Stench Pipe

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Sewer ventilation pipe with ornate cylindrical cast iron fluted and banded base and a plain vertical metal pipe riser extending to approximately 9m. The riser pipe is metal, in two sections, with an intermediate cast iron joint collar and a cast iron crown top.
Makers plate is screwed to E side of base at ground level stating ‘W E FARRER Ltd BIRMINGHAM’.
Pipe riser, base, collar and crown appear unpainted in bare metal, all exhibit surface corrosion.
The ventilation pipe is set at front of pavement on south side of Mossvale Road, Dromore, approximately 600m due E of Market Square/ town centre. Site is located in a valley between two ridges, the valley gently falls to the west. |OSNI 4th edition map shows pipe position opposite long residential terrace which appears still extant, while moderm educational and residential development now surrounds pipe position.

Historical information

This pipe is one of a type that was employed to ventilate gases from underground sewers, (and sometimes also landfill sites), and dissipate the noxious fumes high above the level at which they could be smelled or breathed in. Commonly known as ‘stink’ or ‘stench’ pipes, most of the surviving examples in British Isles date from the late Victorian / Edwardian periods, when, following the example of London in the wake ‘Great Stink’ of 1858, many of the growing urban centres either upgraded or constructed new sewage systems. They were modelled on those that had been devised for the London sewers by Cornish engineer Goldsworthy Gurney (1793-1875), largely constructed in cast-iron and designed to blend in with lamp posts, with some (particularly on hilltops where gas pockets would collect) crowned with actual lamp fittings within which the gases could be burnt off. The use of vent pipes on individual houses as well as advances in sewage disposal in general meant that stink pipes gradually become obsolete, and in more recent decades many have either been cut down to ‘stumps’ or removed altogether.

It is difficult to chart the extent of the adoption of such pipes the public thoroughfares of local towns with any degree of precision. In Portadown, ‘ventilation pipes’ are reported in the press as having been ‘put up through the town in connection with the new sewers’ in August 1884, (with a resident in ‘Lawy’s Court’ successfully petitioning against one having been erected next to his dwelling – seemingly not uncommon complaint), whilst the ‘fixing of two cast-iron ventilation pipes’ in the ‘streets of Comber’ is mentioned in a tender notice of July 1892. The inclusion of at least one was planned for sewage works being carried out in Stewartstown in early 1897, several are mentioned as part of works carried out in Carnlough in the same year, and two are recorded in Downpatrick in 1898 (one at the ‘corner of Irish Street’); aside from these we know of at least one remaining in place in Dromore, as well as in Newtownards and in the Bangor area. Strangely, however, there seem to few concrete
references to their presence in the two major centres of Belfast and Derry-Londonderry.

STENCH PIPE AT MOSSVALE RD, DROMORE The maker’s mark on the base is that of William E. Farrer Ltd of Birmingham, a firm established in 1896 and which became noted for its sewage purification products, so this pipe must have been installed sometime after this date. A March 1906 newspaper report of that month’s meeting of Dromore Urban Council refers to discussions regarding proposed improvements in nearby Moss Lane and Mount Street which involved the installation of ‘ventilation’ pipes. A pipe in Mount Street pipe was in place by the following July, and another was planned for Rampart Street in summer 1908, so it is likely that this pipe dates from around this time also.

References – Primary sources
1 ‘Portadown News’ - 9 August 1884, p.6
2 ‘Belfast News-Letter’ – 20 July 1892, p.4
3 ‘Mid-Ulster Mail’ – 6 February 1897, p.5; 13 February 1897, p.6; 5 June 1897, p.2; 19 June 1897, p.2
4 ‘Tyrone Courier’ – 20 February 1897
5 ‘Larne Reporter and Northern Counties Advertiser’ – 15 May 1897, p.1; 12 June 1897, p.1; 19 June 1897, p1
6 ‘North Down Herald and County Down Independent’ – 19 August 1898, p.2; 2 December 1898, p.2
7 OS maps, Country series, Down sheet 2 - 1901, 1919, 1939; Irish Grid sheet 115-15 – 1958, 1960-61, 1990
8 ‘Dromore Weekly and West Down Herald’ – 9 December 1905, p.5; 10 March 1906, p.5; 14 July 1906, p.8; 6 June 1908, p.5

Secondary sources
9 https://www.londonshoes.blog/2019/03/09/the-victorian-stink-pipes-of-old-london-town/ [Accessed July 2024]
10 https://historicengland.org.uk/whats-new/in-your-area/midlands/shropshire-stink-pipe/ - :~:text=%27Stink%20pipes%27%20were%20sewer%20ventilation,be%20smelled%20or%20breathed%20in. [Accessed August 2024]
11 https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Stink_pipes [Accessed July 2024]
12 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-39409984.amp [Accessed July 2024]
13 https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/news/history/random-pipes-over-plymouth-very-1412172 [Accessed July 2024]

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Z. Rarity
R. Age
S. Authenticity
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

Tall slim cast-iron pipe resembling a streetlamp, (minus the lamp itself.) The pipe is believed to have been placed here (possibly c.1906) as an vent for sewer – hence the name ‘stench’ or ‘stink’ pipe. The pipe has a slightly battered base mildly decorative in the manner of streetlamps of the period and is topped with a serrated crown.

The pipe is located within a ward that has been Second Surveyed (and it was not recommended for a full survey at that time); however, this may be only one of two intact examples of such pipes in NI and as such is worthy of listing.

General comments

Previously a LQ HB17/LQ069