The bath-house
The bath-house was an important part of a Roman fort. The army encouraged soldiers to use the bathhouse regularly in order to keep them healthy. Bathhouses were also places where the soldiers could relax, play games and socialise.
What did the archaeologists find?
The Castleford bathhouse was located in the annexe. It was close to the river which would have been important for providing clean water to the baths and draining away the dirty water.
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1. Achaeologists found that the ground plan of the bathhouse was almost complete. The stacks of tiles (pilae) in the bottom right of the photo held up the floor of the hot room. They allowed hot air to circulate under the floor and warm the room above.
How was the bath-house used?
Bathers entered the changing room (the apodyterium) where they removed their clothes. Then they went into a series of rooms which were heated to different temperatures in order to get the bathers sweating! Heat was produced in the boiler room (the praefurnium) and hot air was circulated beneath the floors of the hot and warm rooms.
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2. Bathers went first into the cold room (the frigidarium), then the warm room (the tepidarium) and then the hot room (the caldarium). Once clean, they cooled down by going back through the warm and cold rooms. Then they could jump into a cold plunge bath to close the pores in their skin.
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Saved for the future
The Castleford bathhouse was too important to allow it to be destroyed by excavation. The remains of the building are preserved beneath a grassed area at the junction of Church Street and Savile Road.
Timeline:
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