Sewage was the worst problem arising from Tottenham's mid-19th-century expansion. In 1843 the riverside lands were generally malarial and by 1848 some 800 houses discharged their waste into the Moselle alone.

Tottenham was one of the first areas of Middlesex to take powers under the 1848 Public Health Act to establish in 1850 a permanent Local Board of Health with financial powers and an elect body of 9 members. This enabled the Board to set up a public water supply and associated sewage disposal system.

The sewage disposal works were established at Markfield Road, Page Green. The initial works consisted of a 45hp steam engine to lift the incoming sewage and discharge it into the two deposit tanks. The effluent would then flow to the end of the collecting trough and pass to the sand filters alongside, but below the level of the tanks. On leaving the last filter bed the clear liquor would then pass down the Effluent Race to the River Lea. The site contained two cottages for the two workmen who provided 24 hour supervision of the site, including the driving of the pumping engine, stoking the boiler and other routine work. Each cottage was about 29 ft x 12 ft, with a rear extension of 8 ft x 5 ft for a toilet and wash house. The rear yard/garden was 24 ft x 8 ft.. The size of the cottages would be considered quite large for a workman/artisan dwelling in the 1850's.

Horse and cart probably brought in coal for the boiler from a local railway yard. A delivery of a two ton load of coal two or three times each week was probably sufficient in the early years.

The local board contracted for treatment and disposal with a manure manufacturer, and by the mid 1850's Tottenham had, by Victorian standards, an effective and efficient sewerage system. But after the contractor's death in 1858 sewage was allowed to dissipate into the land around Page Green and to discharge into the Lea., much to the anger of residents.

Tottenham local board claimed to have ensured a full water supply to all built-up areas of Tottenham in 1853 but by 1856 was forced to extend the water works at the Hale and thereafter drew water from the sewage-enriched marshlands, to the detriment of public health. In 1866 Tottenham was accused of contributing to the pollution the East London Co.'s water supply and the resultant deaths of nearly 4,000 persons in the East London Cholera epidemic of 1866.

The Moselle and other streams were increasingly being contaminated by sewage discharge from higher neighbourhoods, but proposals for a joint Lea Valley drainage scheme were stifled by parochialism, and in 1869 the court of Chancery refused further suspensions of its ban on dispersing untreated sewage. The board, deadlocked between supporters and opponents of plans to pipe waste to a costly irrigation works in Walthamstow, was accused in 1871, in the Tottenham Herald of having ruined everything and everybody. Thereafter conditions improved, largely under the stimulus of a local group, Tottenham Sanitary Association, which was formed in 1873 and promoted its own candidates at elections. Improvements were also made through the provision of a pipe along Lordship Lane from Wood Green in 1872, the cleansing of the Moselle after Hornsey had constructed its own sewer, and an agreement with the Chemical Manure Co. for treatment of sewage.

Courtesy Bruce Castle Museum

Although in 1840 the Great Eastern Railway had opened a line through Tottenham, following the line of the River Lea, with stations at the Hale and Northumberland Park, this had little impact on the urban growth of Tottenham as the line lacked a London terminus and in fact curved away from the City to link with the Eastern Counties line at Stratford.

However the situation changed in 1872 when the Great Eastern Branch Line from Liverpool Street to Enfield was opened. The issue of very cheap workmen's tickets on certain trains, made Tottenham a popular commuting area for the lower middle and skilled working class working in London and started the spread of the building of standardized stock-brick terraces of 40 dwellings to an acre, with small front and back gardens. The rapid growth of housing, soon made Tottenham the most populous of all London's outlying districts. This ended Tottenham's reputation for health and gentility and led to the many crises over water supply and sewerage, for which Tottenham became notorious.

In 1880 the Local Government Board wrote to the Tottenham Local Board, drawing attention to the need for extra treatment and storage space to deal with the increase sewage flow.

By 1885 there was public outcry at the state of the River Lea - a Lea Conservancy report stated that "the real source of the condition of the Lea, other causes apart, was the neglect of the Tottenham Board…. not providing sufficient tank accommodation for their rapidly expanding district".

It was evident that something drastic was needed to increase the sewage disposal capacity of the works. The options proposed by the Tottenham Local Board for the expansion of the site included:

(i) A second engine. This to be a compound Beam Engine, with the beams projecting beyond the cylinders and crank at each end, so that two vertical pumps could be worked of the two ends of the beams .

(ii) Construction of a reservoir for 24 hours storage to cater for dry weather flow of 2 million gallons.

(iii) Existing three deposit tanks to be lengthened to increase their capacity from 632,800 gallons to 843,800 gallons.

(iv) Filter bed to be provided at the end of these three tanks filtering downwards through burnt ballast, furnace refuse etc.

(v) The inlet sewer to be provided with a 8in x 12in storm overflows, fitted with gun metal flap valves and discharging into the dock.

(vi) The surveyor (de Pape) suggested that the power of the discharged effluent to the dock from the three tanks might be used to drive a small turbine (electricity generation?).

(vii) Filter beds to be provided at the end of these three tanks filtering downwards through burnt ballast, furnace refuse etc. Effluent to discharge directly into the dock without going through any further filtration. The outlets to the dock and then to the river Lee to be provided with screens.

Tenders for the new engine were issued and in March 1883 and ten quotations were received. Wood Bros of Sowerby Bridge Yorkshire were the favoured supplier and received the contract to make and build the Engine. By January 1886 the Engine House was completed and all parts of the Engine were on site. The Engine was tested and declared ready for use in November 1886 and on the 12th July 1888 the Engine was formally started. The total cost of the Engine and foundations etc was £4722.00 It was a free-standing 100 hp compound condensing beam engine driving from the beam two single acting Plunger Pumps. The general design of decoration to the structure, notably the use of the acanthus leaf motif, followed the "only the best" attitude of the Local Councils of the day. When running at 16 rpm the engine pumped some 4 million gallons of sewage in a 24 hour period.

Courtesy Bruce Castle Museum

The Third Schedule of the 1886 Lee Purification Act contained special provision for the pumping of sewage effluent from the Markfield Works across the present playing fields into the Hackney Branch Sewer, which formed part of the system of the London Sewers constructed by the Metropolitan Board of Works. This enabled all normal discharge flows to be sent to the London Northern Outfall Works at Becton instead of going into the Lea Navigation. As at this time Tottenham was still part of Middlesex, the flow was metered and paid for.

By 1891 the population of Tottenham had increased to 97,174. The effects of this growth in population were recognized in 1888, when Tottenham, with West Green, was separated from Wood Green. After the separation of Wood Green the Markfield Road Sewage Works became the responsibility of a joint committee and under an Act of 1891 the sewage of both authorities was passed on from Tottenham to the Northern High Level sewer in Hackney, part of the London main drainage system, for disposal. By 1893, the Lea Conservancy could report "…fish are now numerous in the river below the Tottenham Sewage Works".

The populations of Tottenham and Wood Green continued to grow reaching 136,744 by 1901. Therefore it became necessary again to enlarge the capacity of the works. The new plans included increased capacity of the settling tanks, conversation of the two original settling tanks into eight sand filters, provision of a new multi channel deep chemical treatment tank and associated building and equipment. The original 45hp horizontal engine and pump were scrapped and a second engine house constructed adjacent to the Beam Engine House to accommodate three Worthington pumping engines. A second pumping main was also laid alongside the earlier main linking to the London sewerage system.

The new plant consisted of three sets of triple expansion horizontal Worthington steam engines, driving by a continuation of the piston rods, double action plunger pumps, 37in. diameter and 15in. stroke. Each of these sets was in duplicate, so that there were six pumps and eighteen steam cylinders. Each set was complete in itself and was capable of delivering at full pressure and 38 revolutions per minute 4,475 gallons per minute This raised the capicity of the site from 4 million gallons per day with the Beam Engine to a maximum of 9.45 million gallons per day. At this time the Beam Engine was relegated to stand by duty for storm water pumping.

In the 1930's, rapid economic and housing development was occurring in Middlesex and to meet the increased requirements for sewage treatment and disposal, Middlesex County Council decided to construct new works at Mogden for west Middlesex, and Deephams for east Middlesex. Mogden was completed before the Second World War started, but Deephams had its work deferred until after the war, and was not completed until 1963. During the second World War a Pig Farm, with housing for the manager was located on the site as part of the War effort and the photograph shows Queen Elizabeth at the site during a visit to Tottenham

1936

Courtesy Bruce Castle Museum

When the time came to consider the future of the Markfield Sewage Works, it was decided that the site was too small to have a digested sludge system , but, being within a reasonable distance of the Deephams works in Edmonton, advantage could be taken of this through the construction of a new trunk sewer. As this new trunk sewer would operate under gravity flow, pumping was not required so the Markfield site became surplus to requirement and was finally closed in February 1964. The site was returned to the former owners of the land or their inheritors, which in this case was the new London Borough of Haringey. The site was cleared and the windows bricked up to prevent vandalism of the Beam ngine and in 1974 the Engine House and the Beam Engine were Grade II listed.

Courtesy C Bowden