Amplify’d from www.bbc.co.uk

An Asbo in 14th Century Britain

Friday 9 August 1314:

The mayor and commonalty, by John Dode, chamberlain, complain that whereas of old in the parish of St Michael Queenhithe, a gutter running under certain of the houses was provided to receive the rainwater and other water draining from the houses, gutters and street, so that the flow might cleanse the privy on the Hithe, Alice Wade has made a wooden pipe connecting the seat of the privy in her solar with the gutter, which is frequently stopped up by the filth therefrom, and the neighbours under whose houses the gutter runs are greatly inconvenienced by the stench.

Judgement that she remove the pipe within 40 days.

Today we are urged to report fly-tipping and other nuisances - just as our forebears did 700 years ago. Their complaints survive in a rare medieval document, the Assize of Nuisance, which sheds new light on an age-old problem. Read more at www.bbc.co.uk

 

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