This is the story of the remarkable rediscovery of a Roman bath-house outside the fort at Wallsend on Hadrian’s Wall in 2014, a building believed to have been totally destroyed exactly 200 years earlier. It is also the story of dedicated research in the archive and in the field by a band of community archaeologists working under the aegis of ‘WallQuest: Hadrian’s Wall and its legacy on Tyneside’ funded by a range of donors, national and local. It is also the story of the co-operation and input of local archaeologists knowledgeable in the history and geography of the area.
Hodgson leads the reader carefully through the scanty surviving records, correcting erroneous published statements, before turning to the excavation. This took place under the former Ship Inn and its preceding coal staith, the bath-house being discovered at a depth of nearly 4m. It was not possible to expose the whole of the building owing to space limitations. Interpretation was further complicated by the imposition on the original building of a replacement about eighty years later. Having visited the excavation, I can attest to the skill of H in deciphering these two phases.
The excavation report follows the normal pattern. It is supplemented by a general description of Roman bath-houses and a list of bath-houses known along Hadrian’s Wall. Here, conclusions of further importance are clarified. The original bath-house at Wallsend was of an unusual style found along Hadrian’s Wall. In that way, its discovery and the elucidation of its plan adds to the store of knowledge about the planning and building of that frontier. The plan not only corresponds to those of five other such buildings, but H has examined its metrology, an important aspect of the planning of Hadrian’s Wall.
In the ‘Conclusion and Discussion’ section, H relates the aqueduct published by Paul Bidwell three years ago (Bidwell Reference Bidwell2018) to the supply of water to the bath-house. H’s conclusion is that the arrangement ‘tends to confirm that construction of the [Narrow] Wall, fort and baths were all envisaged from the outset and planned as an integrated whole’ (p 66). H suggests that a landslip, recorded elsewhere in the area, may have led to the rebuilding of the Hadrianic bath-house. An alternative reason is also proposed: that the bath-house was rebuilt in the early third century in order to reflect the smaller number of men based at the fort. The building appears to have been abandoned by the early fourth century and survived in a reasonable state, although perhaps roofless, until its destruction in 1814.
H has produced a meticulous report with the information set out clearly and supported by excellent illustrations including helpful reconstruction drawings.
