hey had to remain unblocked, a condition often impossible when human and animal waste was dumped into the sewers. Thus, laws were often passed prohibiting the dumping of waste into the sewers. Even with this prohibition, draining flood and rainwater often overtaxed the sewer systems of the major cities and towns, with the low-lying sections succumbing to floods during exceptional rain or tides (Buer 103).
Drainage began at the street level, with gutters or ditches which were built into the streets. The main thoroughfares in large cities, such as London and Paris, were paved, with either two gutters running along the sides of the street (found only along the widest streets in London) or a single gutter running through the center of the street. The London side gutters separated the road from the foot-paths next to the houses. In London, the water flow through these channels was constant since they received most of the rain-water drained from roofs and surrounding properties, excess water from numerous wells, and the "slop," or wash water, from the residences situated along the road. As will be discussed below, residents also tended to empty their chamber pots onto the streets (Sabine, "City Cleaning in Medieval London" 21).
The paving techniques used in constructing and repairing the streets and gutters may also be illustrative of the typical construction of the sewers at this time. The preferred paving materials were stone, gravel, and sand; when these were in short supply fine earth and vegetable matter were used. Thus, Cambridge used stone to mend roads in 1477. 14th Century streets in Leicester were paved with three different combinations of materials: stones and earth, gravel and sand, or stone and sand. Although London typically was able to buy hundreds of tons of stone for street repair, the supplies often fell short. In 1521, for instance, there was not enough stone to completely pave a section of roadway between Bishopsgate...