Is this toilet the ultimate Anglo-Saxon status symbol? Inside Harold II’s ‘ensuite’

Historians and archaeologists have long sought out any window into this ill-fated monarch’s life. Now, as outlined in a new article published in The Antiquaries Journal in January 2025, a team of archaeologists has uncovered evidence of the most personal of royal spaces – they might have found his private toilet.

Speaking with BBC History Magazine’s David Musgrove, Dr Duncan Wright, an expert in medieval archaeology, revealed how the remains of a high-status latrine at Bosham, today a village on the coast of West Sussex, likely belonged to King Harold himself.

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Bosham is depicted twice within the Bayeux Tapestry – Harold is shown riding to the place, feasting in a building there, and then embarking from there on a sea voyage. It became a key target for examination by the team behind the Where Power Lies research project, which includes a survey focused on reassessing late Anglo-Saxon and Norman sites of aristocracy. They investigate places where elites chose to live, build churches, and display their wealth and status. Bosham “was high on our list because it’s so recognisable,” Dr Wright explained.

In 2006, West Sussex Archaeology carried out excavations at a privately-owned house in Bosham, which revealed the remains of a timber building with an integrated latrine, dating back to the late Anglo-Saxon period. In 2024, the Where Power Lies team returned to the site to re-examine these excavations, and carried out subsequent survey work which revealed the existence of two previously unidentified medieval buildings: one integrated into the current house and another in the garden.

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Member exclusive | What was it like to do your business in a Roman communal toilet? Why was the devil thought to lurk in medieval privies? And did constipation turn Henry VIII into a tyrant? In this four-part mini-series, David Musgrove heads down the u-bend in the company of leading historical experts to see what we can learn from the most universal of all experiences: going to the loo.

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The research team’s attention, therefore, was drawn back to the latrine. And that toilet was a crucial piece of the puzzle.

Dr Wright explained that latrines were a rare and highly significant feature in Anglo-Saxon England, which gives particular importance to the site. “It’s only in really high-status buildings around the 10th century that you start to get integrated toilets,” he noted.

Unlike the general population, who used simple pits or communal facilities, Anglo-Saxon aristocrats had their own private latrines built within their homes. “An Anglo-Saxon ensuite is how we phrased it,” Wright added. “But that is actually fundamentally crucial to showing it’s a very elite, high-status building and therefore a high-status complex.”

Given Bosham’s documented connections to Harold Godwinson through the evidence presented by the Bayeux Tapestry, the discovery of this toilet strongly suggests that this Bosham building was Harold Godwinson’s personal residence – which housed a king’s toilet.

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The evidence, says Wright, “clearly demonstrates that [Bosham] is the primary seat of the Godwinsons.”

So, are we really looking at the personal toilet of the last Anglo-Saxon king? “If it’s his house, and this is the toilet – which exemplifies the high status of the residence – then presumably he would have used it.”

The discovery of Harold’s latrine offers a fresh and excitingly intimate new view of England’s last Anglo-Saxon king. “It’s a very tangible kind of link to that period,” Wright concluded.

And, for those wanting to walk in the footsteps of King Harold – even if not to use his toilet – Bosham is now must-visit location for medieval history enthusiasts.