Muckhills and Public Sanitation

Even William Shakespeare had to take out the garbage. In his hometown of Stratford Upon Avon, public waste was managed through a system of piles known as muck hills. In 1552, William Shakespeare’s father, John Shakespeare, was charged a fine for one of these muck hills that was kept across the street from his home on Henley Street. For a long time, scholars have thought this fine meant that John Shakespeare was keeping the dung heap illegally, or perhaps using it inappropriately, but recent research into how muck hills operate and the history of public sanitation in Stratford Upon Avon have caused us to see this record of John Shakespeare in a new light. Here today to share with us how taking out the garbage worked for Shakespeare’s lifetime is our guest, Elizabethan Tavares.  

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