What It Was Really Like to Use a Medieval Toilet in 1300s England
Before 2000s
8,301 views
What was it really like to use a toilet in 1300s England?
The answer is much more complicated than a wooden seat over a hole.
In this documentary, we step into the everyday world of medieval England and follow what happened after someone used a privy. From muddy London streets and crowded market lanes to private household pits, neighbouring property disputes, city officials, labourers, carts, boats, castles and monasteries, we explore the surprisingly organised system that dealt with human waste.
We look at medieval London court records, the rules surrounding cesspits and property boundaries, the people who maintained drains and streets, and the evidence for materials such as moss and cloth being used for personal hygiene. We also examine castle garderobes, monastery latrines, shared cesspits and the sanitation pressures surrounding the Black Death.
The story is not simply about dirt. It is about law, privacy, property, labour, social status, infrastructure and the thousands of ordinary people whose work rarely made it into the historical record.
From a simple wooden seat to the streets beyond the city walls, this is the hidden sanitation system of 14th-century England.
Disclaimer: This video is a historical reconstruction based on surviving medieval records, archaeological evidence and historical scholarship. Some details are uncertain, especially where surviving evidence is limited or comes from periods earlier or later than the 1300s. Visual scenes are cinematic reconstructions intended to illustrate the historical context and should not be understood as exact depictions of specific individuals or events.
#MedievalHistory #MedievalEngland #MedievalLondon #MedievalLife #HistoryDocumentary #BlackDeath #MedievalSanitation
5 Comments
What It Was Really Like to Use a Medieval Toilet in 1300s England
Before 2000s
8,301 views
What was it really like to use a toilet in 1300s England?
The answer is much more complicated than a wooden seat over a hole.
In this documentary, we step into the everyday world of medieval England and follow what happened after someone used a privy. From muddy London streets and crowded market lanes to private household pits, neighbouring property disputes, city officials, labourers, carts, boats, castles and monasteries, we explore the surprisingly organised system that dealt with human waste.
We look at medieval London court records, the rules surrounding cesspits and property boundaries, the people who maintained drains and streets, and the evidence for materials such as moss and cloth being used for personal hygiene. We also examine castle garderobes, monastery latrines, shared cesspits and the sanitation pressures surrounding the Black Death.
The story is not simply about dirt. It is about law, privacy, property, labour, social status, infrastructure and the thousands of ordinary people whose work rarely made it into the historical record.
From a simple wooden seat to the streets beyond the city walls, this is the hidden sanitation system of 14th-century England.
Disclaimer: This video is a historical reconstruction based on surviving medieval records, archaeological evidence and historical scholarship. Some details are uncertain, especially where surviving evidence is limited or comes from periods earlier or later than the 1300s. Visual scenes are cinematic reconstructions intended to illustrate the historical context and should not be understood as exact depictions of specific individuals or events.
#MedievalHistory #MedievalEngland #MedievalLondon #MedievalLife #HistoryDocumentary #BlackDeath #MedievalSanitation
All 90 of us used a handful of Elsan buckets situated outside with a wooden covering - I suppose to show you getting wet as you sat there.
Each morning a small group of unfortunate boys would dig pits to bury the filth and urine and cover it with earth. Ah, the smelly memories!