The population of Baldock had also grown by 58% by 1871, as many poor people from nearby villages moved into the town, mainly into the poorest houses at the bottom of Norton Lane and along Deadman’s Lane (as Icknield Street was known).

“By the Commissioner; The population of Baldock in 1851 was 1971; in 1871, 2031). The area is 143 acres. Three or four hundred persons belonging to other parishes live in our parish. Their drainage unites with us. The rateable value of the parish is £5,074. We collect about 6d. in the pound for poor and gas, The town is supplied with water by wells and pumps. We find the water from about 10 to 40 feet. I use 20 or 30 gallons a-day for my family. The water closets were not done away with. The cesspools have never been cleaned out.”

Local government in the town was in the hands of the parish vestry and county authorities and was run by the Rector.  In 1850 the Rector was Rev. Thomas Rigby Kewley (1821-1885), and he and his fellow vestry members were soon faced with a very serious public health disaster.

“Sheweth, —That the river Ivel or Rhee rises by numerous springs of most excellent water at spot on the borders of the parish of Bygrave, in the county of Herts., adjoining on its north side the embankment of the railway from Hitchin to Cambridge, and till within a recent period the stream was perfectly pure, and its use freely enjoyed by the occupiers of the numerous mills upon the river and the neighbouring district.

“On the south side of the railway embankment and a few hundred yards from it is situate the town of Baldock. Twenty years ago, or thereabouts, the vestry, or the sewer authorities of the parish of Baldock, constructed a sewer from the town, which is carried under the railway embankment into an open ditch in the neighbourhood of the springs, and subsequently the vestry, or sewer authorities, constructed a second sewer, which is also curled under the railway embankment into open ditch adjoining the springs.

By means of these sewers the sewage of the town of Baldock has ever since been conveyed into the springs, and thereby the river has become greatly polluted and a great nuisance created to the serious injury of your memorialists and others. From this cause the water in the river has gradually become so offensive that for many years it has been unfit for drinking purposes, and latterly also for culinary and other domestic purposes at the mills and the neighbourhood of the upper part of the river, and to obtain wholesome water deep wells have had to be sunk, some instances at considerable expense.

Great inconvenience and suffering is also experienced from the poisonous smell of the water, and the effluvium from the scum which rises on the mill pools and collects above the mill wheels, and these at times, when the wind is in particular quarters, are so offensive at the mills as to render it necessary to close all the windows, and the illness of some of the inmates has been by medical men, to their exposure these injurious influences.”

The experience of people living in the villages of Norton, Radwell & Stotfold, became awful, especially during summer low water flows.

“Mr. Charles Christian, owner and occupier of Norton Mill, deposed: I am owner and occupier of the Norton Mill, the second mill on the river Ivel. It is about half a mile below the springs. I have been owner and occupier since 1862. When I came there the water was foul, but not so bad as it is now. The river was full of weeds. It was offensive. I don’t think it was so bad now. It has continued offensive ever since. There has been no perceptible improvement since, except that I have never smelt it so bad as it has been this winter. I use the water, except for mill purposes, for watering the garden and for the horses to drink. I have lived at the mill four years. I have had to sink well when I built my house. I sunk my well in the kitchen, about twelve feet deep. We have ten feet fall. The well goes into the chalk, which is the lower strata. This is from the level of the ground. It would be 15 feet below the mill head. I raise the water by a pump. I use that water for all purposes. It is not quite good. I think it is stained by iron. We seldom drink it without boiling. I think it is connected with the stream. It tastes and smells nasty. It is 25 feet from the river. There was a heavy storm four or five years ago, in the summer, and the mill head at Mr. Iredale’s overflowed. The water came into the ditch at the back of my house. There is a spring near Mr. Iredale’s, which runs into that ditch, which runs about four or five feet from my well. On that occasion the water in my well was polluted, so that we could not use it at all. I attributed that to it passing out of the ditch. I pumped my well dry two or three times. After doing that the water was in its former condition. That was when the overflow had subsided. I have, a few times since, when Mr. Iredale’s mill head overflowed, found my well polluted. In the mill and outside the water at the mill head is offensive when the mill is at work. There certain accumulation scum, of nasty, offensive stench. We get some of it out with a rake, and use it as manure, to get rid of the nuisance. We should not be able to bear the place from the manure if did not take it off. There are three breweries at Baldock, which are large. There are extensive washings of barrels, which come down the mill head. We see a good many corks coming down. There is direct communication between the breweries and the river. I, with Mr Flitton, visited the springs three or four years ago. We examined the ditch into which the sewer runs through Bygrave. The contents of the sewers from Baldock come by two culverts under the railway. We visited the ditch into which the eastern sewer enters. It was filled with foul sewage of some depth. It was deep, and was penned up with pieces of wood. I think we went twice. I went with Mr. Fletton and yourself. I have frequently visited the spring head, and have seen the foul water flowing into the fresh water. I have seen the dark and clear water running side by side for some distance.”

By 1870 serious outbreaks of water borne diseases were occurring within the town, caused by the pool of effluent that was present, on the surface, or just beneath it, that was polluting all of the drinking water supplies in the lowest lying and houses occupied by the poorest members of the community.