Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-m8qmq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T11:35:57.127Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Regulating filth: cleansing in Scottish towns and cities, 1840–1880

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 December 2014

DEBORAH BRUNTON
DEBORAH BRUNTON*
Affiliation:
History of Medicine, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Although little explored, regulations – in the form of laws and byelaws – formed an important technique of nineteenth-century government. This article explores the implementation and enforcement of two sets of regulations regarding the keeping and disposal of dirt imposed by Scottish local authorities: one on behaviours around the disposal of domestic refuse, the other on the keeping of dung – a form of property. While behaviours around refuse were more stringently policed than those affecting property, in both cases regulations were not the basis of a strict disciplinary regime, but a means of informing, educating and persuading residents into cleanly habits.

Type
Research Article
Information
Urban History , Volume 42 , Issue 3 , August 2015 , pp. 424 - 439
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Otter, C., The Victorian Eye: A Political History of Light and Vision in Britain 1800–1910 (Chicago, 2008)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, ‘Cleansing and clarifying: technology and perception in nineteenth-century London’, Journal of British Studies, 43 (2004), 40–64; idem, ‘Making liberal objects. British techno-social relations 1800–1900’, Cultural Studies, 21 (2007), 570–90; Joyce, P., The Rule of Freedom Liberalism and the Modern City (London, 2003), 210–33Google Scholar.

2 Crook, T., ‘“Schools for the moral training of people”: public baths, liberalism and the promotion of cleanliness in Victorian Britain’, European Review of History, 13 (2006), 21–47CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, ‘Sanitary inspection and the public sphere in late Victorian and Edwardian Britain: a case-study in liberal governance’, Social History, 32 (2007), 369–93.

3 Joyce, P., The State of Freedom: A Social History of the British State since 1800 (Cambridge, 2013), 122, 303–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 The article makes use of records from Aberdeen, Anstruther Easter, Dalkeith, Dundee, Edinburgh, Elie, Fortrose, Glasgow, Inverness, Kelso, Kilrenny, Kirriemuir, Leith, Linlithgow, Lochmaben, Moffat, Montrose, Musselburgh, Nairn, Perth, Peterhead, Prestonpans, Selkirk, St Andrews, Stornoway, Thurso and Wick.

5 Morris, R.J., ‘Urbanisation and Scotland’, in Fraser, W.H. and Morris, R.J. (eds.), People and Society in Scotland, vol. II (Edinburgh, 1995), 73–102Google Scholar.

6 Cohen, W.A., ‘Introduction. Locating filth’, in Cohen, W.A. and Johnson, R. (eds.), Filth, Dirt, Disgust and Modern Life (Minneapolis, 2005), xvii–xxivGoogle Scholar; Inglis, D., ‘Sewers and sensibilities: the bourgeois faecal experience in the nineteenth-century city’, in Cowan, A. and Steward, J. (eds.), The City and the Senses. Urban Culture since 1500 (Aldershot, 2007), 112–21Google Scholar.

7 Urquhart, R.M., The Burghs of Scotland and the Burgh Police (Scotland) Act 1833 (Motherwell, 1989), 1–4, 6, 97Google Scholar; General Report of the Commissioners Appointed to Inquire into the State of Municipal Corporations of Scotland (Local Reports), Parliamentary Papers, 1835, vol. 29, pp. 61, 84, 114, 151, 208, 223, 434, 445; ibid., 1836, vol. 23, pp. 70, 74, 82, 91, 110, 133, 168, 192, 237, 249, 264, 272, 293,146, 331, 350, 368, 378, 395, 413, 422; Municipal Corporations (Scotland) Appendix to the General Reports of the Commissioners, Parliamentary Papers, 1836, vol. 23, pp. 70, 74, 82, 133, 146, 168, 192, 272, 293, 331, 350, 368, 378, 395, 413.

8 ‘An act to enable burghs in Scotland to establish a general system of police’, 3 & 4 Geo. IV, c. xlvi; ‘An act to make more effectual provision for regulating the police of towns and populous places in Scotland, and for paving, draining, cleansing, lighting and improving the same’, 23 & 24 Vict., c. xxxiii (hereafter Burgh Police Act 1850); ‘An act to make more effectual provision for regulating the police of towns and populous places in Scotland, and for lighting, cleansing, paving, draining, supplying water to and improving the same, and also for promoting the public health thereof’, 35 & 36 Vict., c. ci.

9 Barrie, D.G., Police in the Age of Improvement. Police Development and the Civic Tradition in Scotland, 1775–1865 (Cullompton, 2008), 93–114, 171–9Google Scholar; Urquhart, Burgh Police Act 1833, 11–27, 76–98, 102–5; idem, The Burghs of Scotland and the Police of Towns (Scotland) Act 1850 (Motherwell, 1989), 13–39, 185–218, 246–9; idem, The Burghs of Scotland and the General Police Improvement (Scotland) Act 1862 (‘The Lindsay Act’) (Motherwell, 1991), Pt I, 28–105, Pt II, 385–403, 442–57; Tyzack, R., ‘“No mean city”? The growth of civic consciousness in Aberdeen with particular reference to the work of the police commissioners’, in Brotherstone, T. and Withrington, D.J. (eds.), The City and its Worlds. Aspects of Aberdeen's History since 1794 (Glasgow, 1996), 150–67Google Scholar.

10 Brunton, D., ‘Powers, policy and practice: the public response to public health in the Scottish city’, in Sturdy, S. (ed.), Medicine, Health and the Public Sphere in Britain, 1600–2000 (London, 2002), 172–3Google Scholar.

11 Urquhart, Burgh Police Act 1833, 102–5; idem, Police of Towns Act 1850, 246–9; idem, The General Police Improvement Act 1862, 442–57. See for example National Archives of Scotland, (NAS), B 76/2/1, Prestonpans Police Commissioners’ minutes (PCM), 9 Jun. 1862; Caithness Archive Centre (CAC), NC 1/3/1 Thurso PCM, 13 Nov. 1841, 3 Jan. 1842; Hebridean Archives (HA), R1.473, Stornoway PCM, 3 Feb. 1864; Angus Archives (AA), K1/2/1, Kirriemuir PCM, 27 Jan. 1835.

12 ‘An act to consolidate, amend, and extend the provisions of several acts for the better paving, watching, lighting and cleansing, and for regulating the police of the city of Glasgow’, 6 & 7 Vict., c. xcix (hereafter Glasgow Police Act 1843), cl. 148.

13 NAS, B 52/3/11, Musselburgh Town Council minutes (TCM), 26 Feb. 1861. The Musselburgh Town Council acted as police commissioners under the 1833 Burgh Police Act.

14 Edinburgh City Archives (ECA), E9/1/4, Edinburgh PCM, minutes of general commissioners, 5 Nov. 1821.

15 Bell, G., Blackfriar's Wynd Analysed (Edinburgh, 1850)Google Scholar; idem, Day and Night in the Wynds of Edinburgh (Edinburgh, 1850); ‘Shadow’ [A. Brown], Midnight Scenes and Social Photographs, beings Sketches of Life in the Streets, Wynds and Dens of the City (Glasgow, 1858).

16 ECA, SL 80/4/10, Leith Police Commissioners (PC), committee minutes, 26 Jan. 1846.

17 Ferguson, T., The Dawn of Scottish Social Welfare. A Survey from Medieval Times to 1863 (London, 1948), 137–46Google Scholar.

18 ECA, SL 80/4/16 Leith PC, committee minutes 25 Mar. 1867, 20 May 1867; Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Archives (ACAA), CA 9/1/8, Aberdeen PCM, 30 Dec. 1844; Glasgow Herald, 13 Jul. 1869; Dundee Courier, 24 Sep. 1844.

19 ECA, ED9/1/4, Edinburgh PCM, general commissioners’ minutes, 5 Nov. 1821; Scottish Borders Archives (SBA), BK/1/2, Kelso PCM, 11 Feb. 1839; NAS, B 52/6/1, Musselburgh TCM, 14 Mar. 1865; NAS, B 56/7/8 North Berwick TCM, 9 Nov. 1868.

20 St Andrews University Library (SAUL), B 65/13/3, St Andrews PCM, 9 Nov. 1849; ACAA, CA 9/1/8 Aberdeen PCM, 28 Feb. 1848; Dundee City Archives (DCA), Dundee PCM, 1842–51, 9 May 1849; CAC, NC 1/3/2, Thurso PCM, 9 Jul. 1867; CAC, BW 1/7, Wick PCM, 7 Mar. 1860; ECA, SL 80/4/11, Leith PCM, 24 Feb. 1853.

21 Dumfries and Galloway Council Archives (DGCA), LN1/1/10, Lochmaben PCM, 4 Mar. 1867; Highland Archive Centre (HAC), BF 1/1/5, Fortrose PCM, 4 Jan. 1858.

22 HA, R1.473, Stornoway PCM, 12 Sep. 1868, 13 Jan. 1873.

23 ‘An act for more effectually watching, cleansing and lighting the streets of the city of Edinburgh and adjoining districts, for regulating the police thereof, and for other purposes relating thereto’, 11 & 12 Vict., c. cxiii (hereafter Edinburgh Police Act 1848), cl. 76. Similar officials were employed elsewhere. See HAC, IB 1/4/1, Inverness PCM, 19 May 1868; SBA, 139/1/1, Selkirk PCM, 28 Dec. 1863; ACAA, AS/Aphd/2/3, Peterhead PCM, 2 Apr. 1863; NAS, B 52/6/1 Musselburgh TCM, 16 Aug. 1866.

24 SAUL, B 3/6/1, Kilrenny PCM, 29 Jun. 1858; SAUL, B 24/12/1, Elie PCM, 28 Jul. 1877.

25 NAS, B 52/3/9, Musselburgh PCM, 17 Mar. 1846, 23 Jan. 1847; NAS, B 76/2/1, Prestonpans PCM, 12 Aug. 1862.

26 HAC, IB 1/4/1, Inverness PCM, 2 Dec. 1851; AA, K 1/2/3 Kirriemuir PCM, 8 Feb. 1866; AA, M 1/2/2 Montrose PCM, 20 Jan. 1840; ECA, Edinburgh PCM, vol. 11, general commissioners’ minutes, 2 Jan. 1849.

27 SBA/139/1/1, Selkirk PCM, 10 Jan. 1876.

28 Burgh Police Act 1850, cl. 147.

29 Bennett, Tonyet al., ‘Habit and habituation: governance and the social’, Body and Society, 19 (2013), 3–29CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

30 Midlothian Council Archives (MCA), MBC 5/5, Dalkeith town trustees’ minutes (TTM), 12 Jun. 1842.

31 Burgh Police Act 1850, cl. 147. The same penalty was levied under ‘An act to consolidate and amend the acts relating to the police and statute labour of the city of Glasgow’, 25 & 26 Vict., c. cciv, cl. 357.

32 SBA, BK/1/2, Kelso PCM, 11 Feb. 1839; ACAA, CA/9/1/8, Aberdeen PCM, 11 Mar. 1844.

33 Scotsman, 10 Jan. 1829.

34 SBA, 139/1/2, Selkirk PCM, 8 Jul. 1878.

35 Dundee Courier, 27 Jun. 1864.

36 Scotsman 24 Aug. 1828, 24 Dec. 1828; NAS B52/6/1, Musselburgh PCM, 25 Feb. 1873.

37 CAC, BW 1/6, Wick TCM, 27 Feb. 1841; Perth and Kinross Council Archive (PKCA), PE 1/3/2, Perth PCM, 30 May 1866; AA, M1/2/2, Montrose PCM, 10 Jan. 1848; NAS, B 76/2/1, Prestonpans PCM, 6 Mar. 1871, 19 Jun. 1877; NAS, B 48/10/1, Linlithgow PCM, 10 May 1870.

38 ACAA, AS/Aphd/2/3, Peterhead PCM, 11 Nov. 1862.

39 Scotsman, 24 Dec. 1828, 10 Jan. 1829, 28 Jan. 1829; Caledonian Mercury, 20 Dec. 1828, 31 Jan. 1829.

40 Aberdeen Journal, 7 Mar 1882; Caledonian Mercury, 14 Jan. 1847.

41 The Edinburgh commissioners mounted nine successful prosecutions between late August and early October 1866. Caledonian Mercury, 23 Aug. 1866, 29 Aug. 1866, 30 Aug. 1866, 16 Sep. 1866, 26 Sep. 1866, 1 Oct. 1866.

42 The newspapers searched were Aberdeen Journal, Caledonian Mercury, Dundee Courier and Glasgow Herald. In addition to the 177 individuals, other cases involved the prosecution of ‘several’ people.

43 See, for example, Glasgow Herald, 6 Aug. 1849, 16 Nov. 1849; Caledonian Mercury, 23 Jul. 1849, 10 Oct. 1866.

44 Caledonian Mercury, 26 Sep. 1866; Aberdeen Journal, 14 Dec. 1878.

45 Aberdeen Journal, 2 Feb. 1870, 3 Sep. 1873.

46 Dundee Courier, 22 Jul. 1861, 23 Oct. 1866, 25 May 1867, 10 Oct. 1872, 26 Nov. 1874, 13 Dec. 1877.

47 Aberdeen Journal, 2 Jun. 1881; Dundee Courier, 15 Mar. 1866.

48 Caledonian Mercury, 24 Nov. 1858, 29 Aug. 1866, Aberdeen Journal, 2 Feb. 1870.

49 Aberdeen Journal, 4 Jan. 1860, 2 Jan. 1867, 2 Feb. 1870, 3 Sep. 1873; Dundee Courier, 22 Jul. 1861, 13 Dec. 1877; Caledonian Mercury, 24 Nov. 1858, 30 Aug. 1866.

50 Caledonian Mercury, 24 Nov. 1858; Aberdeen Journal, 12 Feb. 1851, 6 Aug. 1856, 31 Aug. 1882.

51 Hamlin, C., ‘Providence and putrefaction: Victorian sanitarians and the natural theology of health and disease’, Victorian Studies, 28 (1985), 381–411Google ScholarPubMed; Sheail, J., ‘Town wastes, agricultural sustainability and Victorian sewage’, Urban History, 23 (1996), 189–210CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Cottrell, P.L., ‘Resolving the sewage question: Metropolis Sewage and Essex Reclamation Company, 1865–81’, in Colls, R. and Rodger, R. (eds.), Cities of Ideas. Civil Society and Urban Governance in Britain, 1800–2000 (Aldershot, 2004), 67–95Google Scholar; Atkins, Peter, ‘The “charmed circle”’, in Atkins, Peter (ed.), Animal Cities. Beastly Urban Histories (Farnham, 2012), 53–76Google Scholar.

52 Brunt, L., ‘“Where there's muck, there's brass”. The market for manure in the industrial revolution’, University of Oxford, Discussion Papers in Economic and Social History, 35 (2000)Google Scholar.

53 Mathew, W.M., ‘Peru and the British guano market, 1840–1870’, Economic History Review, 23 (1970), 112–28Google Scholar.

54 Ibid., 124 n. 3.

55 Smout, T.C., ‘The improvers and the Scottish environment: soils, bogs and woods’, in Devine, T.M and Young, J.R. (eds.), Eighteenth-Century Scotland. New Perspectives (East Linton, 1999), 214–17Google Scholar; Devine, T.M., ‘The transformation of agriculture: cultivation and clearance’, in Devine, T.M., Lees, C.H. and Peden, G.C. (eds.), The Transformation of Scotland. The Economy since 1700 (Edinburgh, 2008), 71–98Google Scholar; Woodward, D., ‘“An essay on manures”: changing attitudes to fertilization in England, 1500–1800’, in Chartres, J. and Hey, D. (eds.), English Rural Society, 1500–1800 (Cambridge, 2005), 251–78Google Scholar; Woodward, D., ‘“Gooding the earth”’: manuring practices in Britain, 1500–1800’, in Foster, S. and Smout, T. C. (eds.), The History of Soils and Field Systems (Aberdeen, 1994), 102–8Google Scholar.

56 Galt, John, Annals of the Parish (originally published 1821, Edinburgh, 2002), 34Google Scholar.

57 Burgh Police Act 1850, cl. 142.

58 AA, M1/2/2, Montrose PCM, 17 May 1847.

59 See, for example, Aberdeen Journal, 24 Jan. 1827, 31 Jan. 1835, 8 Jan. 1845, 10 Dec. 1845; DGAC, CB 842/1/1/2, Moffat PCM, 7 Nov. 1866.

60 A. Fenton, ‘Shellfish as bait: the interface between domestic and commercial fishing’, in T.C. Smout (ed.), Scotland and the Sea (Edinburgh, 1992), 141, 151–2; SAUL, B 3/6/3, Anstruther PCM, 25 Jun. 1866.

61 ‘An act for altering and amending certain acts for regulating the police of the city of Edinburgh’, 2 Gul. IV, c. lxxxvii (hereafter Edinburgh Police Act 1832), cl. 43; ‘An act for the better paving, lighting, watching, and cleansing the burgh of Dundee’, 1 Vict., c. cix (hereafter Dundee Police Act 1837), cl. 112. Fulzie is an old Scots word meaning dirt or dung.

62 ‘An act for the better paving, cleansing, lighting watching and improving the streets, lanes and other public places and passages with the city of Aberdeen’, 10 Geo. IV, c. xli, cl. cxli.

63 Report by the Cleaning and Lighting Committee of the Town Council of Edinburgh, regarding the Cleaning Dept. of the Police Establishment (Edinburgh, [1859]), Appendix II, p. 11.

64 PKCA, PE 1/3/2, Perth PCM, 25 May 1866.

65 See, for example, CAC, NC 1/3/3, Thurso PCM, 12 Aug. 1850; NAS, B 56/7/7, North Berwick TCM, 31 Jan. 1857, 1 Dec. 1857; PKCA, PE 1/3/3, Perth PCM, 10 Dec. 1869; SAUL, B 3/6/1, Kilrenny PCM, 13 May 1851; AA, M 1/2/1, Montrose PCM, 30 Apr. 1838.

66 Dundee Courier, 15 Sep. 1852.

67 AA, M1/2/2, Montrose PCM, 17 May 1847.

68 DCA, Dundee PCM, 1824–32, 28 May 1832, ibid., 1851–61, 9 May 1853; PKCA, PE 1/3/3, Perth PCM, 13 Jul. 1868, PE 1/3/4, Perth PCM, 10 Jul. 1871, 8 Jul. 1872.

69 Aberdeen Journal, 12 Nov. 1846; Mitchell Library, Glasgow (ML), E 3.3.2, Abstract Statement of the Revenue and Expenditure of the Board of Police Glasgow, 1873–82.

70 Barrie, D.G. and Broomhall, S., ‘Public men, private interests: the origins, structure and practice of police courts in Scotland, c. 1800–1833’, Continuity and Change, 27 (2012), 83–123CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Barrie, Police in the Age of Improvement, 93–105.

71 AA, M 1/2/1, Montrose PCM, 26 Jan. 1835; DGAC, LN 1/1/10, Lochmaben PCM, 20 Dec. 1866; HA, R1.473, Stornoway PCM, 14 Jan. 1867.

72 Burgh Police Act 1850, cl. 156; see also AA, M 1/2/3, Montrose PCM, 9 Jan. 1854; MCA, MBC/5/5, Dalkeith TTM, 12 Jun. 1842

73 AA, K1/2/1, Kirriemuir PCM, 14 Dec. 1839; AA, M 1/2/1, Montrose PCM, 3 Mar. 1834, M 1/2/3, Montrose PCM, 9 Jan. 1854; NAS, B 48/10/1, Linlithgow PCM, 19 Feb. 1867; SAUL, B 65/13/3, St Andrews PCM, 9 Nov. 1849. The regulations in Kelso were neglected. See SBA BK/1/5 Kelso PCM, 10 Dec. 1866.

74 Burgh Police Act 1850, cl. 156, 158; Dundee Police Act 1837, cl. 113; Glasgow Police Act 1843, cl. 155; Edinburgh Police Act 1832, cl. 43; Edinburgh Police Act 1848, cl. 191.

75 Glasgow Police Act 1843, cl. 155; Edinburgh Police Act 1848, cl. 193.

76 CAC, NC 1/3/2, Thurso PCM, 22 May 1866.

77 SAUL, B 3/6/3, Anstruther PCM, 11 Aug. 1862; SAUL, B 65/13/2, St Andrews PCM, 9 May 1853; SAUL, B 3/6/1, Kilrenny PCM, 13 Jul. 1871, 10 Feb. 1873; HAC, BF 1/1/7, Fortrose PCM, 6 Mar. 1871; AA, K1/2/1 Kirriemuir PCM, 10 Jan. 1839.

78 Aberdeen Journal, 14 Dec. 1878; Glasgow Herald, 9 Oct. 1848, 4 Dec. 1872; Dundee Courier, 15 Aug. 1873.

79 Aberdeen Journal, 30 Aug. 1876, 4 Jun. 1881, 9 Aug. 1881; Dundee Courier, 30 Mar. 1869, 14 Jun. 1874; NAS 56/8/1 North Berwick PCM, 20 Aug. 1868.

80 Dundee Courier, 14 Jun. 1867; Aberdeen Journal, 11 Nov. 1880.

81 Caledonian Mercury, 8 Aug. 1866; Dundee Courier, 15 Aug. 1873.

82 Caledonian Mercury, 1 Aug. 1866, 23 Aug. 1866, 26 Sep. 1866, 3 Oct. 1866, 24 Oct. 1866; Aberdeen Journal, 14 Dec. 1878.

83 Caledonian Mercury, 9 Nov. 1848, Glasgow Herald, 9 Oct. 1848, 12 Jan. 1849, 14 Dec. 1872; Aberdeen Journal, 14 Dec. 1878, 13 Aug. 1884; ‘An act to make better provision for the removal of nuisances, regulation of lodging houses, and the health of towns in Scotland’, 19 & 20 Vict., c. ciii; C. Hamlin, ‘Public sphere to public health: the transformation of “nuisance”’, in Sturdy (ed.), Medicine, Health and the Public Sphere, 189–204, discusses the treatment of nuisances under similar legislation in England and Wales.

84 Glasgow Herald, 4 Dec. 1872.

85 Dundee Courier, 20 Feb. 1874, 4 Mar. 1874, 9 Mar. 1874.

86 DGAC, CB 842 1/1/2, Moffat PCM, 27 Sep. 1865, 7 Nov. 1866; AA, K1/2/1, Kirriemuir PCM, 19 Aug. 1838; AA, M 1/2/1, Montrose PCM, 9 Mar. 1835, 6 Apr. 1835; AA, M1/2/3, Montrose PCM, 9 Oct. 1854; ACAA, AS/Aphd/2/3, Peterhead PCM, 23 Oct., 1848; ACAA, CA 9/1/7, Aberdeen PCM, 6 Jun. 1842; ML, E 1/15/1, Glasgow PCM, nuisance removal committee, 20 May 1859, 29 Jul. 1859; CAC, NC 1/3/1, Thurso PCM, 13 May 1850; HAC, IB 1/4/1, Inverness PCM, 9 Jan. 1851; ECA, SL 80/4/11, Leith PCM, committee minutes, 3 May 1850; ECA, SL 80/4/15, Leith PCM, 1 Jun. 1866; SAUL, B 65/13/3, St Andrews PCM, 18 Feb. 1853.

87 Dundee Courier, 15 Mar. 1870.

88 MCA, MBC/5/5, Dalkeith TTM, 28 Mar. 1842; AA, K 1/2/1, Kirriemuir PCM, 13 Feb. 1837; AA, M 1/2/2, Montrose PCM, 8 Feb. 1847, M1/2/ 5, Montrose PCM, 10 Feb. 1868; ACAA, AS/Aphd/2/2, Peterhead PCM, 18 Oct. 1848.

89 ACAA, AS/Aphd/2/3, Peterhead PCM, 8 Jul. 1867.

90 Crook, ‘Sanitary inspection’, 384–9.