 The discharges from these industrial processes and the effluent from sewage works meant that the brook and River Trent in the Potteries became heavily polluted.Effluent from Burslem, Hanley, Tunstall and Wolstanton all found its way into the brook.In Tunstall, prior to the opening of a sewage works in 1878, legal action had been threatened due to the continued pollution of the canal and the brook.