Gong Farming, The Most Disgusting Job In Recorded History
Few workers can claim to have worked in as foul and horrible conditions as these brave souls
We have all likely had jobs we haven’t enjoyed. There are also those who make careers out of performing tasks most of us could never imagine doing. A candidate for the most disgusting and horrifying profession in history is that of the gong farmer, the poor souls responsible for emptying the narrow but enormous raw sewage tanks of castles during the Tudor era of Britain.
Gong farmers, also known as gong scourers, were what those who emptied out and cleaned human waste from toilets and cesspits. A slang word that simultaneously referred to toilet and also what was being dug out of them, gong (translated as “to go” from the Old English “gang,” was considered taboo for mainstream society. As such, gong farmers were required to work at night after dark. This meant more people would be indoors, or sleeping, and thus avoid seeing or smelling the noxious carnage. It also gave the workers another nickname of nightmen, and the payload they carried away came to be alternatively known as night soil.
Modern society has the benefits of technology like huge holding tanks and big suction hoses to carry out this necessary work. Hundreds of years ago, these brave men toiled on using only shovels, carts and their hands. Some of these privies being emptied were able to contain years worth of waste while others needed service more frequently.
Comparatively speaking, gong farmers were compensated fairly well for the time. 15th century accounts indicate a typical night’s work resulted in two shillings, worth around $100 today. Other recorded transactions show gong removal being paid in alcohol, and in one case even melted wax.
No matter the pay, the working conditions was the stuff of nightmares. It was possible that during the bulk of their work that they were operating in feet of excrement. The canals that carried waste down to the cesspits tended to also be narrow, necessitating farmers to frequently employ young boys who could transport bucks of waste out of tight spaces.
The toilet chutes of castles were typically on the edge of the structure, and if breached could be a way for interlopers to access the settlement. Accordingly, gong farmers also had to be on guard and prevent any trespassers who might want to take advantage to the cesspit being briefly opened for service. If they didn’t already have enough on their hands, acting as security was something else for which they held responsibility.
The collected waste had to be disposed of properly. The most common methods were spreading as fertilizer on farmland, or transporting by cart to designated areas on the edge of town. Not following the accepted protocol could be severely punished. One gong farmer who was found to have put his collected waste down a drain was arrested. He was stuffed inside of a pipe, which was otherwise filled with waste up to his neck, and he was put on public display with a sign that let gawkers know what he had done to deserve such a fate.
Thankfully, humans were eventually able to find of easier ways to dispose of human waste and the position petered out by the late 1800s. However, for a time it was an unimaginably filthy and disgusting job to be performed to keep society moving. As has always been the case throughout history, some people needing to make a living filled the void and did the job no matter how terrible the conditions were or how pooped they might be after a long night’s work.
