Gong farmer (also gongfermor, gongfermour, gong-fayer, gong-fower or gong scourer) was a term that entered use in Tudor England to describe someone who dug out and removed human excrement fromprivies and cesspits; the word "gong" was used for both a privy and its contents. Gong farmers were only allowed to work at night, hence they were sometimes known as nightmen. The waste they collected, known as night soil, had to be taken outside the city or town boundary or to official dumps for disposal.
As more modern sewage disposal systems such as pail closets andwater closets became increasingly widespread in 19th-century England, fewer and fewer cesspits needed to be dug out. The job of emptying cesspits today is usually carried out mechanically using suction, byspecialised tankers.
