Early 19th Century London

"The huge size of London meant that is was also the largest single market for basic consumer goods, which stimulated the production of shoes, clothing, furniture, bread, beer and the other necessities of life. London breweries were amongst the most capital intensive concerns in the land. The cattle driven to the market at Smithfield supplied hides for the tanners at Bermondsley who produced leather to be used in shoes, saddles, coaches, book bindings."









P. 35, London - World City, 1800-1840, Edited by Celina Fox, 1992, Yale University Press, New haven & London, in Association with The Museum of London.

"By the turn of the nineteenth century London had almost ten thousand acres of market gardens serving the hungry metropolis.

The gardens were richly fertilized with the dung from the streets and stables from London - each acre had sixty cartloads of manure spread over and dug into it each year. This contrasts with regular farming land about London which, during this period, was only manured once every three or four years. (During September to October.) As well as dung, the market gardeners made copious use of marl, dug up from Enfield chase to the north of the city. A by-product of marl production were thousands of fossilised dinosaur bones, to be sent down to the newly developed British Museum (although many, no doubt, were crushed for the market gardens as well).

Manure and/or marl was ploughed in by a clumsy swing plough, and harrowed once ploughed over. Working the gardens began soon after Christmas. Once the weather was favourable, the market gardeners began by sowing the borders with radishes, spinach, onions as well many seed crops."

An American in Regency England, 1810-1811, writes:

"The streets have all common sewers, which drain the filth of every house. The drains preclude the awkward process by which necessaries are emptied at Paris, poisoning the air of whole streets during the night, with effluvia, hurtful and sometimes fatal to the inhabitants. Rich houses have what are called water-closets; a cistern in the upper story, filled with rain-water, communicates by a pipe and cock to a vessel of earthenware, which it constantly washes."

Other Links Related to City Living in the Early 19th Century:

Also read: How Clean Was Jane Austen's London?

Also on this site: A History of Droving

History of Droving: Driving Livestock to Market

The Border Collie Museum provides a history of droving better than I can relate.

"As the populations of the cities grew, there became a great demand for wool for clothing, beef as food, and skins and hides for shoes, boots, and many other items. With that demand, the number of sheep and cattle raised in the less populated areas and then driven to market, also inclined. The easiest way to transport meat, skins and hides is on the hoof--driving the animals to markets and abattoirs clocer to the populated areas."

Over the centuries, countless drovers, dogs, and livestock wended their way to London. The sights, smells, and sounds must have been truly unique and at times overpowering.

1. Find a history of Smithfield Market where cattle have been driven for over 800 years.

2. The Droving Tradition in the Upper Eden Valley is described in vivid detail here.

3. Wikepedia offers a detailed explanation of drovers and the important role they played in feeding populations in cities

4. At the site of this Inn, The Royal Standard of England, find a recounting of the highwaymen and rakes that haunted the roads to accost unsuspecting (or suspecting) travellers.

With the Industrial Revolution, came The Passing of the Drovers.

"The peace, after the battle of Waterloo in 1815 finished the Napoleonic wars, meant the shrinking navy needed less beef but other changes were even more important. The first half of the nineteenth century saw a revolution in agriculture. Enclosed systems of fields replaced open common grazing and large, fatter cattle were bred and raised ready for market. More importantly, by the 1830s, faster steamships were being built and farmers in the lowlands and elsewhere started to ship cattle directly to the southern markets instead of by the long arduous overland droves. Then, once railways were established by the 1880, this provided an even swifter and more reliable means of transporting cattle and other agricultural products to market. The trade died steadily. "