The removal of waste

A fundamental part of monastic water management was the removal of sewage from the precinct. The simplest and most efficient way to do this was to use nature to flush away the waste, by building the latrine blocks (reredorters) directly over a river. The River Skell ran through the Fountains precinct from west to east, and was canalised by the community to flush through the various toilet blocks within the precinct - the monks', the lay-brothers', those in the infirmary and guesthouse complexes, and also a privy in the kitchen yard. Therefore, a branch of the river ran through each latrine block, where the privies were arranged in such a way that the waste passed through a chute into the water below, and was carried away from the precinct. Whereas the monks' toilet block had privies on the upper level only, the lay-brothers' latrine block was a detached two-storey building, with privies on both levels. The seats here would have been placed back to back over two channels of the Skell.(26)

The construction of the thirteenth-century infirmary drain at Fountains was particularly problematic, for to build the new complex, Abbot John had first to divert the river. This was an extensive undertaking and involved canalising the river through four parallel stone-vaulted tunnels. These supported a level platform upon which the infirmary was built. The toilet block, with its seven latrine shafts, stood to the south of the infirmary and sewage from here was flushed into the tunnels below. In the late fifteenth century Abbot Darnton converted the toilet block into a misericord, a dining room where meat could be eaten.(27)