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HISTORICAL SKETCH. xvn.• • portions of this system, the la test extension the main outfall sewer. of whieh, in Rawson Plaee, was opened in April, The first public baths provided by the munici­ 1905, the Corporation have expended altogether pality were opened in July, 1865. An extensive the sum of £276,508, and they derive from it an baths scheme has since been carried out, the annual revenue of over £30,000. main feature of which is the large and admirably At the time when the town was incorporated equipped central establishment in Morley Street, there was practically no system of drainage, and which were opened on September 20, 1905, by houses and factories alike turned their sewage into Mr. (now Sir) W. E. B. Priestley, the then Mayor. the nearest beck or sump. In the course of a few The Baths Committee have adopted the policy of years, owing to the rapid expansion of the town taking the baths to the people, converting cottages and the ineffective state of the law, the streams in working class districts and equipping them and the became inexpressibly foul. with slipper baths and douches. Including these In September, 1868, l\lr. ·w. R. Crompton Stansfield, and the school baths there are now seventeen the owner of the Hall estate, a demesne district bathing establishments in the . beautifully situated in the valley of the Aire a Capital costs of over £94,000 have been incurred. few miles below the point at which the Bradford Following upon the clearance of the Longlands beck empties into that river, obtained an injunction insanitary area the Corporation completed in against the Corporation of Bradford to restrain June, 1904, the building of a number of workmen's them from polluting the river. For nearly twenty dwellings, and subsequently, at an expenditure years the Corporation had been carrying out the of about £30,000, erected blocks of tenement sewering of the town, and now it undertook the flats on the Longlands site. Further blocks, to construction of works at for the comprise 63 single-room dwellings, are to be defmcation of the sewage. Large sums have been built on the Longlands area at an estimated cost spent upon the disposal of sewage and the of £8,260. A well equipped central Fire Station destruction of refuse, but the area and position in Nelson Street, was completed in October, 1902. of the works at Frizinghall have proved neither Bradford was the first municipality in the country adequate nor suitable. In order to satisfy the to undertake the public supply of electricity. requirements of the West Riding Rivers Board, a In September, 1889, works were inaugurated in much larger area was required for sewage works, Bolton Road, but these became inadequate, and and in 1899 the Bradford Corporation sought , new central works in Valley Road were erected powers under the Provisional Order to acquire the in 1897, and largely extended in 1902. The Esholt estate, and, after a long and costly struggle, enterprise has been eminently successful financially they actually became possessors of the property­ and large further extensions of plant and equipment though under a diffcren t procedure on February have been needed in recent years to provide for 2, 1906, when the purchase money, amounting to the growing demands by private users -and for £239,742 a sum settled by Sir John Rolleston, the working of the tramway system of Bradford. M.P.-was handed over to the representatives of A loan of £60,000 for mains purposes was recently the vendors, the daughters of the Mr. Stansfield sanctioned. The capital expenditure up to ~larch, whose injunction originally created the necessity. 1911, was £807,000. The whole of the land amounts to 1860 acres­ During the last ten years the Corporation nearly three square miles of which 1700 acres have much extended the tramway services to were acquired from the Misses Stansficld and Mrs. the suburbs. Tramways on the overhead wire 1\IcColl, the remainder being a few fields which principle were opened to Eccleshill on July the Corporation felt it desirable to acquire. Only 30, 1898, and to on August 27, some 920 acres are actually required by the Cor­ 1898. These experimental lines immediately poration for the purposes of their sewage scheme. proved so successful that the Corporation deter­ Twelve acres belonging to the Rev. Sir Peile mined to buy up the unexpired portion of the Thompson, Bart., were purchased by arbitration leases of the existing companies' lines, with a view for £2188. The total cost of the land acquired to their conversion to electric lines and to extend for the purposes of the scheme exceeded £300,000 the system in \'arious directions. The work was and the Corporation received sanction for the pushed on rapidly, and the following new lines construction of sewage works which will involve have since been opened for traffic: Birkenshaw, an expenditure of nearly a million pounds. The September 30, 1903; Bowling Old Lane, April 1, carrying out of the scheme, which includP~~ among 1904; , January 29, 1904; its larger features the making of a tunnel nearly Drighlington, June 30, 1903 ; Greenga tes, October three miles in length for the passage of the main 14, 1904; Heaton, December 23, 1902; Idle outfall sewer, will necessarily extend over a period and , September 12, 1901 ; Lister Hills, of years, but good progress has already been August 31, 1900; , August l, 190"2; made and the dismantling of the Frizinghall Queensbury, August 2, 1901 ; Stanningley (con­ works has begun in the removal of the sludge necting with ), November 16, 1900; Thornton, presses to Esholt. A large revenue is made by December 18, 1[}00; Whetley Hill, November 2, means of a process for the extraction of grease 1900; and , October 6, 1907; while in from suds in the sewage. It is intended shortly addition the C