The dust-yards, or places where the dust is collected and sifted, are
generally situated in the suburbs, and they may be found all round
London, sometimes occupying open spaces adjoining back streets and
lanes, and surrounded by the low mean houses of the poor; frequently,
however, they cover a large extent of ground in the fields, and
there the dust is piled up to a great height in a conical heap, and
having much the appearance of a volcanic mountain. The reason why
the dust-heaps are confined principally to the suburbs is, that more
space is to be found in the outskirts than in a thickly-peopled and
central locality. Moreover, the fear of indictments for nuisance has
had considerable influence in the matter, for it was not unusual for
the yards in former times, to be located within the boundaries of
the city. They are now, however, scattered round London, and always
placed as near as possible to the river, or to some canal communicating
therewith. In St. George’s, Shadwell, Ratcliffe, Limehouse, Poplar,
and Blackwall, on the north side of the Thames, and in Redriffe,
Bermondsey, and Rotherhithe, on the south, they are to be found near
the Thames. The object of this is, that by far the greater quantity of
the soil or ashes is conveyed in sailing-barges, holding from 70 to
100 tons each, to Feversham, Sittingbourne, and other places in Kent,
which are the great brick-making manufactories for London. These barges
come up invariably loaded with bricks, and take home in return a cargo
of soil. Other dust-yards are situated contiguous to the Regent’s
and the Surrey canal; and for the same reason as above stated--for
the convenience of water carriage. Moreover, adjoining the Limehouse
cut, which is a branch of the Lea River, other dust-yards may be
found; and again travelling to the opposite end of the metropolis, we
discover them not only at Paddington on the banks of the canal, but at
Maiden-lane in a similar position. Some time since there was an immense
dust-heap in the neighbourhood of Gray’s-inn-lane, which sold for
20,000_l._; but that was in the days when 15_s._ and 1_l._ per chaldron
could easily be procured for the dust. According to the present rate,
not a tithe of that amount could have been realized upon it.
[Illustration: VIEW OF A DUST YARD.
(_From a Sketch taken on the spot._)]
A visit to any of the large metropolitan dust-yards is far from
uninteresting. Near the centre of the yard rises the highest heap,
composed of what is called the “soil,” or finer portion of the dust
used for manure. Around this heap are numerous lesser heaps, consisting
of the mixed dust and rubbish carted in and shot down previous to
sifting. Among these heaps are many women and old men with sieves
made of iron, all busily engaged in separating the “brieze” from the
“soil.” There is likewise another large heap in some other part of the
yard, composed of the cinders or “brieze” waiting to be shipped off to
the brickfields. The whole yard seems alive, some sifting and others
shovelling the sifted soil on to the heap, while every now and then
the dust-carts return to discharge their loads, and proceed again on
their rounds for a fresh supply. Cocks and hens keep up a continual
scratching and cackling among the heaps, and numerous pigs seem to find
great delight in rooting incessantly about after the garbage and offal
collected from the houses and markets.
In a dust-yard lately visited the sifters formed a curious sight;
they were almost up to their middle in dust, ranged in a semi-circle
in front of that part of the heap which was being “worked;” each had
before her a small mound of soil which had fallen through her sieve and
formed a sort of embankment, behind which she stood. The appearance of
the entire group at their work was most peculiar. Their coarse dirty
cotton gowns were tucked up behind them, their arms were bared above
their elbows, their black bonnets crushed and battered like those
of fish-women; over their gowns they wore a strong leathern apron,
extending from their necks to the extremities of their petticoats,
while over this, again, was another leathern apron, shorter, thickly
padded, and fastened by a stout string or strap round the waist. In the
process of their work they pushed the sieve from them and drew it back
again with apparent violence, striking it against the outer leathern
apron with such force that it produced each time a hollow sound, like
a blow on the tenor drum. All the women present were middle aged,
with the exception of one who was very old--68 years of age she told
me--and had been at the business from a girl. She was the daughter of
a dustman, the wife, or woman of a dustman, and the mother of several
young dustmen--sons and grandsons--all at work at the dust-yards at the
east end of the metropolis.
We now come to speak of the labourers engaged in collecting, sifting,
or shipping off the dust of the metropolis.
The dustmen, scavengers, and nightmen are, to a certain extent, the
same people. The contractors generally agree with the various parishes
to remove both the dust from the houses and the mud from the streets;
the men in their employ are indiscriminately engaged in these two
diverse occupations, collecting the dust to-day, and often cleansing
the streets on the morrow, and are designated either dustmen or
scavengers, according to their particular avocation at the moment. The
case is somewhat different, however, with respect to the nightmen.
There is no such thing as a contract with the parish for removing the
nightsoil. This is done by private agreement with the landlord of the
premises whence the soil has to be removed. When a cesspool requires
emptying, the occupying tenant communicates with the landlord, who
makes an arrangement with a dust-contractor or sweep-nightman for
this purpose. This operation is totally distinct from the regular
or daily labour of the dust-contractor’s men, who receive extra pay
for it; sometimes one set go out at night and sometimes another,
according either to the selection of the master or the inclination of
the men. There are, however, some dustmen who have never been at work
as nightmen, and could not be induced to do so, from an invincible
antipathy to the employment; still, such instances are few, for the men
generally go whenever they can, and occasionally engage in nightwork
for employers unconnected with their masters. It is calculated that
there are some hundreds of men employed nightly in the removal of the
nightsoil of the metropolis during the summer and autumn, and as these
men have often to work at dust-collecting or cleansing the streets on
the following day, it is evident that the same persons cannot be thus
employed every night; accordingly the ordinary practice is for the
dustmen to “take it in turns,” thus allowing each set to be employed
every third night, and to have two nights’ rest in the interim.
The men, therefore, who collect the dust on one day may be cleaning the
streets on the next, especially during wet weather, and engaged at
night, perhaps, twice during the week, in removing nightsoil; so that
it is difficult to arrive at any precise notion as to the number of
persons engaged in any one of these branches _per se_.
But these labourers not only work indiscriminately at the collection of
dust, the cleansing of the streets, or the removal of nightsoil, but
they are employed almost as indiscriminately at the various branches
of the dust business; with this qualification, however, that few men
apply themselves continuously to any one branch of the business. The
labourers employed in a dust-yard may be divided into two classes:
those paid by the contractor; and those paid by the foreman or
forewoman of the dust-heap, commonly called hill-man or hill-woman.