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A Roman bath house and Edwardian folly.
A villa or not?
Whitestaunton Manor is over 800 years old, but during the Victorian period the then owners, the Elton family, excavated the remains of what they thought was a Roman villa some distance from the main house. With a mass of finds relating to different building materials and pottery drawn from a wide area, the villa theory remained unchallenged over the years. That was until the young archaeologist Freya Bowles looked again at the site and came to the conclusion that the villa idea didn't stand up because of the suggested plan of the building.
Scheduled site
After clearing the foliage from the boggy site and an initial assessment of the best places to put in any trenches, the excavation begins. The site is a scheduled ancient monument, so a detailed excavation plan has to be approved by English Heritage, and digging is permitted in just 10% of the total area.
Edwardian folly
The three trenches sited within the scheduled area uncover walls that are made of Roman materials – but seem to have been built with modern cement. It turns out that an Edwardian folly had been built on the site that reused original Roman materials from a variety of different sources. Underneath the folly, however, the real Roman building is discovered.
Roman bath house
It eventually becomes clear from the excavations that the Team is looking at a Roman bath house. But where could any associated villa structure be? Further trenches are placed around the manor, but later garden landscaping appears to have wiped out any traces of occupation.
The missing villa
The final prognosis is that the huge range of finds associated with the site relates to the Edwardian import of materials for the folly. Yet enough remains of the original structure to prove that a Roman bath house once stood here. As for the villa, it's probably hiding somewhere under the site currently occupied by the manor house – although that still doesn't explain why no sign of it has been discovered in the surrounding landscape.
Roman central heating
In any list of Roman achievements, the invention of central heating usually comes somewhere near the top. Although the Romans were not the first to develop underfloor heating systems (examples have been found in the remains of a number of earlier civilisations), they did spread the idea far more widely than previously, warming the feet of citizens throughout the empire with their hypocaust heating systems. This ingenious heating system was at first a status symbol of the rich and wealthy, but later became a standard design in many public facilities and prominent houses.
At Whitestaunton, Time Team decided to recreate a hypocaust for the reconstruction cameo. 'Before we came to this site we knew that some bits of box tile flue had been found and that gave us some pointers,' says Melisa Akdogan, the cameo producer. We decided to build a reconstruction of a hypocaust system so that we could show how these things were engineered. I'm really pleased that the project has worked. Three days is not very long for this type of building project but we've had some good builders and Bob Swain, our engineer, has been brilliant. The local suppliers have also been very good to us.'
Bob the builder
Fire technology expert Dr Bob Swain has studied hypocaust systems for years and understands how they should be built. 'The basic system is fairly simple really,' says Bob. 'You have a floor that is suspended on pillars made of layered terracotta tile about 2 feet (60cm) high. This creates a hollow void underground. Leading into this is a furnace at fairly low level which burns wood to create the heat. The underground void also has flues at regular spaces which are built into the walls to channel the heat throughout the system. The result is a nice hot floor and walls in whichever structure the system is based.'
By tapping the tops of the flues it is possible to draw the heat to different areas of the floor and from this Bob deduced that a relatively small furnace could be used to heat several large rooms. Another interesting feature of the experiment is that it was found that constant stoking of the furnace wasn't necessary. After the stonework had reached the right temperature, it just needed to be kept ticking over.
A good burn
Bob continues: 'You can imagine that the stoker would have had to get a good burn going to get the stone nicely heated. They would then need to dampen down various flues to circulate the heat properly, a bit like playing a tune. However, the stone holds the heat very well, so after the building was comfortable they could sit back a bit, just stoking when necessary. This way a room could still be warm in the morning after it had been left all night.'
By the end of Day Three most of the Team had taken off their boots and socks and enjoyed the cosy feeling of walking around on the Roman technological wonder.
If you fancy building your own Roman hypocaust system here's the recipe for success to create a six-feet (1.8-metre) square hypocaust:
10 clay flue tiles
1 tub of fire cement to seal joints
12 bags of building sand
2 bags of lime
8 bags of cement
50 celcon insulation blocks
60 normal house bricks for furnace and pillar bases
12 paving slabs 2ftx2ft
250 firenza 8x8 inch terracotta tiles for pillars and the top surface
Firewood to fire furnace all day and night
Clogs for foot protection!
After excavating a foundation pit the size of the floor, build up the walls with the celcon blocks, including gaps for the flues and leaving an entrance for the furnace. Next build the furnace throat in an adjoining pit large enough to accommodate the stoker. Construct the hypocaust pillars inside the room so that they will meet the intersections of the large paving slabs and lay the paving slabs on top. Seal the joints with the fire cement and then lay the terracotta tiles on the surface. Stoke the furnace and warm your feet.
One fascinating aspect of the Whitestaunton excavations is the art of folly building. What's that all about and how did it start? Mick Aston has a few ideas:
'I think it's the most interesting thing about this site, to be honest,' he says. 'The whole ethos of folly building comes from a classical education. The Victorian gentry in particular learnt Latin and Greek, many of them went on the Grand Tour, which was principally to Italy, and they were basically soaked in classical culture. When they visited Italy they were just as impressed with the great gardens and waterfalls and architecture as they were with their own history back home. This idealised romantic landscape really appears to have struck a chord with the Victorians who tried to recreate it back here.'
'Though the folly at Whitestaunton is archaeology in itself, it was built on top of real Roman remains using recycled Roman material from a variety of sites. This gave Mick some extra thinking to do. The main job for Phil and Roman specialist David Neal has been to try to sort out what's real Roman stuff and what isn't. Though this has made the phasing of the structure a bit harder to work out, it isn't actually that difficult. The Victorian mortar is quite different from the Roman material and the folly structure isn't as well built as the original Roman building. We just had to be careful when digging it, which was hard in such wet and muddy conditions. It's been like an unpicking exercise.'
Time Team has carried out a number of other investigations into Roman sites in Britain, details of which can be found in the Past programmes section of this website. These include the 1997 Live dig on the site of a Roman villa at Turkdean, in Gloucestershire. As well as a detailed report on the dig, our special Live website included a chronology of Roman Britain, a range of Roman recipes and other links and resources.
Time Team returned to Turkdean as part of its 1999 series to see if it could make sense of the spectacular geophysics results that there had not been time to investigate during the Live programme. That same series also included a programme on a Roman bath house found at Beauport Park, East Sussex, and another programme based around a Roman settlement next to a fort at Papcastle, in Cumbria. The 2000 series included an excavation of Roman remains at Cirencester and at Birdoswald on Hadrian's Wall. All of these pages contain further information and extensive links to Roman-related websites.
As well as investigating another Roman villa, this time in the Waltham Villa programme, the 2001 series also saw Time Team searching for the remains of a Roman villa at Lower Basildon in Berkshire. There is a special feature on the web pages for that programme on Roman mosaics, including an extensive list of Roman mosaic websites and suggestions for further reading and places to visit.
The 2002 series also featured Roman digs at Castleford, Ancaster and Cheshunt, while the 2003 series featured those at Dinnington and Sedgefield.
Roman Britain by Tim Potter and Catherine Johns ('Exploring the Roman World' series, British Museum Publications, 1992) hardback £19.95; paperback £12.99
A survey of the effects of Roman culture on Britain and its people, by two British Museum curators. Includes evidence from the latest archaeological discoveries, including the Vindolanda writing tablets and the Thetford and Snettisham treasures, as well as a gazetteer of noteworthy sites to visit.
Roman Britain by T W Potter (British Museum Press, 1983, 2nd edition 1997) paperback £8.99
The four centuries during which the Roman presence in Britain rose, flourished and declined changed every aspect of life: industry, trade, government, the arts and learning. This book gives an illustrated outline of the period.
Roman Britain by Martin Millett (English Heritage, 1995) paperback £15.99
Making full use of the archaeological material available, this introductory study of four centuries of Roman presence in Britain explores the central themes of daily life, laying particular emphasis on the social, economic and cultural history.
Life in Roman Britain by Joan Alcock (Batsford/English Heritage, 1996) paperback £15.99
An excellent social history of life in Roman Britain covering food and drink, clothing, recreation, administration and religion. Richly illustrated.
Companion to Roman Britain by Guy de la Bédoyère (Tempus, 1999) hardback £25
This book is a comprehensive compilation of historical and epigraphic facts about Roman Britain and seeks to set the record straight about where facts end and opinions begin. Includes a complete breakdown of all military units, when and where they were stationed and so on, together with details of buildings, officials, administration and the first full list of the Gods of Roman Britain.
An Atlas of Roman Britain by Barri Jones and David Mattingly (Blackwell, 1993, 2001 edition) paperback £15.99
An amazing accumulation of archaeological evidence has been used to map every aspect of Roman life on a countrywide scale, including the distribution of Roman forts, towns, villas, potteries and quarries. Lots of additional plans and useful descriptions on each topic.
Channel 4 is not responsible for the content of third-party sites.
Caistor Roman town
http://www2.cmp.uea.ac.uk/Research/researchareas/
JWMP/CaistorRomanTown/crtp1.html
A virtual tour around the Roman town of Caistor, in Norfolk, which was a thriving regional capital almost two millennia ago. The site is unique in never having been disturbed by later buildings.
Forum Romanum
www.forumromanum.org/
At this excellent site you can not only take a virtual tour of ancient Rome, but can also consult a dictionary of mythology, delve into Roman history and the Latin language, and take your pick of a variety of other links to sites concerned with the ancient world.
Roman Britain
http://www.romanbritain.freeserve.co.uk/
Time Team Roman expert Guy de la Bédoyère's website includes his online catalogue of stone inscriptions found on altars, statue bases, tombstones and other blocks of Roman masonry. This includes full details and photos of the inscribed stone found at Ancaster. Other resources include a catalogue of Roman gods and goddesses based on a chapter from his book Companion to Roman Britain (see Further reading).
The Romans
www.open.ac.uk/romans
Website set up by the Open University and the BBC to accompany a three-part series about the Romans. Presented by Time Team's Roman expert Guy de la Bédoyère, the website allows you to explore each programme in detail, with synopses, scripts and biographies of the contributors. There's also a timeline, details of the main locations visited in the series, an extensive reading list, links to other sites, and more information about the Open University courses that the programmes support.
Open Directory Project
http://dmoz.org/Science/Social_Sciences/Archaeology/
Periods_and_Cultures/Roman/Sites_and_Monuments/
The archaeology section of the Open Directory Project, a collection of weblinks organised by subject, is maintained by Time Team Forum regular Jean Manco. This includes a range of links to Roman-related websites. There is a section on various Roman sites and monuments in Britain.
Roman Britain Club
http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/romanbritain
Another Time Team Forum regular is behind a club on Roman Britain, set up specially to discuss the history and archaeology associated with this furthest outpost of the Roman empire.