The terrifying Ten O'Clock 'orses!
When my mother was a child, in the late 30s and early 40s, her own mother would frighten her large brood to bed by the fear of the Ten O'Clock 'orses who were on their way and had just passed the Grindleys' house, only half a mile distant, and would soon reach the Wlilliamsons' on the corner...

Our Ma tried scaring my brothers and me with the 'orses in the 60s but it didn't work, possibly because by then horses were unusual in our industrial town.

As a kid I asked my mother what the 'orses were, and why they were dangerous, but she wouldn't tell me.
Later she admitted that she had no idea. She'd never dare question her own mother about it - far too scary!

Anyway...

Thanks to R4's Thinking Allowed programme, I learned last year that the Ten O'Clock 'orses really did exist. They pulled the carts for the night soil collectors who emptied the old-fashioned toilets at the bottom of people's gardens.

Working class etiquette required that these workers were left to do their work unseen, so kids had to be in bed and curtains closed as they passed.

So not only did the 'orses exist, at least up to a few generations ago, the kids really did have to be in bed before they came, or they might see something... unpleasant.

I wonder if my old granny knew what they were? She'd be well over 100 years old now so I bet she did, but she wasn't letting on.
(Juan Quar is clinging to her front teeth on, Mon 11 Apr 2011, 8:22, 12 replies)

I rather like this
A bit of family folklore that actually has its roots in something lost and historic. Nice!
(richardm, Mon 11 Apr 2011, 9:29, closed)

the noble work
Of the gong farmer.
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Mon 11 Apr 2011, 9:39, closed)

As opposed to the
Bong Farmer, who just stays in smoking shit.
(Rsoles, Mon 11 Apr 2011, 10:01, closed)

Cue an extended browse around wikipedia for "gong farmer" and other defunct occupations.
That was a very interesting way to waste a couple of hours.
(WillI'mNot logs in twice a year, every year, Mon 11 Apr 2011, 12:22, closed)

There was a good programme
on BBC2 last Friday night, presented by that Dan Snow tit who's on every single history program not featuring that Jock with the long hair, where he detailed the Gong Farmers' (ahem) shitty existence.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00z8r9l

"Filthy Cities"
(Rsoles, Mon 11 Apr 2011, 13:26, closed)

Tony Robinson mentioned gong farmers in one of his 'Worst Jobs In History' programmes
and highly entertaining it was, too.

He also demonstrated treading fabric in urine to bleach it or something, trying hard to stick to the script while continuously retching because of the dreadful smell. One of the funniest things I've ever seen on TV!
(Juan Quar is clinging to her front teeth on, Mon 11 Apr 2011, 18:48, closed)

Oh I remember reading a book with the Ten O'Clock Horses in.
That shit me up, a little bit. But I was easily scared.
( Lampito rise with the moon, go to bed with the sun, Mon 11 Apr 2011, 12:13, closed)

my mate's father
used to say the same thing to her and her siblings when they were little. But they assumed they were the Nazgul from the Lord of the Rings cartoon, terrified them into bed!

Didn't realise it was real history!
(dragondracus, Mon 11 Apr 2011, 12:18, closed)

There's a song about this
except they are referred to as night-soil men. I don't remember the verse, but the chorus goes "Watch the wall my darling, as the night-soil men go by"

Edit: I googled this and I'm wrong. What I'd remembered must be "Watch the wall my darling as the gentlemen go by" which is a reference to smugglers, not shit cleaners.
(Smale is stuffed, Mon 11 Apr 2011, 12:54, closed)

from moonfleet
iirc
(pounana Slept well, and dreamed of large women, on, Mon 11 Apr 2011, 17:11, closed)

Toilets, eh!
My childhood home was one of hundreds of terraced houses built to accommodate the families of engineering workers in the mid-19th century. All the houses had lavvies down t'yard with access from the wide gully outside for the night soil men.

Our outside lavvy was a flusher, but I'm not sure all my neighbours' were. Friends who lived a couple of streets away had a bog with a wooden board with a hole in instead of a pedestal, and it smelled so awful that I'd run home to ours rather than use it! This was in the late 60s.

There were definitely still night soil collections in local rural areas in the late 1970s because I knew someone who worked on them.

No horses were involved, though.
(Juan Quar is clinging to her front teeth on, Mon 11 Apr 2011, 18:42, closed)

The soup wagon comes at 10am here generally
We don't have mains drainage, cess pits instead. The soup wagon comes out every couple of weeks or so - you can tell when it's due because of the terrible smell outside.
The company used at called Sucklifts. Nice.
( chickenlady b3ta's very own Elizabeth Taylor, Thu 14 Apr 2011, 13:01, closed)