Tag Archives: fertilizer

Tyntesfield: the guano palace

Posted on 14/11/2015 by The Gardens Trust

My posts on nightsoil and guano [from July 2015,] got picked up by an article in the Guardian online – fame indeed! So here’s a postscript about the house paid for by the vast fortune made by William Gibbs, the owner of the monopoly … Continue reading →

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Guano…

Posted on 18/07/2015 by The Gardens Trust

It’s hard to imagine the British Government getting excited about bird droppings. But in mid-19thc Britain it certainly did.  Of course ministers didn’t sit around discussing anything quite so vulgar as  bird poo but they did spend time talking seriously about  ways of increasing … Continue reading →

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Night Soil and other euphemisms…

Posted on 11/07/2015 by The Gardens Trust

We generally  think of the Victorians as very proper and respectable,  when even the  the legs of the piano were covered up,  and no risqué or unpleasant subjects were ever raised in polite society. So  it was a bit of a shock to … Continue reading →

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