The barracks
Barracks were the sleeping quarters for the Roman army. The Romans had a standard shape for barracks. They were long, narrow buildings divided into small rooms.
How many barrack blocks were found at Castleford?
The archaeologists found only two barrack blocks, but large areas of the fort were not excavated. Few finds were recovered. The archaeologists used the layout of the buildings to interpret them as barrack blocks.
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1. The archaeologists only found the foundation trenches in which the walls of this barrack block originally stood. Compare this photo to the plan the archaeologists drew (below) to work out which rooms you are looking at.
How many men slept in each barrack block?
Each barrack block was arranged in pairs of rooms called contubernia. Eight men shared each set of rooms. They slept in one room and kept their equipment in the other. The archaeologists were not able to excavate the whole building, but it is known from other sites that there were ten contubernia.
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2. s room was not found within the excavated area, but it would have been at the end of the block (the bottom of the plan).
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3. s reconstruction is based on the excavation plan of the barrack block, viewed from the road. Each of the contubernia (rooms) had its own entrance from the veranda. The centurions room was at the end of the block.
How many barrack blocks were needed at Castleford?
The Castleford fort was home to an auxiliary unit, made up mainly of infantry soldiers but with some cavalry as well, a total of about 600 men. This unit was called a cohors quingenaria equitata. Typically this size of army unit would need eight barrack blocks.
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