I had the same thought, Paul. In fact, I also had the thought about not dwelling on it, but since you've warmed the seat, I'll perhaps be permitted to report that when I was a lad in the 1940s there were still plenty of middens around in the back yards of the terraced streets of Dobb'l where I lived. And complete with night-soil men who came round to empty them. Each house had a small, square-ish wooden door on it's back-yard wall to facilitate the execution of this fragrant occupation. There was universally running water in the area, but as we see from the pumps shown on Cassie's map, this was not the case in earlier times. So, we've achieved some progress - even if they only empty the bins every other week now. Rgds, Bob Thornley, Bolton From: "Paul Clough" <ml-genealogy@cloughie.com> >> Your reading of the map is similar to what I suspected, it is >> probable that the outdoor 'petties' (hadn't known they were called >> that) just flowed down the street until the effluent reached a drain >> - or were they serviced by an underground pipe, by this time, and >> the 'grate' only collected surface waste from the street?. > > I would have expected them to be earth middens? Best not to dwell on it > too > much, I suppose! > > Paul.