Roman baths project details revealed
Exeter Cathedral has today published detailed drawings of its plans to excavate and reveal the remains of the city’s Roman Bath House.
The Dean of the Cathedral, the Very Revd Jonathan Draper, said the scheme had been under wraps while plans were talked through with English Heritage and a bid prepared for Heritage Lottery funding, but now the details of the proposed centre could be shown for the first time.
“We will not know until Mid-May if the project has been successful in gaining funding, but we want to ensure the people of Exeter - and all those interested in the city’s history - can see our proposed plans to unearth the remains. It is a hugely exciting project, not only for the Cathedral, but for the wider city and county.”
The Cathedral hopes to build an underground centre, with interpretation to help visitors understand the remains, which archaeologists have said are some of the most significant Roman remains found anywhere in the UK. These remains will become the stage for a unique visitor experience, telling the story of the first thousand years of Exeter’s history, The archaeological remains which will be on display in the new Foundations Visitor Centre form a sequence of Roman and Anglo Saxon monuments of national and international significance. They consist of the bath-house of the Second Augustan legion (AD 60–75), the Basilica and Forum of the Roman town of Exeter (AD 80–400+) and the Anglo Saxon Minster which became the Cathedral in 1050
Visitors and tourists will enter the new building at street level before descending below ground to become immersed in Roman Exeter. The first gallery (set within the Bath House remains) will include a large scale interactive model enabling visitors to understand what they can see around them. Multimedia presentations will bring the Baths and Roman military activity in Isca – as Exeter was known then – to life, and introduce the characters who frequented the Baths.
The second gallery will illustrate how the Romans adapted the site of the fortress into a town after the legion left south-west England. It became home to commerce, trading links, legal centres and religious spaces. Visitors will learn about Roman Britain and the marks its inhabitants left.
Further on, some of the Cathedral’s greatest treasures – the Exeter Book and Exon Domesday – will be on display. Interactive screen-based displays will invite visitors to engage with the contents of the Exeter Book – to turn its pages, examine sections in detail, attempt to solve some of its riddles or explore the marks Anglo Saxon has left on modern English.
Visitors will also listen to ‘soundscapes’ allowing them to hear how the spoken word might have sounded in Anglo Saxon times.
Detailed plans – particularly for the above ground building housing the new shop, café and education spaces – will be worked up in consultation with planning officers at the city council, if the funding bid is successful.
Head of English Heritage South West, Simon Hickman, has said of the Cathedral’s plans: “Displaying and interpreting the Exeter’s Roman remains would be a significant heritage benefit that would engage us with our history, and allow further understanding and appreciation of the Romano-British era.”
If anyone who would like to get involved and support the project while the Cathedral waits for the HLF decision, you can do so by calling 01392 285974 or emaililing foundations@exeter-cathedral.org.uk
