Basement annexe

rear area

Rear area

Sheds in the courtyard were used to house chickens, and provide shelter for the servants" privy - a non-flushing toilet whose contents were collected regularly by the "night soil men" to be sold as manure. Unlike the upstairs residents, servants did not benefit from the newly invented water closet! Also in the courtyard was a water butt and, frequently, a fish larder.