Jim Bugslag wrote:
>Attempts were made to locate the monastic buildings close to a stream, and
sometimes a channel was dug under the reredorter...From
the 12th century onwards, many monasteries were piping in water
supplies, sometimes from great distances...(cf the surviving
12th-century water tower at Canterbury Cathedral Priory, and the
plumbing map of the precinct slipped into the Eadwine Psalter).
I've never seen any French maps of the spectacular sort from C'bury or
the E.P. (perhaps the French just "winged it": "Hey, Pierre, dig here."), but
a few years ago Terryl Kinder, resident expert at the Zoo on
Pontigny, gave a couple of typically riveting papers on the rather extensive
and elaborate aquatic constructions which she had unearthed at various
Cistercian sites.
It seems that the Cistercians, at least, were quite adept at hydrological
engineering, from flood control in areas prone to flash flooding to re-routing
and storage in arid areas, and, of course, "simply" getting water into the
living areas (it seems that most every house had a--sometimes quite
large--lavabo with running water).
Ashamed to say, I do not know whether she published her work on this--if she
did, it is probably in the periodical Cīteaux (which she also edits,
I believe); and she may have made reference to this subterranean stuff in her
recent _L'Europe cistercienne_ (in the Zodiac series "Formes de la nuit"),
which I also have not seen.
Best from here,
Christopher
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