Kitchen Garden Forum

The comment on a TV programme about the vast amounts of horse dung that had to be removed from London's streets in the Victorian era made me wonder where it went and what the effect was on the rivers and lakes. I suppose many of them were dead anyway so perhaps it didn't make any difference. But there must of been a time before when horse manure must have had a significant effect with Nitrate runoff. Or am I mistaken?

An interesting thought Colin, i would have thought it would have gone out to the farming land all around London, as it would have been a valuable source of fertilizer, but i could be wrong.

After having a quick read up on the matter, i would say most of it did end up in the rivers as run off.

Colin Miles wrote:...made me wonder where it went and what the effect was on the rivers and lakes. I suppose many of them were dead anyway so perhaps it didn't make any difference.

Pollution of our urban rivers, specifically the Thames, was off the scale in those days. But eutrophication from animal manure was the least of its woes. Almost all London's dung was put to use in the growing of crops. Traffic which brought produce in to Covent Garden from outlying market gardens returned loaded with manure, all of which was put to good use. No artificial fertilisers in them days. Here's one for fact fans: Heathrow is situated on some of the country's richest farmland and was once all market gardens.

I would have imagined human waste of every kind was a bigger problem than horse dung.

The great stink and Bazzalgette(spelling?).

When parliament shut because of the smell from the Thames and the engineer who sorted it out, his drains still in use today.

Human urine and the faeces of various species were collected for industrial uses.

A great man

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_f ... seph.shtml

There was money in dog doings in those days as the tanneries used it in curing hides. Waste not want not..... probably everything had a price.

MW

FelixLeiter wrote:

Colin Miles wrote:...made me wonder where it went and what the effect was on the rivers and lakes. I suppose many of them were dead anyway so perhaps it didn't make any difference.

Pollution of our urban rivers, specifically the Thames, was off the scale in those days. But eutrophication from animal manure was the least of its woes. Almost all London's dung was put to use in the growing of crops. Traffic which brought produce in to Covent Garden from outlying market gardens returned loaded with manure, all of which was put to good use. No artificial fertilisers in them days. Here's one for fact fans: Heathrow is situated on some of the country's richest farmland and was once all market gardens.

I live very close to Heathrow. the village (I use that term loosely, could be better described as a ghetto these days) where I live used to be all orchards, before that, formed part of Henry VIII's land around Hampton court. There's an odd mound fenced off at the main junction, which used to be a cool storage facility for the King's food. the local shops are all named after it! sorry to go off topic! btw, there are a few fruit trees remaining in back gardens in my road, but the stupid neighbours keep cutting them down, soon there will be none left.

Proper market gardens have all but disappeared, such a shame. They would grow up around all big cities and produce a really good cross section from fruit to veg, use the waste from the city and complete a circle of recycling. Once food started to arrive from further afield it started to go downhill, there were specialists instead of a mix, food miles increased and land got built on instead. And now they are finally starting to worry that the UK is not food self-sufficient.

Having worked on a mixed nursery when I first started work in the 70's I know what hard work it is but we used to take pride it what we produced and I was lucky to work alongside a man who could grow just about anything well. The knowledge for this sort of horticulture is disappearing now. The nursery I worked on gradually turned to a garden centre and has now become a pet centre, all the victorian glasshouses collapsed through lack of attention and the brambles have taken them over. Gone from a productive food nursery to a leisure activity in the space of 40 years.

MW