The Lemon Royd Sewage Disposal Works off Fleet Lane was opened by Rothwell M.P. William Lunn on Wednesday 10 September 1930 following a lunch and speeches at the Harold Hall. It was jointly operated by the Rothwell Urban District Council and the Hunslet Rural District Council until they merged in 1937. The expanded facility replaced an earlier works on the other side of the London Midland and Scottish Railway line which had been in use since 1895.
Before that from about 1878 the democratically elected Hunslet Rural Sanitary Authority had operated a sewage works for the township of Oulton and Woodlesford. It was built on eight acres of land adjoining the Oulton beck closer to the old Lemonroyd lock acquired from the Calverley estate. At the same time roads were dug up and “sanitary pipes” were laid connecting to a main sewer along Aberford Road. It then ran along the south side of the canal from near Bentley’s brewery to the works. Later another main sewer was built to convey the sewage from the Rothwell area. It ran parallel to the Oulton beck.
When the new works were opened in 1930 houses were provided for the works manager and chief mechanic. Keen bowler Jesse Binks was in charge of the works from the early 1940s until the late 1950s. Along the side of the settling tanks he planted daffodils which spelt out R.U.D.C. in massive letters when they flowered in the early spring and they could be clearly seen from passing trains.
