Middle Ages - The time when the roads stank and lacked city planning

Updated on September 16, 2022 19:05 PM by Ava Sara

Opportunities and problems

The formation of communities during the medieval period was one of the reasons it created lots of opportunities for the people and problems for the population.

The biggest deal with the growing population was the pathetic hygiene and disgusting drainage system. It made people retch from time to time.

Nevertheless, it turned out to be one of those worries where city planners did not take care of sanitation. The monarchy was too reluctant, and people lived in mud, dirt, and filth.

The saddest part was that there was no proper drainage system, and treating specific human and animal waste was pathetic. It was so dirty and gross that walking down the streets during the medieval period made people cover their noses because the roads stank.

The atmosphere was so filthy that people used to carry perfumed handkerchiefs to cover their noses and mouths.

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Indus Valley Civilization

No wonder the Indus Valley Civilization was praised for its discrete drainage system. However, it is not mentioned in the history books why they have praised the drainage system of the Indus Valley.

It was later that people came to know that the medieval period was dirty, so having a discrete drainage system even before that, was not only surprising but also shocking.

But then again, when do history books give complete information?

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The stinky roads and streets

Various renowned historians and professors have researched waste disposal in Scandinavian and Northern European Medieval cities. It was shocking to see those cities were dirty, stinky, and grotesque.

The roads were not only dirty, but nobody ever cleaned them; people did not take baths and used cologne to hide their stinky sweat.

They didn’t have basins and sinks during the Middle Ages, so they used to melt ice and collect it in a porcelain bowl to wash the face, brush, and clean the whole body.

They did not replace that water for every specific cleaning process; they used one bowl of water to wash the hands and clean the face. So, yeah, it was very dirty.

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Your Highness and Your Majesty

So, the whole system of maintaining a clean body during the medieval period was only available to Kings, Queens, and Emperors.

The emperors had special people to wipe them off after they were done with their morning duty.

Historians and professors point out that people during the medieval period used to go without baths for months.

Only the elites and the emperors were the ones who got to get a bath every couple of months, but then again, there were people to wash them off from time to time.

Other than that, the caretakers directly threw their waste into the roads outside their palace.

So, commoners who stepped out of their houses would step on the waste materials directly. It was not only gross, but it used to create lots of diseases during the Middle Ages.

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The approximate stats of the filthiness

In a medieval city with an average population of ten thousand, people typically produced nine hundred thousand liters of excrement and nearly three million liters of urine annually.

So, the roads, streets, and cities were total hell since it was when city planners constructed no underground sewage systems. The historians even doubt what type of city planners were there at that time.

The cattle were also making their contribution as usual. Now, there were no special shades or places to keep the livestock.

The added amounts of Dung from livestock were kept in the cities, as there was no way to get rid of them. Unless and until these livestock dung used to get dry, during the summer season, the atmosphere was worse.

Hell used to break out during the rainy season when copious amounts of Dung from pigs, horses, cows, and poultry used to be thrown on the streets.

No wonder we have got the proverbs like ‘dirty buffaloes’ and ‘dirty pigs’ because they were figuratively dirty enough to get the title.

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London during the Middle Ages

Various historians have described London in the 1300s as the dirtiest of all time.

London, which we know now, was much different back in the 1300s. At that time, they were stinky bears with dirt and poop.

The streets used to be ankle-deep in a putrid mix of wet mud, rotten fish and meat, various types of pathetic garbage, internal organs of various animals, animal dung, and even animal carcasses.

The streets were filled with filth and excreta of both humans and animals alike that it was difficult to walk without staining the gowns. The elites had carriages in London, so they were the only ones having clean hems and purely white socks.

Diseases due to lots of flies and other insects used to be the ones that caused too many deaths during that time.

Women who walked for miles had dirty gowns they didn’t use to get washed for days and weeks ahead.

The movies and series which show men and women consummating most flawlessly are completely ridiculous. Sex was really dirty and sweaty and messy back then. But, due to the cleanliness of the present day, the intimate scenes on the screens are kept clean and flawless.

People used to dump their buckets of feces and urine into the street or slosh them out the window. Just imagine you are walking past a house, and you just got splashed with urine, and the last thing you know, there is war!

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Is this a true interpretation of medieval cities?

Absolutely yes; sad to say, but even the hookers of the present society are much cleaner than the commoners of the medieval period. They were dirty compared to what we have now as a city plan.

Underground sewage systems with maintenance holes were not available back then. There were no dumping grounds and no system to crush and recycle the waste materials. The water bodies were really dirty.

Environmentalists scream that global warming has been caused due to recent years of negligence from human beings. But, they should have seen the medieval period keeping the fact, how they even lived back then!

They didn’t even have international organizations like WHO or Red Cross back then, so the situation was much worse than we can imagine.

No wonder Johnny Depp was disgusted with Amber Heard pooping in his bed because he thought humans had come out of the Middle Ages. That’s a dark irony people cannot deny.

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The spreading out of diseases

Unfortunately, our medieval ancestors did not know how to deal with rodents and insects spreading diseases. As a result, they were plagued with diphtheria and measles.

In various cities, people used to die fatally due to tuberculosis and leprosy. Well, the disease typhus is a pretty well-known disease, thanks to Hitler and concentration camps.

But, back then, in the Middle Ages, people didn’t know how to remain hygienic, so the mortality rate was pretty high due to typhus. Along with that, numerous infants and children died from anthrax and smallpox.

Not to forget, salmonella and other maladies created havoc during the middle ages. People used to breed like rabbits and died due to the plagues.

Nobody can forget the bubonic plague, which wreaked havoc worldwide, much like the COVID-19 pandemic.

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The health support system was very poor

Medications and antidotes were not available back then, let alone vaccinations, which caused pathetic conditions among the civilizations. It was more about the survival of the fittest during that time.

A person’s immune system determined back then whether the person would survive the disease or not because no other alternative was present. People even died out of cough, cold, and fever; the condition was that worse.

Like walking through a muddy puddle, and the last thing they know, they are dead within weeks. Unfortunately, people didn’t know how to remove waste material or clean garbage.

The medical conditions during medieval times were extremely poor and did not support the lifeline of the people at that time.

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Situations were worse

Even though pollution was not an issue at the time, the unhygienic situation was one of the major causes of the spread of epidemics and endemics.

People also used to get poisoned by the ergot fungus known as Claviceps purpurea. That was when farmers used no special fertilizers, insecticides, or pesticides to keep the raw harvest clean.

Farmers grew cereals with ergot fungus on them, especially in the food supplies such as rye, where the ergot fungus used to multiply and create havoc in the human brain.

Consuming these fungi rye would trigger hallucinations, and sometimes overconsumption made them downright maniacs. The unfortunate factor was that the widespread superstitions would create the notion that demons and whatnot possessed these people.

The superstitions caused maximum hindrance in the livelihood of the commoners. They outcasted these people rather than getting them treated. The existence of mental asylum was questionable during that time. So, as a result, these untreated people used to die just like that.

Many epidemics were struck during that time, as people were oblivious to the spread of the disease in the first place. It was pathetic, knowing the fact that village after village people would die.

The worst of such pathetic diseases was the Black Death, which began ravaging Norway in 1349. Hundreds and thousands of people died back then. However, the Black Death struck again in later outbreaks until the 1600s.

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Various researchers clarified the facts

The antidote and cure for the outbreaks were difficult to handle and even resist, causing massive havoc and deaths.

They conducted various research projects investigating how medieval city citizens dealt with dreadful diseases. Or maybe didn’t deal with them, succumbed to them with time.

The Dung or excrement was not the only filth piled up in the middle of the medieval cities. There were various waste products of various trade materials that were equally pervasive.

The medieval period's most well-known tanneries and textile production were messy businesses. It created huge waste products dumped on the roads and streets.

As a result, the toxicity in the air was much higher than usual, causing suffocation and various lung infections.

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The disgusting part of slaughterhouses

The worst-ranked ones were the slaughterhouses. They were the most unhygienic places of all. The butchers maintained no protocol, and the knives and daggers used were unhygienic and were not regularly cleaned.

The chances of infection were much higher, as the knives and butchering weapons used were not sterile.

The intestines and heads of the butchered animals had to be thrown somewhere, so the butchers just dumped them anywhere. There was no specific way to get rid of the entrails.

The butchers cleaned the intestines of Dung and threw it away on the roadsides. Typically the blood and water with the fur or hair had to be rinsed away by the butchers. However, the water which they used back then was extremely contaminated.

The butcher houses didn’t change the water and used to rinse all the butchered animals with the same dirty, contaminated water, causing more and more infections to spread.

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The complaints about slaughterhouses

Local people used to complain about the slaughterhouses. However, historians and researchers have found these complaints about butchers registered in older written sources from England.

Loads of commotion were created by the people of then, who could not resist the stench and the unhygienic way of dealing with the meat businesses.

One example found in one of the written sources of England: In 1371, the complaint was so high that the city council in York brought out an instruction that forbade the butchers from discarding waste products in the river near a monastery.

It was difficult for the monks and the local people to bear the pollution, stench and spread of flies due to the discarded waste products of animals.

Now, the problem did not have any permanent solution as they did nothing to get the waste products permanently disposed of from the vicinity.

Now, as was instructed by the City Council, even the butchers started throwing intestinal and bloody waste near their slaughterhouse walls and gates and at other spots in and around the River Ouse.

The monks complained to the City Council again that the people of the city and country couldn’t even walk past the streets and roads.

The ones who used to attend the church services found it very difficult to cross these streets and started to withdraw themselves as the stench and the horrible sights became unbearable.

Even the monks started complaining as they feared that direct exposure to decomposing animal waste materials might cause sickness and other harmful infections.

This whole vicious circle of sickness and disease would result from this pollution created by the decomposition of the carcasses and the animal entrails.

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The Decree passed by the King

As a result, the King decreed against the butchers throwing waste in the vicinity of the monks. Now things become much dirtier.

Butchers solved the issue by dumping the animal remnants in the graveyards. However, the burial system did not follow the protocol. Bones were scattered around and attracted hungry dogs and scavengers, creating more filth in the area.

The hungry dogs and the scavengers used to mess up with the waste material by spreading it and creating more infections from that dumped waste.

The unhygienic situation was indeed a big bother for the medieval people.

Along with that, the contamination of rivers was a huge problem for many medieval cities. However, the authorities tried to prevent it. Since the complaints were increasing, things were getting out of hand.

It was too much for people to bear with the stench, disease, horrid sights of Dung, scat, and decomposing carcasses.

The situation escalated when people started dumping waste directly into watercourses. Contamination increased as there were no specific known ways to clean the water bodies.

Unfortunately, these water bodies were also used for cleaning and washing, making the procedure extremely difficult for those who stayed there.

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The water bodies got polluted

Along with this waterbody contamination, there was another problem - the systems of ditches flowed into these same rivers, which contaminated the water and the aquatic life.

The fish and aquatic creatures caught for consumption contained the toxicity of the waste material dumped in them. So, these fish, and aquatic creatures, which the people consumed, created various diseases and food poisoning. In some cases, it even caused death.

The whole system was completely toxic and polluted, with the presence of disease at every step. In short, there was no balance between nature and food hierarchy.

On the darkest note, if a wild animal tried to kill and eat human flesh back then, it might die out of toxicity.

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Every planning turned into disappointment

City planners exclusively dug some ditches or gutters to lead away the rainwater. But they turned out to be places for citizens to eliminate waste. Like, just contaminating the ditches and gutters.

Now things started getting rough, which was obvious as people were too irresponsible in putting up waste materials in the ditches and gutters and thus blocking them.

The ditches started overflowing, causing the roads and streets to be filled with filth again. Now people started to complain once again.

Only complaints about clogged gutters were logged with King’s people. It was obvious people were frustrated with the growing unhygienic road and streetways.

They complained that the gutters were filled with trash, and the complaints were delivered to the King by his people. People complained that the nasty result would poison the air.

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Smart women during Middle Ages

There was a woman named Alice Wade in London whose name has been mentioned in the source articles dating back to the 14th Century.

She was resourceful and ahead of her time and is the inspiration for the character of Belle in the Beauty and the Beast story.

This Alice Wade girl made her water closet with wooden pipes that led her excrement directly into the rain ditches. Now she was so advanced that her neighbors were not particularly pleased with her and even envied her.

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Medieval folks were stupid

Various historians have said that there is this notion that medieval folks were ignorant and blithering idiots.

Technically historians couldn’t deny that the city planning was so pathetic, and the monarchy was too bothered even to take the responsibility to keep themselves clean, let alone try to ensure the commoners were clean enough.

The worst part is that the medieval ages were when people didn’t realize they could fall ill by simply sloshing waste around town. Nobody ever bothered trying to clean the waste as the town was more pathetic than ever.

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Everybody was irresponsible

However, researchers are pointing out that the official complaints were rather showoffs. The researchers interpreted that the complaints were rather a showoff.

The monarchy showed that people complained because they were not ready to accept such a living in a disgusting pigsty.

Nobody was interested in keeping the cities, towns, and everywhere clean. They just complained about the monarchy, and the King blamed the people for being dirty and not taking responsibility for spreading diseases.

The classical opinion of medieval cities remains the same: they were filthy, dirty, nasty, gross, pathetically overpopulated, reluctant, least bothered, unhygienic, and had open sewers.

People cared little about how things looked yet did not stop complaining and said that the monarchy was doing nothing concerning the taxes it was taking from the people.

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Everybody would blame the other one

The monarchy was smart enough not to let it go just like that; the King knew the commoners were blaming the monarchy, so they gave them back.

One of the well-known explanations the King gave was that dwellers never wanted to have a hygienic environment.

The monarchy marked that the individual residents were responsible for not cleaning and maintaining a clean environment. Everybody was too busy to blame the other without trying to find a solution.

The researchers found that people started losing hope in the monarchy and taking on individual responsibilities as time passed.

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They started taking responsibility

The written sources from the medieval period show a clear difference in how intensely various neighbors shouldered their responsibility. Segregation of taking responsibility started during this time.

Some of the people were diligently tidy, whereas others weren’t. As a result, the tidy one was not ready to tolerate the dirtiness and filth of their neighbors - at least not on their premises.

Time and ambiance became more intense, as none of the people found it fruitful to blame the monarchy, and taking up individual responsibilities led to fights and feuds.

Everybody had their customized way of remaining clean; if that did not match their neighbors' tidiness, feuds got issued; obviously, the monarchy took responsibility for solving these people's issues.

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The King passed new laws

However, various laws were passed by the monarchy keeping the fact that discipline and rules have to be maintained by the local people.

These disciplines stipulated that the public had to keep the streets clear and garbage-free, especially during Christmas.

Also, people were responsible for keeping the street surface within their vicinity clean and neat.

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Bumps had to be smoothened off

Road planning started when people started taking responsibility for keeping the road clean. The city planners made sure the roads had better construction and conditions.

Various archaeological sources prove that materials used for city planning were under certain rules.

These rules were systemized and specifically linked to each property facing the street. So, the city started to follow plans, making it look much more organized.

However, the King’s people ensured the property owners obeyed the ordinances.