The days of being rudely awoken by the dustman as he clanged a steel dustbin roughly against the side of an idling wagon to ensure all of its contents had dropped out are gone.

These days most people have wheeled bins and dustmen, or refuse collectors as they are now known, have mechanical lifters to hoist bins into the wagon.

But it wasn't that long ago that the typical image was of a flat-capped bin man who would tramp the streets of Leeds with a dustbin slung over each shoulder, cigarette stuck between chapped lips and not even a glint of a 'high-vis' jacket.

There was no uniform as such, as shown in a picture taken at Yeadon on October 1, 1969 featuring John Appleton, Walter Kendall, Harvey Dwight and driver Albert Lawson, all of whom appear to have worn their own clothes, although most were clad in hard-wearing dungarees, sturdy jacket and hobnail boots, not to mention some of the broadest grins you're likely to see.

All four worked for Aireborough Urban Council, which ran a productivity bonus scheme, presumably based on how many bins they emptied.

Sam McCallum, 58, of Fitzalan Road, Bedale, and John Long, 60, of Westholme Crescent, Masham epitomised the way refuse used to be collected when they were snapped on the streets of Masham on August 26, 1975.

Between them, they had emptied about 3,000 dustbins a week for 27 years... for those without a calculator, that's just over two million bins.

So great did the local community value their work that a public testimonial fund was set up in their honour.

A picture taken on what looked like a bitterly cold day onJanuary 25, 1960, shows the men of the City of Leeds Cleansing Department at work: the man in the cab no doubt had the best job of the lot and can be seen eyeballing his frost-bitten colleagues hoisting cold metal bins while wearing fingerless gloves.

Dustman Jim Whitehead was pictured in October 1970. His basic wage was £17 2s (the equivalent of about £175 today).

He had worked for Leeds Corporation for 11 years and from his wage paid £4 6s 6d in rent for his corporation house in Rosedale Walk, Belle Isle, and a further £2 5s a week on other regular bills. Out of what was left, he had to fork out for his own boots and clothing for what he described as "a thankless job."

At the time, dustmen had just been out on strike over pay and Mr Whitehead said: "Our leaders would have been better going in for £5 rather than 55s.

"People have got the idea that we earn £20 a week. This is ridiculous."

Our archives also produced a picture of Terry Finn, a tin baler who worked at Leeds Council's imposingly-named pulverisation plant in Horsforth on January 12, 1970, again, wearing his own clothes by the look of him.

It was the council's first foray into recycling and a sign of things to come.


Binmen in the news

September 1959: The 'automatic dustman' was unveiled in Leeds, allegedly enabling one dustman to deal with the rubbish of 42 families in 10 minutes – it was a rubbish chute system at Carlton Towers flats, which funnelled waste into a large bin on wheels, which was then lifted hydraulically into a cart.

October 1970: Bin men went out on strike across the county in a dispute over pay. The dispute lasted four weeks and ended after a 55s a week increase was agreed for 'dirty jobs'.

December 1981: Snow caused delays to bin collections across Leeds, prompting refuse managers to plead with residents to compact their bins as much as possible.

May 1985: The Government issued a Green Paper urging councils to privatise waste collection services within two years but Leeds Council indicated it would resist such plans.

December 1988: Rotting leaves on the pavements of Roundhay sparked anger among some residents, who branded them a danger to old people and called on the council to clear them up.

November 1996: Wheeled bins were introduced in parts of Leeds and residents in Chapel Allerton and Moortown got confused about what days to put their new bins out.

December 1998: Leeds Council was slammed after sending street cleaners out on Christmas Day, but later defended the move, citing the need to appear diligent in the face of imminent privatisation plans for the cleansing service.