it interfered with the comfort of those digging in it.
It was not a usual thing to take precautions of that kind, and it was considered by all that their work was quite safe without.
In his (witness's) judgment the cause of the accident was attributable to a seam of sand giving way which was half way up the pit, and which it waa impossible all times to discover, as they were frequently "a little way in."
After hearing comborative evidence, the jury returned a verdict of "Accidental death,"
[BNA: Link.]
The Filthy Condition of Wandsworth and Battersea On Wednesday, Mr. Anderson Rose and Mr. Buckmaster attended before Mr. Ingham for the purpose of complaining of the nuisances on Wandsworth Common and in other places. Mr. Rose said for wee past some parts of the common were a most disgraceful condition; waste refuse vegetables were thrown into the ponds to decompose and fill the atmosphere with noxious gases. In one pond there had been for the last two weeks a putrid calf, and dead dogs and cats were of common occurrence.
He believed the lord of the manor was responsible for this state of things. He jurisdiction over the common, ought to be proceeded against by indictment. It was useless to complain or write to the District Board. Some the men on that board were tenants of the lord of the manor, or copyholders under him.
Mr. Buckmaster said for weeks and months past there had been an accumulation of filth at the entrance of what was once a much used footpath. At the corner of Plough-green he had seen entrails of dogs and cats in an advanced state of decomposition. A medical gentleman on St. John's-hill had informed him only the previous day that in Falcon-grove cesspools were overflowing the back premises of several cottages. There was scanty supply of water, one case of death from cholera had been reported in a bouse whore there was au entire absence all sanitary regulations,
HENRY Poyntz, Earl Spencer, has been chosen by the "Liberal" party to govern Ireland as Lord Lieutenant. The question which the Whig Radicals of the day have chosen to agitate for the purpose of attaining power, place, pay, and patronage, is the destruction of the Protestant Church in Ireland.
[Henry? Surely it's John!]
Unfortunate Ireland, thus to be chosen as the battle ground of English faction! Every one really knows that the United Church of England and Ireland is not now and never was a practical grievance — that the leaders of Irish treason and rebellion for the last twenty years have never alluded to the Irish Protestant Church hs a cause pretext for sedition and that the disendowment of the Protestant Church in Ireland, and the endowment out of Protestant revenues of the Popish College of Maynooth, and the confiscation of Protestant property to maintain lunatic and idiot asylums, which will be directly under control Popish priests, will do nothing to conciliate the Papist population, whilst it will infuriate the Protestants thus infamously plundered and oppressed.
But the real question in Ireland is the land; and we propose to shew from Earl Spencer's dealings with land questions in England, how admirably he has been chosen to settle the land question in Ireland.
His lordship is an earl by prescription, and not in consequence of any service has rendered in any way to God or man, to his kind or to his country. He inherits a noble fortune — the finest Library in England — the choicest works of art in Europe.
He is also Lord of the Manors of Wimbledon, of Wandsworth, and of Clapham, three common parks stretching for many miles to the south-west of London, and these the three or four millions of inhabitants the great metropolia are indebted for fresh air.
In the times of Lord Spencer's ancestors immemorially these Commons have been used for grazing, for pastime, for exercise, for purpose of health and enjoyment. Where he found paradise he has made morasses — where health, fever; where life was sustained, invigorated, and prolonged, he has striven to produce pestilence and death.
As Lord of Wimbledon, moreover, he attempted to make inclosures. The inhabitants broke them down. then endeavoured to procure an Act of Parliament to give him in fee simple the best part of Wimbledon Common build on for his own use and profit, the remainder to be an enclosed park, of which he was to be the master, with the profits of the grazing, the public to be subject to the will and caprice of Lord Spencer. To the credit of the House of Commons this most iniquitous Bill was rejected.
What he next attempted we cannot refer to, as the inhabitants are now embarked in a stupendous Chancery suit to ascertain and define his rights and theirs.
Lord Spencer is Lord of the Manor of Wandsworth. Here numerous enclosures have been made. Some of the inhabitants resisted the enclosures. Hundreds of the lowest tramps and gypsies were permitted to squat in front of their properties, to burn their fences, outrage all decency, till the aggregation of filth and excrement made small-pox and typhus imminent. In times before he was Lord, Wandsworth Common was matchless for its beauty and its usefulness.
One half of the Commons has been excavated, so that through the winter it is under the water. Notices are set up that the land may be had "for any purpose," that "rubbish may be shot" there, of which the inhabitants for miles round avail themselves, to deposit rotting vegetable refuse, excrementitious deposits, liquid filth, oyster shells, house sweepings, and an indescribable collection of nuisances which no decent language could designate.
Another part of the Common is used for the deposit of millions of loads of house refuse and dust bins. These are sorted and sifted; and a fire was kept burning for months, generating and distributing for miles the most unutterable stench.
Other wrongs might be enumerated; but here, too, as at Wimbledon, the inhabitants are embarked in a Chancery suit with Lord Spencer, involving untold expenditure; so we can say no more, except to quote a saying in a recent vestry meeting, that "Wandsworth Common was one of those God-forsaken spots that even the policemen never interfered with."
Lord Spencer is also Lord of a portion of Clapham Common. Here he was applied to for a renewal of the lease to the principal inhabitants, under which, at an inconsiderable expense, it has hitherto been kept a park, unenclosed, unparalleled for its picturesque beauty, its freedom, its use for every purpose of pleasure, enjoyment, and sport. He refused to renew the lease.
Another part of Clapham is held of another Lord, Mr. Bowyer, not a nobleman by prescription, but a noble man by nature. Mr. Bowyer renewed the lease of so much of Clapham Common as he was Lord of for thirty years at a nominal rent.
It is said that Earl Spencer and his Countess have apostatised to Rome. This is not to be wondered at. "He believes that God; what in the name of God does he believe of God?" says old Thomas Carlyle. He, no doubt, thinks that he will require some priestly aid to fall back on when his great day of account shall come.
In the meantime, from his dealings with land in England, Lord Spencer's appointment to govern in Ireland would seem to be fatuous.
Will-o'-the-wisp
[BNA: Link]
AI: Wikipedia: John Poyntz Spencer, the 5th Earl Spencer, served as the Viceroy of Ireland during two periods: from December 1868 to February 1874, and again from May 1882 to 1885. His first term was under Prime Minister Gladstone and was marked by significant reforms like the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland and the Irish Land Act of 1870. His second term began after a period out of office and was tragically punctuated by the assassination of Lord Frederick Cavendish shortly after his arrival.
[Wikipedia: Link.]
[BNA: Link]
Also e.g. Portadown News— Saturday 26 June 1869
[BNA: Link]
[BNA: Link]
The "Black Sea" had once been considered a delight. Part of the price Earl Spencer exacted for selling off Wandsworth Common to the people of Wandsworth and Battersea was for the lake to be filled in and an affluent enclave created in its place — Spencer Park. For a number of years the lake was allowed to stagnate. (The windmill was not repaired and ceased to pump water into it.) It became smelly and was widely believed to be a source of disease — this is the meaning of the term "nuisance".
[Originally Latin "nocere" - to harm - through old French "nuisance" - injury or hurt. In short, much more serious than somebody or some behaviour that is simply annoying.
Middle of C19 - Public Health Act 1848 - The first Inspector of Nuisances was appointed under this act, which established the foundations for professional public health. The position evolved into that of Sanitary Inspectors and, eventually, Environmental Health Officers, who are responsible for a wider range of public health and environmental issues today.
https://wellcomecollection.org/stories/dirt--disease-and-the-inspector-of-nuisances
ALLEGED "BLACK SEA" NUISANCE
An application from the Patriotic Asylum was made to the board for the abatement of an alleged nuisance arising from "The Black Sea." Mr. Brown remarked that the best reply that could be made to them would be to say that they were the greatest nuisance of the two for occupying a portion of the Wandsworth Common.
The surveyor was ordered to report on the subject.
[BNA: Link.]
MURDER AND SUSPECTED SUICIDE AT THE "BLACK SEA" WANDSWORTH COMMON
On Saturday afternoon Mr. W. Carter, the coroner, proceeded with an inquiry, in the Board-room of the Wandsworth Union, Battersea Rise, respecting the death of a female child about five months old, who was found in pond called the Black Sea at Wandsworth-common.
Evidence having been adduced respecting the finding of the child, and tending to the suspicion that its unfortunate mother had committed suicide, the jury returned the following vordict: That the deceased child was wilfully murdered by being thrown into a pond called the Black Sea, but they (the jury) further say by what person or persons the evidence before them fails to prove.
[BNA: Link]
MYSTERIOUS DEATH ON WANDSWORTH COMMON. The police have issued the description of the body of a woman which was found in the waters of a pond on Wandsworth Common last evening, and which is now lying at the Battersea mortuary awaiting an inquest and identification. The deceased was aged sixty-five years. She had large scar on cheek and right side of forehead; and had on a black dress, bonnet, and shawl.
[BNA: Link]
An odd case is reported. A man who calls himself by some foreign title has been in the habit of advertising for a wife, and having procured interviews with certain foolish young women, has so far succeeded in compromising their characters that they have gladly paid a kind of black mail to secure his silence. This has been discovered by some indignant brothers and other relations, who last week entrapped the pseudo count to Wandsworth Common, where he was ducked in a most unsavoury pond and afterwards hunted out of the neighbourhood. The police appear to have looked with tolerance, if not with complacency.
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