Gong farmer

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A gong farmer or gongfermor was the term used in Tudor Britain for a person who removed human excrement from privies and cesspits.[1] Gong farmers were only allowed to work at night and the waste they collected, known as night soil had to be taken outside the city or town boundaries. As flushing water closets became more widely used, the profession of gong farming disappeared.

A latrine or privy was the toilet of the Middle Ages. A gong farmer dug out the cesspits and emptied the excrement. Some people believed that attendants at public latrines were immune to the plague.[2]

Gong farmers could earn a good wage: those employed at Hampton Court, for example, were paid sixpence a day during the time of Elizabeth I of England.[3] However, despite the ability to earn a good living, the rules governing when gong farmers could work and where they could live—combined with the terrible conditions associated with the job—caused historians on the The Worst Jobs in History television series to consider the profession as one of the worst. Gong farmers could only work from 9pm-5am and were only allowed to live in certain areas. Due to the noxious fumes produced by human excrement, coroners' reports exist of gong farmers dying of asphyxiation.[3]

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[edit] References

  1. ^ Discovery Channel article The Worst Jobs in History page Tudor and Stuart section The Gong Farmer
  2. ^ Archers, Alchemists, and 98 Other Medieval Jobs you Might Have Loved or Loathed By Priscilla Galloway 1930- ©2003
  3. ^ a b Robinson, Tony (2004). The Worst Jobs in History. Channel 4. ISBN 0752215337.