The Privy Restoration 

We were only able to save some of the clay roof tiles as most had fallen into the privy when some of the roof timbers collapsed.  The tiles had to be matched up with our existing ones. These were sourced in Wisbech. Having re-roofed the building I spent three happy days digging out the privy sump.

To my surprise it had not been cleaned out when I bought the manor in 1968. Luckily I was wearing rubber gloves for it was filled with old poo and animal bones. I also recovered some pottery and four glass bottles. These will go on display in the Privy exhibition. The old poo went onto the garden as excellent manure!

The last person to used the privy was in 1968, probably one of our builders who used  The Daily Mirror for toilet paper.  There were fragments of very grotty  bits of paper with a date still visible. Needless to say I have not kept these for display! 

I had to climb down into the sump in order to clean it out. It also meant crawling right inside underneath the wooden seats. The sump is large and well made and would have taken a large amount of waste. I am glad that I did not have to clean it out when it was fresh waste!

The Privy is now restored the two loo seats cleaned up.

The  door had been repaired and repainted 

When this privy was built Queen Victoria was on the throne, but not on this one!