Cess-pits and Chamber Pots

Cess-pits existed in London for many centuries, from medieval times onwards. Thankfuly they do not exist now. A cess-pit was a chamber in which sewage from each individual house was 'stored' until it was emptied. This task was for the so called 'night-soil men' to do. As disgusting as this job was, it could also be dangerous, as when in 1326 a certain Richard the Raker fell into his cess-pit and drowned "monstrously in his own excrement" while he was attempting to empty it. By the 16th century a new cess-pit related job was invented, that of the 'saltpetre man'. These men extracted nitrates from excrement, so it could be used to make gunpowder. Saltpetre men had a licence from the king to enter into anyone's house at any time and remove the sewage-ridden earth of the cess-pit.

In October 1660, Samuel Pepys records in his diary: "Going down to my cellar...I put my feet into a great heap of turds, by which I find that Mr. Turner's house of office is full and comes into my cellar". Unfortunately this sort of thing did happen often as cess-pits were not built very well and therefore leaked. Incidently, it took five days after Pepys's disgusting cellar experience until his neighbour sent the night-soil men to empty it and when they did come they added insult to injury by having the contents of the cess-pit carried through his house. However, as Lisa Picard puts it, Samuel got his own back three years later, when he had his cess-pit emptied via that same neighbour's house!

There were many houses however which did not have cess-pits and so their inhabitants resorted to the use of chamber-pots, the contents of which were regularly emptied out of windows, much to the chagrin of unsuspecting passers-by.

References:
  • "The Great Stink of London", by Stephen Halliday, published by Sutton Publishing
  • "The Worst Jobs in History", by Tony Robinson & David Willcock, published by Boxtree
  • "Restoration London: Everyday Life in London 1660-1670", by Liza Picard, published by Phoenix

Comments

feawen said…
It's my understanding (unverified) that the Brits get their slang word for bathroom "loo" from the customary warning call that was given out a window prior to the night jar being emptied, i.e. "guardez l'eau" Watch out for the water!
Thursday, 05 August, 2010
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