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Nightsoil men

In Victorian time, building were often put up before water and sewage pipes were laid down so a single tap or pump might have to serve hundreds of people. Toilet waste was carried away by 'nightsoil men'. 

Some seeped into the water supply and rivers became polluted by factory and human waste. In 1858, the Thames in London became so smelly that the year was known as 'the year of the Great Stink'!

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