Piscina (plural piscinae) is the Latin word for a public bath, the place where Romans went to get clean (piscine in French). In the church, it’s a place where ceremonial vessels could be emptied and washed - purified for the next use. For this purpose it was situated as near the altar as possible so that the priest could dispose of unused hosts (wafers) or holy water in the proper way, by returning them to the earth through the drain-hole in the basin. Usually one piscina would have been considered adequate, but during the 13th and 14th centuries there was a fashion for having two, a fashion which the builders at All Saints were pleased to adopt, perhaps for reasons of status?
The All Saints piscinae are decorated with cinquefoil arches, arches made in the shape if 5 leaves and the basins in the shape of petals. Is there a reason why they were inserted into the wall at different levels and in slightly different styles? Perhaps one was a later addition?
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