Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

During excavations undertaken in Dover town centre by Kent Archaeological Rescue Unit, a Roman military bath house was excavated and recorded. A small room situated immediately to the south of room five, linked to it by a wide opening in the northern wall, consisted of a fine bath laid out in apsidal form and survived substantially in tact. Little of the period one construction was apparent and most of the visible evidence can be dated to the second period of this bath house. It consists of neatly squared chalk blocks set in a pink opus signinum. (location accurate to the nearest 2m based on available information).

Monument Types

• BATHS (Apsidal hot bath, Roman - 155 AD to 390 AD?)

Full description

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(summarised from publication)

During excavations undertaken in Dover town centre by Kent Archaeological Rescue Unit, a Roman military bath house was excavated and recorded. A small room situated immediately to the south of room five, linked to it by a wide opening in the northern wall, consisted of a fine bath laid out in apsidal form and survived substantially intact. Little of the period one construction was apparent and most of the visible evidence can be dated to the second period of this bath house. It consists of neatly squared chalk blocks set in a pink opus signinum.

The room is rectangular in plan measuring 2.1m (N-S) by 5.1m (E-W) with the walls surviving to a maximum height of 1.45m. The floor of the bath was intact and consisted of opus signinum and probably rested on vertical pilae but these were not observed. (1)

<1> Brian Philp, The Discovery and Excavation of the Roman Shore Fort at Dover, Kent (Monograph). SKE32061.

Sources and further reading

Related records