Roman affairs
In the communal latrines at Housesteads Fort on the Hadrian’s Wall Estate, Northumberland you can see the oldest toilets in our care. Romans used to discuss the news and gossip whilst sitting on these. And since toilet paper had yet to be invented, a piece of sponge fixed to a wooden handle was used - and shared by everyone.
Into the moat
In the Middle Ages the wealthy built ‘garderobes’, which were also used to ‘guard’ the ‘robes’ as the smell kept moths away. These were little rooms jutting out from the walls of their homes. The one in Oxburgh Hall, Norfolk was used by King Henry VII in 1487. It now houses the secret hatch to the priests’ hole that would have hidden Catholics escaping religious persecution. At Little Moreton Hall, Cheshire, the garderobe tower contained closets where the waste fell to a cess chamber which was flushed out by water from the moat.