Three's company!

I've indulged in lavatorial nostalgia before but today when I found my footsteps taking me towards the old mansion I realised it was time I immortalized this crumbling three-holer before the whole thing caves in.

In my blip of the house the low building to the left is where the companionable crapper is located, so I would guess it was for the convenience of outside workers - farmhands, gardeners and the like - while the family would have had their own toilet facilities indoors. I like to imagine the maids and skivvies piling in here too, giggling and squealing and wrinkling their noses. It's a very unprivate privy but  I suppose it meant that people weren't kept waiting (if they didn't mind sharing), and it must have been easier to clean out that several single ones. Note the porcelain toilet paper dispenser at the far end: it's embossed 'Jeyes' (of the fluid - a company still in the business of us doing our business today). I suppose the person seated in the middle was dependent on someone at the end to pass the paper along. In some cases the holes were of different sizes for the convenience of children but imagine how scary it must have been to park your bum over that smelly black pit. Rats, flies and spiders would have been a constant hazard.

The outhouse here has been used to store a quantity of junk and I had to clear some of it away to get this picture. The lintel above the doorway is rotten and looks about to give way. It's a shame all this will be lost to posterity but there are similar examples that have been preserved. Here's one in Hornsea museum, one in Kent (still used by the owner and her cat but not for the original purpose) and quite a number still exist in the USA including this splendid triple thunderbox at the home of George Washington. And if you think three's a little meagre here's one in Alabama that seats seven!