‘The Public Ways of the City were become like so many Dunghills’: Collecting Nightsoil in Eighteenth Century Bath

"In 1644 a visitor to Bath wrote ‘the public ways of the city were become like so many dunghills’. As both the popularity of Bath and the population itself increased, less land became available for the disposal of waste in communal middens or cesspits and households resorted to disposing of their sewage into the street. The City’s runnels and ditches were little more than open sewers, awash with household, and in particular, human waste. Whose job was it to clean up the mess? Kay Ross explores the world of the Nightsoil Collector".

The Upper Assembly Rooms at Bath in the 1770s: Private Property or Public Amenity?

"A major investment opportunity arose at Bath in late 1768 with the announcement of a project to build a fresh suite of assembly rooms among the terraces and crescents of rapidly expanding Lansdown". Fawcett examines the details of their construction, as well as their use by various societies and individuals.