Monument record 9191/1/3 - C4th Romano-British Bath House

{1} Much more impressive and in a far better state of preservation was a suite of rooms that appear to have functioned as a communal bathhouse. The masonry walls were of an extremely high standard and survived to several courses in height. Parts of an opus signinum floor were found in situ and a large amount of painted plaster was recovered from the collapsed chamber above an underground heating system called a hypocaust. A very interesting and unusual water management system and sewer were noted and an arched culvert partially excavated. Several other rooms forming the bathing complex were detected and need further exploration before the building is fully understood. At the back of the building several stone roof tiles complete with attaching nails which had fallen from the roof were located. These suggest that this part of the villa estate decayed slowly and probably through long term neglect as a result of economic decline. The quality and quantity of finds indicate extensive trading contacts and a degree of luxury.
Excavation of this structure revealed a rectangular stone building (15m x 7m) containing five rooms aligned west to east and terraced into the hillside. It appears to have been initially constructed in the mid to late C2nd and to have extensive alterations to two rooms situated at the extreme west and east ends of the building in the late C4th. In 2001 excavation revealed an additional three rooms which are likely to be associated with the apodyterium, frigidarium and tepidarium. These rooms would have been designed respectively for dressing/undressing, a cold room for cooling down towards the end of the bathing experience and a warm room as an intermediate acclimatising room before entering the hot room (caldarium) found in 2000. Indeed the extensive alteration to Room 4 suggests that the mostly easterly end of the bath house was added or entirely rebuilt in the late C4th. The overall plan demonstrates that the building is a typical example of an estate bath house and would have been capable of meeting the full range of bathing requirements.
In Room 3b as part of the collapsed floor fill we found the moulded base of a plunge pool which because of its proximity to the hypocaust is more likely to be associated with activities located in the hot room. Indeed the blocked east/west flue alignment of the hypocaust appears to suggest that the original caldarium also included this room in its initial layout. Virtually all of the Roman floor levels have disappeared although in one place the cement base for the tiled floor can still be seen. The continued retrieval of painted plaster from this area should also enable us to reconstruct elements of the interior design in this part of the bath house.
The bath house enjoyed a long working life which continued into the very late C4th and possible early C5th. Its eventual demise was due to the slow deterioration and collapse of the fabric as witnessed by the fallen stone roof slates impacted into the ground surface outside the northern external wall of the bath house and the evidence of a fallen interior connecting archway between Room 3b to 4. Features below the floor level of Room 4 include two culverts and at least one holding tank. These monumental structural elements represent the survival of an earlier bath house construction. Although the area is as yet little understood it would appear to contain a unique range of water management systems whose interpretation could well explain important aspects of day to day water utilisation in the bath house during the Roman period.

{2} The two bath houses associated with the villa complex are vastly different in size with the original late 3rd century structure being three times the size of the mid 4th century building that replaced it. Both bath houses underwent at least three phases of repair and redevelopment. The later and smaller bath house may well have been converted in its last stage of use into domestic habitation in the early 5th century AD.

<1> Young S. et al, 2000 (circa), Whitehall Farm Roman Villa and Landscape Project, Fieldwork: Summer Excavations 2000+2001 (part checked) (Website). SNN107418.

<2> Young S., 2012, Project Design for Continuation of the Research Excavation & Archaeological Investigation at Whitehall Farm, Stowe Hill, Nether Heyford, Northamptonshire, p.7 (part checked) (Project Design). SNN109244.

Record last edited

Feb 3 2014 3:35PM