Keeping towns clean: problems and solutions (medieval)

Latrines and cesspits were sometimes built by house - owners near water supplies and their contents would be emptied into streams and rivers used for washing and drinking water.

Regulations were introduced about where to build private latrines. Cesspits were lined with brick or stone and so were less likely to leak into drinking water supplies. In Hull, Southampton and other towns, some carts went around collecting human waste from cesspits.  

Water supplies were dirty because of industrial and human waste.

Gloucester was one of many places where monasteries and towns people collaborated to bring fresh water to public wells through lead pipes. In Exeter aqueducts were built to bring fresh water to the town. 

People dropped waste and litter of all kinds and sometimes used streets as latrines. Butchers threw bloody waste and animal parts in the streets.

Laws were passed to punish the throwing waste. butchers had to get rid of waste outside city walls. Public latrines were built in Norwich and many other town, including over a dozen in London.

Cattle, sheep and geese continually arrived to be butchered for food. Horses were the main form of transport. These animals left trails of dung in the streets.

A small number of rakers were employed to clean the streets. Newcastle was one town where streets were paved to make them drier and easier to clean.