This intruiging title is the basis of a talk to be given by Chris Hall on Wednesday June 27th in Witney.

Chris is the chairman of the Oxfordshire Local History Association and he is going to explain how the West Oxfordshire towns were (or were not) cleaned up, 1895-1905. He will include Witney, Chipping Norton, Charlbury and Woodstock in his analysis.

In the 1890s Witney was a filthy town. A Local Government Board inspector wrote of the town's methods of "excrement disposal by means of objectionable privies-with-cesspits or pail closets".

Witney's cesspits were porous and polluted the town's wells. There was no public water supply. The only sewer emptied into Emma's Dyke, which in turn flowed into the Windrush.

Chris Hall studied Labour Movement history as one of his special subjects at Oxford. From 1981 until 1996 he edited The Countryman magazine when it was based in Burford. Until recently he was the chairman of the Oxfordshire Ramblers' Association.

Wednesday's meeting at the Corn Exchange in Witney starts at 7.45 pm. It is sponsored by the Labour Party but is open to all.