Roman baths (52)
Willard McCarty (MCCARTY@VM.EPAS.UTORONTO.CA)
Thu, 5 Jan 89 19:13:52 EST
Humanist Mailing List, Vol. 2, No. 481. Thursday, 5 Jan 1989.
Date: 4 January 1988
From: Kris Lockyear
Subject: Roman baths
[Apologies to K.L. and others interested in this subject for the
delay in publishing the following announcement. It was hidden
inside a biography and remained unnoticed until yesterday! -- W.M.]
This is an announcement about Roman Baths - reconstruction and
conference.
At Welwyn, Hertfordshire, England a Roman bath-house attached to
a villa was excavated in the early 1970's. It was preserved in a
vault under the motorway and is now open to the public. Tony
Rook, the excavator, is now hoping to build a reconstruction of
the baths. This is not to be a tourist attraction primarily,
although this is an obvious secondry use, but a serious
experiment in construction. We are hoping to build the replica
using as close as is possible the original formula for the
mortar, the 'opus signinum', as close as possible to the original
vaulting techniques, wall construction, interior decor etc. The
baths when completed would be fired and the wood consumed linked
to the figures for copiced wood in the area collected by the
excavator over the last ten years.
Anyone interested in helping on this project, especially if they
have any ideas about raising funds should contact either me
(JANET address ayp104@uk.ac.soton.ibm) or Tony Rook at 23 Mill
Lane, Welwyn, Hertfordshire, England.
THE CONFERENCE
We are hoping to hold a conference on Roamn Baths at Welwyn in
the Autumn of 1989. Anyone who would like to attend, or who would
like to give a paper ON ANY ASPECT of Roman Baths, anywhere in
the Empire, should contact me or Tony on the above addresses.
Further information, in the form of a prospectus, is available.
Please pass this information around to anyone who might be
interested in our project.
Kris Lockyear
University of Southampton