Sanitation in Urban Britain, 1560-1700 (Perspectives in Economic and Social History)

Using a wide range of public and private records and by examining contemporary environmental regulations, this study shows that individuals, local councils and national government invested significant amounts of time, effort and resources into maintaining clean streets and civic spaces. Popular belief holds that throwing the contents of a chamber pot into the street was a common occurrence during the early modern period. This book challenges this deeply entrenched stereotypical image as the majority of urban inhabitants and their local governors alike valued clean outdoor public spaces, vesting interest in keeping the areas in which they lived and worked clean. Taking an extensive tour of over thirty towns and cities across early modern Britain, focusing on Edinburgh and York as in-depth case studies, this book sheds light on the complex relationship between how governors organised street cleaning, managed waste disposal and regulated the cleanliness of the outdoor environment, top-down, and how typical urban inhabitants self-regulated their neighbourhoods, bottom-up. The urban-rural manure trade, sanitation infrastructure, waste-disposal technology, plague epidemics, contemporary understandings of malodours and miasmatic disease transmission and urban agriculture are also analysed. This book will enable undergraduates, postgraduates and established academics to deepen their understanding of daily life and sensory experiences in the early modern British town. This innovative work will appeal to social, cultural and legal historians as well as researchers of history of medicine and public health Cover 1 Title Page 7 Copyright Page 8 Dedication 9 Table of Contents 11 List of figures 13 Acknowledgements 15 Conventions 17 English and Scots glossary 19 Introduction 21 The ‘chamber pot in the window’: myth or reality? 21 Contemporary literature 25 Historiographical progress in the field 29 The project 32 Notes 35 1 The character of the environmental challenge 40 Introduction 40 Domestic waste, drainage systems and the built infrastructure 41 Privies, chamber pots and Sir John Harrington’s water closet 47 Malodorous trades 53 Natural or divine causes? Plague and the meaning of smell 56 Urban agriculture and the urban-rural manure trade 61 Conclusion 66 Notes 68 2 York’s and Edinburgh’s sanitation in national, demographic, legal and governmental context 74 Introduction 74 Part 1: York’s sanitation in context 76 Part 2: Edinburgh’s sanitation in context 86 Conclusion 94 Notes 95 3 Civic-funded sanitation services: waste disposal, street cleaning and drainage 99 Introduction 99 English towns and Scottish burghs 100 York 110 Edinburgh 131 Conclusion 150 Notes 152 4 Regulating insanitary nuisances 158 Introduction 158 English towns 160 York 163 Edinburgh 169 Conclusion 182 Notes 183 Conclusion 186 Notes 198 Works cited 199 Index 214 List of figures xi Acknowledgements xiii Conventions xv English and Scots glossary xvii Introduction 1 The 'chamber pot in the window': myth or reality? 1 Contemporary literature 5 Historiographical progress in the field 9 The project 12 Notes 15 1. The character of the environmental challenge 20 Introduction 20 Domestic waste, drainage systems and the built infrastructure 21 Privies, chamber pots and Sir John Harrington’s water closet 27 Malodorous trades 33 Natural or divine causes? Plague and the meaning of smell 36 Urban agriculture and the urban-rural manure trade 41 Conclusion 46 Notes 48 2. York’s and Edinburgh’s sanitation in national, demographic, legal and governmental context 54 Introduction 54 Part 1: York’s sanitation in context 56 Part 2: Edinburgh’s sanitation in context 66 Conclusion 74 Notes 75 3. Civic-funded sanitation services: waste disposal, street cleaning and drainage 79 Introduction 79 English towns and Scottish burghs 80 York 90 Edinburgh 111 Conclusion 130 Notes 132 4. Regulating insanitary nuisances 138 Introduction 138 English towns 140 York 143 Edinburgh 149 Conclusion 162 Notes 163 Conclusion 166 Notes 178 Works cited 179 Index 194 Leona J. Skelton. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 179-193) And Index.