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By descending the modern stairs to the left of the walkway the visitor can reach the hypocaust or under floor area beneath the hot room. Unlike the first room the floor here has not survived but the bases for the supporting pillars can still be seen set on the original concrete base. The large arch on the right leads to the outside furnace while the three arches in front give access to the hypocaust beneath the warm room. The visitor looking through the central arch can see the forest of pillars supporting the concrete floors above. There are 88 original pillars still in position and this view, a unique glimpse of an intact hypocaust, is almost unchanged since the Roman times. Many of the clay tiles are stamped with the letters NCON. This may be a shortened version of Numerus Congancis the unit based at Chester-le-Street fort. Had they been supplying tiles for the Binchester garrison?
Returning up the steps and looking over the walkway to the left the visitor can see two footprint in the concrete floor. One is an adults and the other is a child's. Both were made when the concrete was freshly laid and we can only guess at the story behind them.
This room was hot and humid. It had it's own furnace which also heated a hot water boiler supplying two baths. Here the bather would scrape his skin with a strigil, a curved bronze knife resembling a small bill-hook or hand scythe. This scraping action helped to open the pores and remove surface dirt and oil. the bather would then climb into one of the hot baths and wash off any remaining dirt. Retracing his steps back through the bath-house the bather would finish with an invigorating dip in one of the plunge baths next to the exercise yard. This can be seen from inside the bath-house directly opposite the the second warm room.
From the walkway the visitor can again see the remains of the hypocaust pillars that once supported the bath-house floor. Directly in front are the massive side stones of a huge arched recess that led to the outside furnace. One of the hot baths was located here, set above the tile furnace flue which still survives. The second bath is still intact and can still be seen, together with it's support pillars, in the side recess to the right. Both baths were fed with water by a system of taps and pipes connected to the furnace room boiler. In front of the flue are three pits now filled with sand. These date from the 7th century and were dug down through a deep deposit of post Roman waste. We know that much of Escomb church was built with stone from Binchester fort and it is tempting to see these pits as the base for scaffolding or shear legs used during the Anglo-Saxon demolition of the bath-house.
The visitor leaves the bath-house by a modern door in the wall of the second hot room. There was no exit here in Roman times. Outside to the right is the furnace building for the second hot room. Access was by stone steps beneath the modern stairs and much of the room was used for storing fuel. The water boiler was set over the furnace and supported by the two areas of rubble infill either side of the flue. By following the path back to the left the visitor passes the furnace building for the first two rooms in the bath-house. The flight of stone steps leading to a fuel store in front of the furnace can still be seen.
Continuing to the corner of the bath-house a careful inspection of the stone work reveals a mutilated carving of a dog or a bull. This would have been out of site below ground level when the baths were constructed and may have been carved as a dedication or good luck offering. The visit can end next to the bath-house entrance where the remains can been seen of the two concrete lined cold plunge baths.
The recent excavations produced a rich collection of finds which
have been used by the archaeologists in reconstructing the history of
Binchester fort. A selection of these finds pottery, coins, jewellery,
military equipment and building materials is on display at the Bowes Museum
in Barnard Castle. Some objects from the earlier excavations , including
some splendid inscribed alters, can be seen at The Museum of Archaeology
in Durham City.
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Information supplied by Durham Council.