U.K. Environmental Services removes 25 tons of pigeon poop from inside medieval monument

It's one thing for a historic landmark to contain, say, a time capsule, like the one found in a statue at Boston's Old State House. But what happens when a monument is filled with bird poop?

The 14th-century Landgate Arch in Rye, East Sussex, was filled with 25 tons of pigeon droppings. The cleanup took four days and required a custom-built pressure tanker to suck the waste out of the arch's towers.

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The Rother District Council, which owns the monument, discovered the droppings last month. The buildup was apparently bad enough that the CountyClean Environmental Services workers had to force the monument's doors open.

"Whilst we've removed other massive blockages, such as giant fatbergs in sewers, we have never seen such a monumental mass of festering feces before," Mike Walker, CountyClean Environmental Services' managing director, said in a statement. "Once inside, it was like walking on a giant chocolate cake and the smell was awful — even through a facemask."