Toilets hold a macabre fascination for me. I am not alone I am sure. This is important on monkybusiness because monks had the best toilets around at that time. Let's find out why : what they looked like and how they worked. We shall visit loos not only of the monastic orders (Benedictine and Cistercian) but also the military monastic order of the Teutonic Knights.
Hygiene was very important in monastic life. No other social group had paid such attention to it since Roman times. We have already investigated how monks washed and had baths. Cleanliness before God was the aim.
The toilets were invariably near the dormitory (or dorter) where the monks slept. Usually they are referred to as the reredorter (rere meaning behind in Middle English).At the time they would likely have been called the necessarium : a euphemism you may have come across today. Think how many terms we use today to describe them : the bathroom, loo, privy, latrine, restroom, privy, john, where you go for a comfort break etc.etc.
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| View of Castle Acre Priory showing position of dorter and reredorter relative to the church |
Commonly the dorter would be on the first floor with night stairs at one end and a light to aid the monks going down to services in the darkness. At the opposite end of the dorter a door would give access to the reredorter, There would need to be running water below and a natural stream would be ideal. The position and orientation of the reredorter would depend on this water supply. Some places had state of the art pipe and drainage systems. The map of the Canterbury system is famous. At Cleve Abbey in Somerset, the River Washford was diverted to flow in a channel under the privies. Tintern Abbey in Gwent had the tidal Wye river flushing through underneath every day.
These toilets were essentially a communal block in a long gallery of individual seats in a line along a wall with chutes down from each toilet to a sewer below. Each individual toilet might be in a cubicle separated by stone or wooden partition, but with no doors. Not much privacy. There were often gaps for light and ventilation, sometimes behind every toilet. Furness Abbey (Cumbria)had seats back to back against a central wall with a passage each side and drain behind.
Above - Examples of reredorters at Lewes Priory : 11th century on left with 10 cubicles and simple chute to the sewer. On the right 12th century version to accommodate up to 59 cubicles. These are now on the first floor with large room underneath separated from the sewer by a heavy wall.
These reredorters were often very large. Canterbury Cathedral Priory was 150 feet long with 55 seats, Lewes Priory 158 feet with 59 seats. We can suppose that many monasteries had enough toilets for one per monk. : a distinct aid to cleanliness. Remember there were no toilet ducks or Andrex toilet paper and Thomas Crapper flushing toilets were centuries later! So how did they manage? It is likely that water pitchers would be available. as well as sweet smelling herbs. Paper was rare and far too valuable. In our period hay, smooth stones leaves, grass, moss, and rags could have been used. When excavations were done in 1924 at the necessarium in the Abbot's lodging at St Albans Abbey pottery and fragments of coarse cloth were found. These were likely old gowns torn up by monks for toilet paper. Blackthorn seeds were also found : a well known laxative! Another claim to fame for St Albans : we know what they used instead of toilet paper and that some were constipated!
With the long Offices that the monks had to undergo and the cold temperatures we can imagine busy toilets. Hand signals were used when a monk had to be excused.(see pained expression below).
During the night they may have used pee pots as found at Melrose Abbey in Scotland.(see below) Perhaps these were also used during very long offices rather like the way Victorian ladies with their long skirts relieved themselves in church box pews, or at the theatre, in little pots called bordaloues.
There were rules about silence in reredorters because human nature suggests to me that this could be one place where gossip occurred. Also inmates used to go to sleep there sometimes! The Circator would look for sleepers on his daily rounds. At night he would patrol with his lantern to ensure no-one had dropped off in the church, that all were asleep in the dorter and no-one was in the reredorter. A sleeping monk in the latter was not to be shaken but to be awakened using an appropriate noise!
Again St Albans has comes up :Matthew Paris tells us that William Pigun, was a bad monk who had been caught forging documents using the Abbey seal. He was banished to our daughter house at Tynemouth in Northumberland. One night there he had had too much food and drink, and missed Matins. He was found asleep head forward, snoring loudly, in the toilet. The brother monks in the dorter heard him and a loud voice saying "Take him, Satan, take him,, Satan!" ....He died.
There might be separate facilities in the Infirmary and for lay brothers, guests and perhaps the abbot or prior, The latter would have been an individual garderobe. These were common in castles and were like a little cupboard bolted onto the side of the building with a stone seat with a hole and the air beneath it! Our Abbot Thomas de la Mere had one at St Albans in the later 14th century, hopefully with drainage below. This would have been essential because of the illnesses he suffered in later life. AS there were more lay brothers in Cistercian houses they often had their own reredorter building.e.g at Valle Crucis in Clwyd.
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| Garderobe at Peveril Castle, Derbyshire |
The best complete example of a reredorter is at Muchelney Abbey. The whole building has survived and it is possible to gaze from the upper floor to see the open arches and channel of the sewer below. Also there are indications of the partitions between the seats. I can't wait to see this!
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| Reredorter at Muchelney Abbey |
The Cluniac Priory at Castle Acre in Norfolk is also a great place to see the remains of a reredorter see below
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| Cutaway view of Castle Acre reredorter |
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| 900 year old toilet at St John's hospital in Canterbury |
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| External view of toilets of St John's Canterbury |
  Two views of the interior Castle Acre reredorter as it is today |
And there's more ! Teutonic Knights and Dansk Towers
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| Passageway to the Dansk tower in the High Castle at Malbork Castle |
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| Plan of the High Castle at Malbork with Dansk tower (2)at top right |
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| Crow's foot tower at Malbork, the Dansk tower for the Infirmary |
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| Fantastic Dansk tower (on the left) at Marienweder |
Here are some sources
Bottomley,
F. Abbey explorer’s guide (Otley, 1995)
Braun, H. English
abbeys {London, 1971)
Kerr, J. Life
in the Medieval cloister (London, 2009)
McAleavey,
T. Life in a Medieval abbey
(London, 1995)
Niblett,R. and Thompson, I. Alban's buried towns : an assessment of St Albans' archaeology up to AD 1600.
Paston-Williams,
S. Art of dining : a history of cooking and eating.(Oxford, 1996)
Rosewell, R
The Medieval monastery (Oxford, 2011)
