Rubbish Bin Boy, Southend, Essex

After languishing in my box of 35mm transparencies for over two decades, the rubbish bin boy is back. I took these photographs sometime in the late 1980s during a visit to the Essex coast. He's made of some kind of cast metal, and the idea was to throw your rubbish in his mouth. It looks like the actual bin which would have been affixed to his back had gone walkabout, so the rubbish would most probably have just piled up around him. At some point the Borough Council must have decided enough is enough, so hence his disappearance from the seafront not that much longer after I captured him on film...

Shame, I have always been very fond of street furniture such as rubbish bin boy, and these days it's hard to find pieces like this. Simply a crudely painted, brightly coloured object, but charming if a little bit mad looking.

I wonder if anyone knows when he was made and if there were any others like him, either along the Southend seafront, or anywhere else?

Was this the last paint job he ever had?
Perhaps he knew that his days were numbered. Note the red tear under his left eye...