‘An Intolerable Nuisance’: The Duke of Sutherland and River Trent Pollution

Description:The Sutherland Papers include legal papers relating to a case between the Duke of Sutherland and the Urban District Council of Fenton concerning the pollution of the River Trent. The Statement of Claim from June 1902 outlines that the Duke of Sutherland owned ‘a mansion house known as Trentham Hall’ and also ‘an extensive estate in the County of Stafford’ through which the River Trent passed. The Duke’s complaint was based on the pollution of the River Trent through the ‘discharging’ of ‘sewage’ by the ‘sanitary authority’ for the Urban District of Fenton into Chitlings Brook and Longton Brook which were tributaries of the River Trent.

The Statement of Claim outlines that ‘the said sewage has so polluted the water in the said river as to render it unfit for cattle to drink and to cause a most foul and offensive stench’. The pollution was causing ‘an intolerable nuisance’ to the Duke’s estate and the ‘public’. The Duke claimed one thousand pounds in damages and appealed for an injunction to restrain the Urban District of Fenton from ‘permitting any sewage or filthy water’ into the River Trent unless the water was ‘purified and deodorised’ and free from ‘excrementitious or other foul and noxious matter’.

Other papers relating to the ‘Fenton Sewage Case’ include the details of the Duke’s claim for damages, Fenton’s Urban District Council’s Statement of Defence and copies of reports into the alleged pollution.

Attachments

Transcription of Documents relating to the Pollution of the River Trent (50 KB)

Transcription of Documents relating to the Pollution of the River Trent (30 KB)