Roman Bath Discovered In School Grounds

The remains of what appears to be a Roman bathhouse have been found at an Essex school.

This is an archaeologist called Chris Lister at the dig site, all ready for his Roman bath.

Who's going to tell him Romans probably didn't wear white plastic hard hats in the bath?

© CAT*

Builders were working on a new ICT block for Colchester Sixth Form College when the Roman room was discovered last week.

Experts knew the area around the school might contain remains, so archaeologists were keeping a close eye on the building work, but this amazing find has surprised everyone.

This photo shows the Roman room from above.

Can you see the wooden water pipe?

© CAT.

The room has stone walls and measures 6 metres by 4 metres. It has a tessellated (tiled) floor with space for a basin set into it.

Around the edge of the walls was a stone bench, painted red. There is even a wooden mains water pipe running under the floor.

This close-up shows the tiles on the floor and the plastered, painted bench.

© CAT.

Archaeologists are almost certain the room was a bathhouse, but can't be totally sure at the moment. They need to spend some more time investigating to be absolutely sure.

The room is too small to be a public bathing house, so would probably have been a tepidarium (a warm room) or a caldarium ( a hot room) in a private house.

You can find out more about Roman bathhouses on the Museum of London Digging Up The Romans website - take a look at the film clip if you can.

The Roman room is going to be covered in soil again this week, to protect the remains until there's enough time and money available to carry out a longer dig.

Hopefully it will go on display in the future too. We'll keep you posted.

Some of the most famous Roman remains found in Britain are the bathhouses in Bath. Their Bath Bubbles site is a fast-moving action game all about taking a bath in Roman times.

There are lots of great examples of Roman mosaics and buildings you can go and visit. These include:

Roman Baths Museum, Bath
Groundwell Ridge Villa, Swindon, Wiltshire
Kings Weston Roman Villa, Bristol
Rockbourne Roman Villa, Fordingbridge, Hampshire
Newport Roman Villa, Isle of Wight
Brading Roman Villa, Isle of Wight
Fishbourne Roman Palace, Chichester, West Sussex
Bignor Roman Villa, Pulborough, West Sussex
Lullingstone Roman Villa, Kent
Welwyn Roman Baths, Welwyn, Hertfordshire
Verulamium Museum, St Albans, Hertfordshire
Piddington Roman Villa Museum, Northampton
Jewry Wall Museum, Leicester
Chester Roman Amphitheatre, Cheshire
Segedunum Roman Fort, Baths & Museum, Wallsend, Tyne & Wear

* CAT stands for Colchester Archaeological Trust, who are in charge of the bathhouse dig.