Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

The Re-redorter, or Necessarium was the monk's toilet block attached to the Dormitories. It was a large Norman Hall with a frontage onto the Green Court of 155 feet in length E-W by about 30 feet in width N-S, and about 30 feet high.

Monument Types

• PRIVY HOUSE (Medieval to Unknown - 1096 AD?)

Full description

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The Re-redorter, or Necessarium was the monk's toilet block attached to the Dormitories. It was a large Norman Hall with a frontage onto the Green Court of 155 feet in length E-W by about 30 feet in width N-S, and about 30 feet high. It is shown on Prior Wibert's Map of the Priory's Waterworks dated c. 1165, but formed a part of the original monastic complex built in c. 1096-1100.

At the west end this hall was joined to the Great Dormitory, but projected 15 feet in front terminating with a square turret. The Hall was reached from the Dormitory by a door in the latters east wall, which opened into a vestible against the southern west end of the Hall, from which a second door, in the wall of the Hall gave entrance to the latter. The interior of the hall was 145 feet long and 25 feet wide. A long low wall separated the lower part into two portions of unequal breadth, the northern seven feet wide, the southern fourteen feet wide. The latter was filled with earth for the greater part of its length, to the height of the division-wall, upon which earth the pavement was laid at a level co-inciding, with that of the Great Dormitory. The northern compartment formed a channel, which was bridged over by a row of toilet seats, originally 55 in number. But in the 13th or following century the low passage, or Prior's Entry, was constructed under the east end reducing the seating to be five. The channel beneath the toilet seats ran through from the east end, fed by rain water from the convent's roofs and waste water from the waterworks, which flushed out the latrine westwards into a sewer which ran under Green Court, to empty into the Town Ditch. It was also known as the Third Dormitory, because of the number of monk's that were found asleep in the cubicles.

After the Dissolution the building was converted into a refectory for minor canon's of the new Deanery, later becoming a dwelling for the ninth Prebend until at least the mid 19th century.

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

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

Sources and further reading