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Welwyn Roman Baths

Photograph of the baths. Rooms intended to be the warmest were located nearest to the furnace.
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Location	Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, England
Coordinates	51°49′40″N 0°12′29″W / 51.8277°N 0.2081°W / 51.8277; -0.2081
Type	Roman
History
Periods	Roman Empire

The Welwyn Roman Baths are a Roman ruin preserved under the A1(M) just north of modern-day Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, England. The baths were a small part of the Dicket Mead villa, which was originally built in the 3rd century AD.

The village of Welwyn has been described as being the site of a Romano-British settlement, where a Roman road crossed the river Mimram. There was another Roman villa near Welwyn on the Lockleys estate.

The full extent of the Dicket Mead villa was never fully excavated prior to the construction of the motorway, but the baths were only one of at least four buildings in total. The complex was probably part of a farm. It has been speculated that it might have been at least in part the equivalent of a hotel, lying as it does near Roman roads.

The ruins were uncovered in 1960 by local archaeologist Tony Rook, and the baths were gradually uncovered over the following 10 years by excavation. Shortly after the excavation was completed, the Ministry of Transport announced the route of a new motorway, straight over the top of the excavation.

Access

Eventually arrangements were made whereby a steel vault would be built over the top of the baths with an access tunnel for the public. Once the vault was completed the motorway was built over the top of it, and the remains of the baths sit 9 metres below junction 6. Only about half of the original extent of the baths is now on display. Visible parts remaining include the hypocaust, the tepidarium (warm room), caldarium (hot room) and the frigidarium (cold room) floor and cold bath, constructed from opus signinum.

Once the vault was finished, the bulk of the remaining parts of the Dicket Mead villa were covered over by the roadworks. Archaeological material from the site is stored at Mill Green Museum, part of Welwyn Hatfield Museum Service, which also operates the baths. This stored material can be inspected by contacting the curator.

Images

• View along the hypocaust
• Statue model sitting on the opus signinum
• Side view
• Quarter view
• The skeletal remains of a woman buried on the Dicket Mead site.

See also

• List of Roman public baths

References

1. "Roman Britain".

External links

• roman-baths – Official site at Mill Green Museum
• Welwyn Roman Baths – Pastscape

v t e Villas in Roman Britain
Aiskew Bancroft Beadlam Bignor Borough Hill Boxmoor Brading Brantingham Bucknowle Carsington Chedworth Crofton Dalton Parlours Fishbourne Folkestone Gadebridge Park Great Witcombe High Wycombe Horkstow Keston Rutland Kings Weston Littlecote Llantwit Major Lopen Low Ham Lullingstone Newport North Leigh Piddington Rockbourne Rudston Sparsholt Spoonley Wood Totternhoe Welwyn (Dicket Mead) Welwyn (Lockleys) Woodchester Winterton
See also: List of Roman villas in England and List of Roman villas in Wales

v t e Roman visitor sites in the UK
Villas	Bignor Brading Chedworth Crofton Dover Painted House Fishbourne Great Witcombe Littlecote Lullingstone Newport North Leigh Piddington Rockbourne Sparsholt Wroxeter
Forts & military	Ambleside Roman Fort Arbeia Banks East Turret Binchester Birdoswald Burgh Castle Caerleon Chesters Derventio Dover Castle Eboracum Hardknott Roman Fort Housesteads Lancaster Lunt Carvoran Roman Army Museum Over Burrow (Lancaster) Pevensey Castle Portchester Castle Ribchester Richborough Segedunum Venta Icenorum Vindolanda
Towns	Aldborough Roman Site Chichester Colchester Corbridge Silchester Venta Icenorum St Albans Wroxeter
Museums	Canterbury Roman Museum Carvoran Roman Army Museum Caerleon Roman Fortress and Baths Colchester Castle Museum Corinium Museum Jewry Wall Museum National Roman Legion Museum Ribchester Senhouse Roman Museum Trimontium Trust (Melrose) Verulamium Museum
Other sites	Bath Roman Baths Benwell Roman temple Caerleon Roman Baths Chester Roman Amphitheatre Jewry Wall, Leicester Welwyn Roman Baths York Roman Baths

• Tourist attractions in Hertfordshire
• History of Hertfordshire
• Ancient Roman baths in England
• Roman sites in Hertfordshire
• Archaeological sites in Hertfordshire
• Scheduled monuments in Hertfordshire
• Museums in Hertfordshire
• Museums of ancient Rome in the United Kingdom
• Archaeological museums in England
• 3rd-century establishments in Roman Britain
• Welwyn