Byland Abbey: History
• Sources
• Foundation
• Consolidation
• Later Middle Ages
• Dissolution

Byland Abbey: Buildings
• Precinct
• Church
• Cloister
• Sacristy
• Library
• Chapter House
• Parlour
• Dormitory
• Warming House
• Day Room
• Refectory
• Kitchen
• Lay Brothers' Range

The latrines (reredorters)

The monks’ toilet block (the reredorters) ran off the east claustral range, and was accessible from the monks’ dormitory. A drain ran down the centre, and the privies were on the first floor. This meant that a constant stream of running water flushed the waste away. Problems with the main drain in the thirteenth century led to the rebuilding of the reredorters. The new toilet block lay at right angles to the east end and was supplied with a new drainage system. The old reredorter building may then have functioned as a corridor, linking the monks’ dormitory to the new latrine-block. In the later Middle Ages a fireplace was added at the east end of the building.(38)

Snoozing on the job …
It was the custom in some Benedictine houses to send a responsible monk to the dormitory and latrine block before Matins was celebrated in the church, to make sure that no monk was still in bed or had fallen asleep on the privy.
[see The Monastic Constitutions of Lanfranc, ed. and tr. D. Knowles, rev. C. N. L. Brooke (Oxford, 2002), pp. 117-119.]

The monks’ privies were situated on the first floor of the latrine block. They would have had removable wooden seats. Individual closets may have been inserted in the fourteenth century, to provide the monks with greater privacy. The brethren were allowed to use the toilets whenever necessary but were expected to exercise modesty at all times: they were to cover their faces with their hoods, fold their hands in front of them and ensure that their cowls reached the floor.