Sanitary Reform and Comparative Assemblage Analysis: Methodology

In this chapter we examine the historical context of the backfilling of decommissioned cesspits and privies with domestic waste. This is a practice known throughout the modern world in metropolitan cities throughout the Anglophone world. Like many aspects of urbanisation, it was one subject to increasing regulation in the Victorian era as population densities increased and politicians, councillors, engineers and entrepreneurs worked to solve the many problems linked to the management of services and waste.