Ipswich UAD child record record IPS 1374 - Dominican Friary Cess Pit

In this period, building 2946 was converted into a reredorter with a ground floor garderobe, in a north chamber, and a large cess tank inserted in the floor of the newly created south chamber. Presumably, the privies were in a line on the first floor over the ground floor cess tank. Access to clean out the cess tank was via steps at the south end of the tank and a (presumed) doorway in the south wall. At some point the doorway in the north chamber was blocked and its walls were plastered.
The building was divided into the two chambers by an east-west wall with a garderobe built into it. A drain from the garderobe ran south-west through the wall todrain into the south chamber, which had a central linear tank/cess pit, lined by two parallel north-south walls, built in a trench, c.35cm deep, cut through the floor surface of the phase 1 building.
A possible bottom step lay at the south end of the tank and may indicate the access to the tank for periodic cleaning and also suggests a doorway in the mid point of a south wall just south of the excavated area.
The lack of any foundation between this building and building 2947 to the west and the plaster rendering on the outside face of the west wall confirms that the building was not joined to it at ground level but it is highly likely that they were joined at first floor level. This allowed the Friars easy access from their dormitory to the latrines and unimpeded access along the intramural road running along the inside of the LMED town defences. In this period, building 2946 either augmented or more likely superceded the original latrine facilities in building 2947 to the west.
The dating evidence for this phase comes from the pottery in the backfill behind the inserted tank walls, which was 5 LMT sherds. As it is highly unlikely to be post Dissolution, a date in the late 15th or very early 16th century is likely. (S1).