From the Malton Gazette & Herald this week in 1981

REAR gardens of seven houses in Scarborough Road, Norton, were flooded with bloody effluent which bubbled back up the drains on Tuesday, July 14.

A pool of blood about 30ft across formed in front of Anne Millington's house, in Scarborough Road, and what she described as "a river of blood" also ran down the side of the house in to a beck at the back.

Mrs Millington's strawberry bed at the rear of the house was soaked with a mixture of blood and water.

A children's sand pit in a neighbouring house was filled with several inches of blood, and a "river of blood" ran down the garden path belonging to Councillor Eileen Sheppard.

Mrs Sheppard, who is a member of Norton-on-Derwent Town Council, said that the blood, which contained some offal and human excreta, was believed to have backed up a sewer from underneath Scarborough Road.

Nearly opposite the houses in Scarborough Road is Bower's Bacon Factory.

"we have been here 36 years and we have often complained to the local council about flooding and blood coming back up the drains, but nothing has ever been done," said Coun Sheppard.

"It has been horrible for years, but this is the worst experience we have ever had.

"Ryedale council sent six or seven workmen to clean up the mess, but feeling is running high among the residents here and people are talking about withholding the rates until the council really does something to prevent this flooding recurring.

"Motorists were slowing down and staring at it, hardly able to believe their eyes."

Geoff Brown, Ryedale Council's chief technical officer, said the flooding was sewage from a drain which had become blocked. The manhole to the sewer had become covered with soil on private land and it was sometime before workmen could find it and start to remove the blockage.

Mr Brown said the council was now thinking of constructing an overflow from the drain into the beck at the back of the houses, which would avoid sewage getting into people's gardens in the future.