16/08/2026
🤢 MEDIEVAL STREETS - MIND WHERE YOU STEP! 🤢
🤢 Think medieval towns were all beautiful timbered houses, bustling markets and handsome knights
trotting along cobbled streets?
Think again...
Beneath those picturesque buildings you might encounter mud, horse manure, rotting food, animal entrails, household rubbish, stagnant water...
And possibly something considerably more personal 😳
🤢 Medieval towns produced an enormous amount of waste.
There were horses everywhere, livestock might be driven through streets to markets and slaughterhouses.
Then there were the butchers, fishmongers, brewers and other trades, generating their own particularly fragrant varieties of rubbish.
Thousands of ordinary households also produced food scraps, ashes and human waste.
Somebody had to get rid of it....
🤢 Unfortunately, the medieval waste-management system wasn't exactly Wheelie Bin Wednesday 😂
Human waste was collected in privies, cesspits and chamber pots 💩
In larger towns there were also public latrines, while some fortunate properties had garderobes or privies positioned over pits or waterways.
But yes, some waste inevitably ended up in the street.
🤢 Householders could dump dirty water and rubbish outside, despite repeated attempts by local authorities to stop them.
The romantic medieval city was therefore capable of producing an aroma that could probably strip the feathers from a pigeon at twenty paces. 😂
Then there were the cesspits, eventually they had to be emptied.
Enter one of history's least glamorous professions...
The Gong Farmer 💩
These unfortunate souls removed human waste from cesspits and privies - frequently working at night when fewer people were around to enjoy the experience.
🐴 Horses added another considerable problem.
A busy medieval town filled with horses inevitably meant streets filled with evidence that horses had recently been there 😂
Add cattle, pigs and other animals, then mix everything with household rubbish and rainwater...
Congratulations!
You've invented medieval soup.
And you're standing in it 🫣
🌧️ Rain could make matters considerably worse.
Unpaved or poorly surfaced streets became muddy, while rubbish could obstruct gutters and drains.
Waste washed from one place to another, rather than politely disappearing.
So that charming medieval lane you've been imagining?
After several days of rain it could become a revolting mixture of mud, manure, rubbish and whatever Gerald at Number 12 had emptied outside that morning!
🤢 However, medieval people were not completely oblivious to sanitation.
This is where the popular image of everyone happily living knee-deep in filth becomes a bit misleading.
They knew it was disgusting.
Medieval authorities issued regulations against dumping rubbish in streets and waterways, ordered residents to clean areas outside their properties, and employed workers to remove accumulated waste.
London, for example, had regulations governing rubbish disposal and designated places where refuse could be taken.
The recurring problem was remarkably modern - unfortunately people didn't always obey the rules.
🤢 The well-to-do could escape some of the worst conditions, and sweet-smelling herbs, flowers and perfumed substances were used in medieval life.
Sadly, nobody possessed a magical force field against a particularly ripe street.
Contrary to another popular story, the custom of a gentleman walking on the street-side of a lady, is not securely established as a practice designed to protect her from the contents of a flying chamber-pot!
It's a wonderful story - but sadly, we can't blame every modern etiquette rule on airborne medieval poo 😂
🤢 Medieval towns certainly weren't permanently drowning in sewage.
Many had organised attempts at cleaning and waste removal, and conditions differed enormously depending upon the place, period and neighbourhood.
But when sanitation failed, you definitely wanted to watch where you put your feet.
So next time you're wandering around a beautifully preserved medieval street thinking:
“Ohhh, wouldn't it have been wonderful to live
here 600 years ago?”
Just remember...
No flushing toilet, no refuse collection as we know it, hundreds of horses and livestock, open drains, cesspits, butchers and fishmongers.
Then Gerald next door opens his upstairs window - and splosh! 😂🤢💩
Perhaps the 21st century isn't so terrible after all.
Our Group
The Tudor Intruders (and more)
🤢 Recreation of a Medieval Street
Image created using ChatGPT
