Ipswich UAD child record record IPS 1330 - Carmelite Friary Reredorter

This building, 12.5m east-west by 9.7m north-south, ran east from the south end of the east range. In its final form it was certainly the reredorter serving the dorter on the first floor of the adjoining east range, with a ground level latrine pit, presumably below first floor latrines. It comprised a masonry east and south wall but was open on the north side. The east wall was represented by foundation trench 0935 and the south wall by foundation trench 1104/3353. Two remnants of the south wall, 90cm thick, survived (1103 at the west end and 2700 at the east end). The buttress (1740) along the east wall of the east range appears to form the west jamb of the large open north entrance and implies that this range was contemporary with the east range.
In the first phase the building was subdivided by two internal walls, forming a room in the south-west quadrant, marked by east-west foundation trench 1017 and a north-south wall which had been removed by pit 1001 and a deep robber trench (0747), probably at the Dissolution as the latter also cut phase 2 features. The east-west wall (1017) had a projection on its south side, similar to a buttress foundation.
The east half of the building had been entirely disturbed by two contemporary, shallow, square pits (0997 in the north-east quadrant, and 1300 in the south-east quadrant).They were c.50cm deep and filled with a multitude of layers of sand, loam, clay and mortar. These are difficult to interpret but could be the result of the constant piling up of sewage and subsequent removal off-site
The function of the building in phase 1 must remain uncertain but was probably a service area for the reredorter, as in phase 2, but without a latrine pit.
Two shallow post holes (0951, 0960) along the open north side of the building, could represent door posts.
Running the full length of the outside face of the east wall footing was a gully (0935), which presumably acted as an external drainage ditch, carrying away surface water from the building. This would imply that the roof sloped eastward from the east range to the west.

In phase 2, a masonry-lined latrine pit (1057) was inserted into the room in the south-west quadrant of the building and a north-south partition wall built along its east wall, extending north to meet the east-west wall 1017. This created a second small chamber at the east end of the room in which a second small latrine chute was constructed linking into the latrine pit to the west. LMT pottery in the footing (1100) for the latrine pit implies that phase 2 dates to the late 15th-early 16th century.
Despite robbing of the walls above the pit lining, the inside face of the south wall of the pit aligned with the projected position of the inside face of the south wall, and almost certainly underpinned it.
The latrine pit was rectangular, 2.5m from north-south by 2m east-west. The walls were composed of flint and mortar and the occasional brick, tile and septaria block and were plastered throughout. The walls varied in thickness: 40cm on the north, 30cm on the south, 50cm on the west and 85cm on the east, where the walls formed the base of the internal north-south partition wall. The east wall had an arch leading from a separate chute at the north end. This chute dropped vertically from a square shaped privy above, entering the main garderobe pit through the arch down a sloping brick lined back wall. The arch and the southern jamb of the opening were similarly composed of brick.
The pit was not bottomed, being excavated to a depth of some 2.9m (2.48m O.D.) below the ground surface, with the water table being encountered at 20cm above this level. The bottom 40cm of fill was composed of brown organic-rich clay. This clay spread up the sloping back of the entrance from the privy. Above this level, the whole structure had been backfilled at the Dissolution with flint, septaria and mortar rubble, which presumably comprised the debris left from the robbing of the walls above ground level.
Although access to the pit would have been accessible from ground level for clearing out, it is assumed that it serviced first floor communal lavatory facilities above leading off the reredorter.
The ground floor privy chamber created east of the latrine pit was 1.8m wide. The toilet comprised a square aperture on the east side of the partition wall with a chute that dropped vertically to a sloping back wall. This allowed access through an arched opening into the main latrine pit.
The only feature of this phase in the east half of the building was shallow pit (1304) in the central area, similar to the earlier pits (0997 and 1300), in that half of the building, (S1).