THE MONKS' LATRINE OF CHRISTCHURCH
MONASTERY AT CANTERBURY
An early graphical portrayal of such a latrine is the Norman
necessarium shown on the famous plan of the waterworks
of the monastery of Christchurch, Canterbury
(fig. 502), drawn around 1165 by Wibert or one of his
assistants.[681]
The foundations and lower portions of the
walls of this privy survive (fig. 503). It was 145 feet long
and 25 feet wide (internal measurements) and in its original
form contained fifty-five toilet seats in a single room, at
intervals of 2 feet, 7 inches, measuring the seats on their
centers. The seats were supported by fifty-three transverse
arches which bridged a fosse flushed by running water.[682]
