ABSTRACT
Our agricultural forebears had long since learned that human and animal excrement and farm waste had valuable fertilising properties. With the growth of towns arose the problem of collection and disposal of garbage and excrement. In London during the twelfth century, this was achieved by each dwelling having a refuse pit which was emptied by nightmen, who carried the mess to lay-stalls outside the city walls. The year 1307 is memorable, because the stink of the River Fleet reached such a crescendo that a Commission was established to purify the stream. The privy stood over the cesspool, which was still emptied by the nightman, and the garbage by the garbage man. In 1834 a certain John Martin, an artist of some distinction, suggested that instead of being allowed to contaminate the river, the sewage should be intercepted by large connecting sewers running along the banks of the Thames.
