From the Oldham Chronicle 4th April 1896

On Thursday afternoon (2nd) the interesting and important ceremony of opening the sewage treatment works of the Failsworth Urban District Council. was performed. by Councillor William Dunkerley, Chairman of the Sewage Disposal Committee.

From a statement prepared by the engineers of the works, it appears that the area of the township of Failsworth is 1,073 acres, and the population at the present time about 11,000.

In 1889 the Local Board retained Messrs Lomax & Lomax of Manchester to prepare a complete sewerage and sewage disposal scheme, a system of sewers draining the entire district was included. (NB The works are at the lowest point in the township, therefore everything arrived by gravity; though one or two low—lying cottages on Green Lane were aided thus:— “Sufficient power is also obtained to work an air—compressing engine which will supply the necessary power to a ram elevating the sewage from the few houses situate somewhere about five feet below the water level of the tanks.”)

A site for the outfall works was obtained at Millhouses, situate about 1 miles from the centre of the district. (NB All treated sewage was placed on beds for re—use by farmers to enrich their fields; the top— water flowing into the River Medlock. The top—water was analyzed from time to time, and stated as being “acceptable,” “unacceptable,” &c.)

Two intercepting sewers, one 2’6” and the other 2’, convey the sewage to the outfall site.

The outfall purification works embody all the latest improvements in sewage treatment, and are on a scale which will ensure the continual and successful treatment of the sewage.

The sewage enters the outfall works at an elevation of l2ft above the water level in the tanks, advantage being taken of the fall by utilizing the water sewer for chemical mixing purposes and other (unclear) work.

The sewage passes from the mixing house into two detritus tanks, each capable of holding 36,500 gallons. The action of the precipitant “pheromone” which has previously been mixed with the sewage, shows itself to a striking degree.

The sewage passes out by troughs into six upward—flow tanks, and the degree of the clarification that takes place in these tanks is remarkable. Passing into the first tank the action of the precipitant has been en­tirely to break up the sewage into (unclear) (unclear) and as the sewage passes along from tank to tank it is interesting to note the manner in which the suspended matter has subsided, each succeeding tank showing itself to be decidedly clearer until in the last tank objects can be clearly discerned to a depth of three feet.

These upward—flow tanks have a capacity of 23,500 gallons.

From the last of this series of tanks the effluent passes into the two large subsidence tanks the capacity of which is 321,000 gallons each. Here the water is allowed a considerable period for rest, being afterwards (unclear) on to six inch Polarite filter beds.

The filter beds adopted are on an entirely new system.

At Failsworth there are six filter beds, three grouped on each side of a central channel. This inlet channel is of sufficient capacity to cover the filter beds with three inches of water. Each bed is supplied by two automatic flushing siphons which discharge water from the channel in the space of about 30 seconds over the entire bed: the water then sinks through the bed and disappears in about five minutes.

The flood of water to the inlet channels is so regulated that it takes exactly 20 minutes to fill and discharge, therefore the filter bed is entirely empty and. exposed to the atmosphere for 15 minutes out of every 20 throughout the working day.

Three inches of water spread over the surface every 20 minutes is equal to 1,000 gallons to the square yard in 24 hours, and this is the speed at which the Failsworth filter beds are working successfully.

The effluent being turned out from the tanks at Failsworth is exceed­ingly good. The effluent as it leaves the bed is clear and devoid of froth on shaking, and is entirely free from odour.

One singular feature in the intermittent filtration is that whilst a large volume of water is being rapidly flushed upon the bed, not one single particle of sand is disturbed from its place.

The proceedings were attended by fine weather. At 2.5Opm a large number of ladies and gentlemen met at Failsworth Town Hall prior to conveyance in three omnibuses (each drawn by four horses) to the outfall works near Clayton Bridge.

Amongst the large number of persons who were present were the old and new members of the District Council with their clerk (HC Broome), Dr Beattie, Dr Sergeant, Messrs WJ Lomax, Herbert Booth, John McDonald, Snowcroft, FP Candy, JTF Bishop, TS NcCullum, C Jennison, Lees Broadbent CC, Geo £attison (Chairman Bowness—on—Windermere DC), RF Cartwright

(Chairman), and John Richards (Clerk, Droylsden DC), The Mayor of Glossop, BW MacArthur MD JP (Chairman Gorton DC), and the t~1ayor of Hyde. P Candy, (wife of the managing director of International Water and Sewage Purification Treatment Company Limited), handed to Coun James Wild a case containing a golden key, which that gentleman, on behalf of the company named., presented to Coun Dunkerley. Mr Wild remarked that he had good. authority for saying that they had the best and most perfect sewage disposal works in the country. (Hear, hear). That was a great deal to say about a little place like Failsworth which had hardly been known before.

Mr Dunkerley then put the key in a lock attached to one of the mech­anical arrangements for “turning on the sewage,” and declared amidst applause that the works were now open.

(He continued) “We are now able to turn out satisfactory effluent, and thus for evermore be able to prevent crude sewage entering the River Medlock from this township.”

Messrs Freeman, the contractors, of Hollinwood, had done their part well, and had carried out the plans and specifications in a manner that left nothing to be desired, and he was pleased to add — without the slightest accident of any kind.

(After washing their hands) an evening dinner was served at Belle Vue, (Hence the C Jennison in the above guest list), after which a toast list was gone through. The principal toast being “Success to the Sewage Works,” proposed by Councillor Dunkerley. He added that in the works they had ample accommodation for all the sewage they would have to deal with for the next 20 years. The tanks would hold nearly 700,000 gallons, and the filter beds were capable of filtering 900,000 gallons in 24 hours. The dry weather flow (no rain to wash it down) of sewage in Failsworth was about 165,000 gallons so they had an immense capacity for storm water beside.

In January 1897 it was resolved by the FUDC that “the necessary sewage connections be made to intercept sewage at present discharging into a stream at Birchfield Platting.” A “platting” is like a ford; a crossing, where the shallow stream runs over the road. Miles Platting is one mile from Manchester’s New Cross for example. Failsworth’s platting crossed Old Road at a point by the present Ash Street/Olive Street, the untreated sewage presumably went untreated into Moston Brook. This is borne out by an article in a local rag — “An overpowering stench of human waste dominated the poorer parts during Victorian times. In Olive Street, Failsworth, conditions were extremely unsavory with 200 people sharing a single four foot square ash pit without a door which was rarely, if ever, cleaned.” The “ash pit” must have served the same purpose as the filter beds at the sewage works — ie allowing the liquids to drain away. Those premises not fortunate enough to have a connection to the sewers (especially in the more rural parts of Failsworth) either used a septic tank, a cess pit, to gather the waste allowing the liquids to run off, or to put it bluntly — buckets were used, and Council night—soil men came round, emptied them into their cart, and took it to the sewage works where it was dumped into a “lagoon.” This, along with the fly problem it caused, spurred the FUDC to form a sub—committee “to go fully into the matter!”