Howzat! Roman bath found under cricket ground

A BATH-HOUSE for the Roman equivalent of the SAS has been unearthed during work to build a cricket pavilion.

Weapons, pottery and coins were also discovered at the site where the largest Roman fort on Hadrian’s Wall had been.

Around 1,600 years old, the remarkable find is said to be of ‘national significance’ and includes artefacts such as an iron arrow head, bone hairpins and more than 100 superbly preserved coins, such as the one pictured, from the second and third century AD. The discovery was made during an exploratory archeological dig at the site of a proposed pavilion for Carlisle Cricket Club at Stanwix, Cumbria.

The bath-house would have been used by around 1,000 members of the Ala Petriana cavalry. The empire’s most elite troops, they would have gambled and chatted while bathing in the sophisticated heated rooms.