READING about the state of the rivers of the British Isles, with the destruction visited upon them by sewerage outflows, which are often officially sanctioned as illegal, it is tempting to rail against 33 years of privatisation as the source of our current woes.
I’m no apologist for the water and sewerage corporations and I am happy they are finally being held to account, at least in part, not only in the court of public opinion, but in the courts of law, which have handed out fines worth hundreds of millions. The truth is, however, that the 1989 privatisation was the last in a long line of bad ideas going back centuries. Those ideas have failed to deal with our sewage in a way that pro- tects the rivers that we love, but which our governments and water industry apparently only purport to love.
Even at what is often held up as the high point of waste management, the Joseph Bazalgette sewer-building pro- gramme in the Victorian era, we were indulging in a giant deception—namely, using our rivers and coastline as a giant dumping ground for at best inadequately treated and at worst raw sewage. It has ever been thus. The first recorded British domestic home-sewer system in the Orkneys five millennia years ago did exactly that. Henry VIII tasked Commissioners and Courts of Sewers with hurrying effluent out of the cities, regardless of its eventual destination.
Denne historien er fra May 18, 2022-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra May 18, 2022-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Kitchen garden cook - Apples
'Sweet and crisp, apples are the epitome of autumn flavour'
The original Mr Rochester
Three classic houses in North Yorkshire have come to the market; the owner of one inspired Charlotte Brontë to write Jane Eyre
Get it write
Desks, once akin to instruments of torture for scribes, have become cherished repositories of memories and secrets. Matthew Dennison charts their evolution
'Sloes hath ben my food'
A possible paint for the Picts and a definite culprit in tea fraud, the cheek-suckingly sour sloe's spiritual home is indisputably in gin, says John Wright
Souvenirs of greatness
FOR many years, some large boxes have been stored and forgotten in the dark recesses of the garage. Unpacked last week, the contents turned out to be pots: some, perhaps, nearing a century old—dense terracotta, of interesting provenance.
Plants for plants' sake
The garden at Hergest Croft, Herefordshire The home of Edward Banks The Banks family is synonymous with an extraordinary collection of trees and shrubs, many of which are presents from distinguished friends, garnered over two centuries. Be prepared to be amazed, says Charles Quest-Ritson
Capturing the castle
Seventy years after Christian Dior’s last fashion show in Scotland, the brand returned under creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri for a celebratory event honouring local craftsmanship, the beauty of the land and the Auld Alliance, explains Kim Parker
Nature's own cathedral
Our tallest native tree 'most lovely of all', the stately beech creates a shaded environment that few plants can survive. John Lewis-Stempel ventures into the enchanted woods
All that money could buy
A new book explores the lost riches of London's grand houses. Its author, Steven Brindle, looks at the residences of plutocrats built by the nouveaux riches of the late-Victorian and Edwardian ages
In with the old
Diamonds are meant to sparkle in candlelight, but many now gather dust in jewellery boxes. To wear them today, we may need to reimagine them, as Hetty Lintell discovers with her grandmother's jewellery
