Early Medieval Plumbing

Bishop Henry employed the latest innovative technology at his palace, installing one of the earliest known medieval examples of a piped water supply.

The well-house in the central courtyard would have provided the inhabitants of the palace with fresh water, by Liam Wales © English Heritage 

 Key to the water supply system was a substantial well-house in the central courtyard. When rebuilt by Henry in about 1130, it consisted of a central stone trough inside a rectangular enclosure.

A pipe ran from this well-house towards the centre of the courtyard, where it probably fed an ornamental tank. The overflow from this tank was piped off towards the southern courtyard where it fed a settling tank and another well-house.

It must have been to such works that Gerald the Welshman was referring when he wrote that Henry had built ductus aquarum difficles, or 'complex aqueducts'. At the end of the west hall was a latrine block which emptied into the moat which surrounded the palace.