Home Transit
of Venus Sewer
History in Leeds Sundials in Leeds William
Gascoigne John Feild About
XI. A FINAL WORD
When the Public Health Act, 1848, was introduced, 'The Times'
called the Act "a reckless invasion of property and liberty".
The same newspaper later stated that "the English People would prefer
to take the chance of Cholera, rather than be bullied into health".
Happily, this barbaric attitude has long since disappeared - at
least with regard to sanitation. Nowadays the sewers beneath our streets are
taken for granted by most citizens: But vigilance is needed!
As the foregoing story of sewerage in Leeds has shown, an
effectual sewerage system is undoubtedly one of the essential prerequisites for
civilised life. If ever we were tempted not to safeguard and renew this
inherited asset, society would surely be revisited with the epidemic diseases
and squalor which plagued Victorian Leeds. Public Health Engineering has
contributed immensely to improving the quality of life for the people of Leeds,
relative to that of their forebears. If this brief pamphlet helps to explain
some of those achievements, then its purpose will have been fulfilled