WITH regards to Robin Longbottom's Down Memory Lane piece about wuzzing holes, my 17th-century house has a stone with an aperture – but with a different purpose, as it is obviously a spout.
This puzzled me for many years until I was made aware of a house of similar age above Riddlesden, with the same feature.
I was informed that this is a lant spout – lant being an old Yorkshire word for urine.
The chamber pots would be emptied into a basin in the scullery, which would then pass through the spout into a container placed outside the property. The urine thus stored would then be used for processing fleeces. The basin inside the property is long gone, so only the spout itself remains.
I have included a photo of the lant spout.
John Cockerill, Utley
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