Extracts from the report of Mr. G.W. Goodison, a consultant from a Liverpool Engineering Partnership.

The Sanitary condition of Skelmersdale is so bad that it would be simply impossible to find anything worse in the kingdom

Spring View Terrace
The general condition of this property, although bad enough, is better than what is generally found in Skelmersdale. There is one well which is said to be one of the best in the district, for the use of a large number of houses. The water must be dreadfully impure because it is surrounded by large accumulations of night-soil, manure from pigstyes and pools of sewage. I was told when the water was low in summer it became almost red in colour, yet during dry seasons it is eagerly sought after by all the people in the neighbourhood. The other supply is drawn from rain water butts, and some people much prefer this to the well and will only use the latter when the former fails.
Some of the houses are built so low that they are flooded every time it rains. Ash pits are very full and offensive. No paving or flagging in any of the yards. Someone has commenced to build a new cottage adjoining this property, and to show how important it is to have some proper supervision over the erection of new buildings, I may mention that abutting on the back of this intended house are several privies and pigstyes, the drainage from which is actually running under the very footings of the walls.

Williams Yard (off Sandy Lane)
Mr. Robert Williams is the owner of four houses in this yard. They are, in every respect, in the most deplorable condition and are totally unfit for human habitation. The approach is through a passage four feet wide which is continued in front of the houses and forms the only yard or open space they possess. On one side of the passage and within four feet of the houses is a row of privies and ash pits belonging to the last mentioned property, the drainage from which finds its way through the wall and lodges immediately opposite the doors of the cottages.
The property on the other side (The Scholes), being also at a higher level, the drainage from several privies and pigstyes as well as the surface drainage, actually finds its way through the back wall of these miserable dwellings and into the very living rooms. In two of the houses I saw, small cesspools had been made just inside the wall in order to collect the water and thus prevent it from flooding them.
These cesspools are regularly emptied and the water smells abominably. One man told me he took 74 buckets of water out of one of the houses after a night's rain. They have neither drainage nor water and the privies are in such a disgusting foul state that the people won't use them. The result is the accumulation of faecal matter, ashes, etc., which is almost sickening to think of and is a perfect disgrace to any civilised society. Surely the Inspector of Nuisance can never have seen this place? Until now I had no idea that any human beings lived in such houses.

If any privy is kept clean the whole neighbourhood would use it. There are no private yards in Skelmersdale. All Yards are common to all.

One resident claimed her home had been in this state for four years. "If you ask the landlord to do anything you are told to go." There are no empty houses in Skelmersdale.

In all my experience I have never seen anything to be at all compared with the present state of Skelmersdale and no words of mine can convey the impression it has made on my mind.