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The praetorium or commandants house was a massive building covering 45m by 45m, with a series of rooms constructed around a central courtyard. Only one wing of this courtyard building has been examined and most of it lies unexcavated in the field beyond the fence. This area was originally occupied by a range of timber barrack blocks which were demolished in the early 2nd century and replaced with workshops supplying military equipment for the garrison. The first commandants house, a half timbered building, was built here in the mid 2nd century. It had a suite of rooms with concrete floors and plastered walls, some of which had hypocausts or under floor heating. This house was rebuilt twice and coins found during the excavations date the last episode of rebuilding to around AD 340. At sometime toward the end of the military use of the fort the rooms in the house were subdivided and and it is possible that a number of people, rather than just the commandant, were now using the building. The house continuedin use after the army abandoned the fort and the discovery in one of the rooms of large amounts of animal bone suggest that part of this once grand building was now in use as a slaughter house.
Walk around the commandants house and go to
the flagged area by the steps leading into the timber building .
The commandants house was connected to a large and impressive bath-house;
you are know standing in the exercise yard outside the bath house.
To enter the Bath-house go back up the steps
and walk along the raised walkway.
The bath-house was built around AD 350 for the exclusive use of the commandant and his quests. The troops had their own baths; these were outside the fort in the civilian settlement. The baths were extended and enlarged towards the end of the 4th century and, as we have already seen with the commandants house, it is likely that the building was now used by a large number of people, perhaps even the whole garrison. The Binchester bath-house is one of the best preserved in Britain and it is possible for the modern visitors to follow, quite literally, in the footsteps of the Roman bather.
visit to the baths began in the stone flagged yard where the bather would exercise with weights and build up a sweat. This was an open yard and led through an arched wall to the changing room. here the bather would undress and, taking a towel and putting o a pair of wooden soled sandals, enter the bath-house.
The modern visitor enters the bath-house by an elevated wood and steel boardwalk but the Roman bather would have come in via a now blocked doorway to the left. The baths were similar to a modern sauna and consisted of a warm room, a dry hot room and a second hot room with hot bath tubs. The building was heated by two furnaces. The bather moved from one room to the next and finished with a cold plunge in the annexe next to the exercise yard.
This was a warm dry room with a temperature of around 40 deg C, it was pleasant but hot enough to start the bather sweating. Relaxing on wooden benches against the walls the bather spent his time relaxing, chatting and maybe enjoying a game of draughts. Looking from the walkway the modern visitor can see the original floor, a unique survival and a splendid testimonial to the strength of Roman concrete. the floor is supported on a series of clay tile pillars which can best be seen from the Dry Hot room. Nothing remains of the room above floor level but it would originally have been 4m high with an arched ceiling. The walls were plastered and painted with brightly coloured geometric and floral designs and windows below the roof kept the room light and airy.
This room was next the furnace and extremely
hot . The bather sat sweating and then may have recieved a massage from
a slave. Before moving through to the next hot room he would have
covered himself with aromatic oils. The furnace was fuelled with
wood or charcoal and the heat from it was drawn beneath the floor of the
dry hot room and into the space known as a hypocaust, beneath the floor
of the warm room. The hot air was then draw up hollow clay tiles
behind the plaster walls to a series of chimney vents set in the roof.
this type of central heating was extremely efficient and the floors and
walls acted as simple radiators.
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