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Click here to read about the Year 7 visit to Lullingstone Roman Villa
Year 6 pupils found out many unusual facts about the ancient Roman lifestyle during their recent Roman Morning. There was also plenty of audience participation! Mrs Westwood's Year 7 Latin group have been looking at the treatment of slaves in Roman times and have produced the front page of a newspaper to report a particularly nasty incident and their take on it.
THE ROMAN BATHS | The springs of Bath go back 7000 years. Long before the Romans, the Celtic people worshipped the goddess Sulis there. | 
The Roman Baths | | After the Roman invasion in 43 A.D., the Fosse Way, a major Roman road running from Exeter to Lincoln and the Humber estuary, was established. This road crossed the River Avon near Bath and a Roman fort probably guarded the crossing. The ancient sacred spring site was developed, and a stone temple to Sulis Minerva was constructed between 60-70 A.D. The spring itself was contained in a reservoir with channels for overflow and for feeding the bathing complex developing to the south. | BACKGROUND INFORMATION In their original form, the baths probably included 3 deep plunge baths or swimming-pools: the East bath, the Great Bath, and the West Bath. The reservoir, fed by the hot springs, supplied the Great Bath and East Bath with healing waters. Until the end of the 2nd C., the spring would have been open to the air; after that, a huge chamber enclosed the reservoir. | | 
The Great Bath | Near the spring there would have been a theatre for religious ceremonies and play performances.The main spring (the King's Bath spring) bubbles out of the ground at the rate of a quarter of a million gallons per day, and the temperature is a steady 46.5 degrees c. | | The Roman people came to the spring to ask for the help of the goddess Sulis Minerva. Coins were frequently thrown into the spring as a thank-you for this help. Curses inscribed in sheets of lead have also been found, as have cups, jugs, and engraved gem-stones. | | 
Minerva | 
The Gorgon's Head | | The stone temple mentioned above was to the north of the baths and comprised a small cult room fronted by a porch with 4 large columns supporting a pediment (a large triangular headstone) with a gorgon's face. The building had steps leading up to it. Later this was expanded. In the temple there would have been the statue of the goddess and some sacred objects. The ceremonies would have taken place on the steps or in the temple precinct outside. | | Out in front of the temple was the altar where the temple officials would carry out duties such as sacrifices and inspections of animal entrails. There would have been a number of buildings in the temple enclosure: "The Facade of the Four Seasons" was one. So, the spring, temple and baths formed one large complex. | "Pupils at theRomans Baths" Pupils using the audio tour at the Roman Baths | Roman buildings in Bath fell into disrepair during the 5th C. and only in the 12th did monks refurbish the spring as a bath - the King's Bath. It became extremely popular and was a very fashionable spa in the 1720s. With extensive rebuilding in the 18th C. to cater for this business, the Roman city was rediscovered. It was the unearthing of a bronze, life-sized head of the goddess Minerva in 1727 that led to the excavations which have continued on and off ever since. The draining of the spring in recent years yielded many of the objects on display. | | | Each summer, the Year 8 Latinists have a most-enjoyable curriculum outing to the Roman Baths in Bath. This year, the weather was excellent, and the pupils had a picnic lunch at Dyrham Park on the way. They worked very hard during the visit, gathering information for the Roman Baths study booklets that they have been working on in lessons this week | | |
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