Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Grade I listed building. Main construction periods 1140 to 1180. Historically famous conduit head part of Prior Wibert's 1160's scheme for the monastery of Christ Church. The tower is essentially intact and there is reportedly survival of a masonary culvert known as Wiberts Great Drain together with a system of lead pipes in the precincts leading from the conduit house.

Monument Types

• LAVATORIUM (Medieval to Modern - 1140 AD to 2050 AD)
• WATER TOWER (Water tower and Laver, Medieval to Post Medieval - 1160 AD to 1787 AD?)
• BAPTISTERY ( Until 1896, Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)

Full description

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The following text is from the original listed building designation:
1. 944 THE CATHEDRAL PRECINCTS
Lavatory Tower TR 1557 NW 5/1E
I
2. C1160 part of Christchurch Monastery.
Listing NGR: TR1512757953

Description from record TR 15 NE 147:
Lavatory Tower, Grade I. c1160 part of Christchurch Monastery. (1)
(TR 15135795) Baptistry [NR]. (2)

Water tower 1160, part of water supply system devised by Prior Wibert for the complex of buildings comprising the monastery of Christ Church in Canterbury fed by conduit north-east of the city. Two 12th century drawings show the original layout of the system, including the layout within the monastrey precinct.

Two storey stone building of eight sides, set on side of cathedral, with lead roof. The ground floor, with open arcading, stands on eight columns with Norman arches with a central stem of four composite piers supporting the ribs of quadripartite vaults above. A small hole in the stone base and capital may mark the original position of the water feeder pipe or drain to the upper floor. The upper floor, lit by two light transomed windows, was designed to be a Laver or washing place and had eight spouts allowing several persons to wash at the same time. Nothing of the original washing arrangements is preserved. In 1787 a font was re-sited to this tower and the area used as a baspitsty until 1896. From there the Laver water was distributed to a number of buildings within the priory precinct and finally into a 3' square masonary culvert known as Wiberts Great Drain which ran to the twon ditch. According to HEW much of the system of lead pipes in the precints leading from the conduit house are still intact, including a number of taps and a fountain.(3)

The Lavatory Tower was erected about or before c. 1160 and placed in a bend in the south side of the Infirmary Cloister, as a later Norman addition. It is clearly illustrated in Prior Wibert's Map of the Priory's Waterworks dated c. 1165.

Built as a water tower and working on a hydrolic system, it was built so as to furnish the monk's with a continuous water supply for washing and other ablutions. From without it is buttressed and lit by two-light, transomed windows, it looks 15th century rather than anything else, but the complete 12th century substructure is visible inside. The central stem, through which the water drained from the cistern above, supports the ribs of the quadripartite vaults on four piers, shaped like teardrops in plan. The outer wall, octagonal, stands on composite piers with capitals richly scalloped and decorated with leaves, and arches with zig-zag twice, the inner row undercut. On the inner side, the outer row becomes a roll with, as it were, triglyphs, bent over it. Upstairs, nothing of the original washing arrangements is preserved. Perpendicular doorway into the lavatory from the upper passage. Also here, a 13th century doorway, imnserted in the east wall as the entrance into the Prior's Chapel. (3-7)

Historic England archive material (8)

<1> DOE (HHR) City of Canterbury Kent Sept 1973 63 (OS Card Reference). SKE40123.

<2> OS 1:500 1874 (OS Card Reference). SKE48230.

<3> Trent and Peak Archaeological Unit, 2002, Water & Sewage Industries Step 3 Report, Kent %A (Unpublished document). SKE8085.

<4> John Newman, 1969, The Buildings of England: North East and East Kent, pages 219-220 (Monograph). SKE7874.

<5> English Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest (Map). SKE16160.

<6> Blockley, K., Sparks, M. & Tatton-Brown, T., 1997, Canterbury Cathedral Nave, Archaeology, History and Architecture (Monograph). SKE29723.

<7> Willis, R., 1868, 'The Architectural History of the Conventual Buildings of the Monastery of Christchurch in Canterbury' (Article in serial). SKE30206.

<8> Historic England, Archive material associated with Lavatory Tower at Canterbury Cathedral, Listed Building (Archive). SKE54624.

Sources and further reading

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