Diggers and Archaeologists at the Bath-house
 
Willoughby Gardner should get first mention here, in his introduction to the 1938 Excavation Report he states

‘The site has long been recognised as a Roman fort owing to its still visible earthworks.  Camden so described it in the sixteenth century, identifying it with the Conovium of the Itinerary.  The ruins of the Bath  buildings between the fort and river have always remained standing above ground, and about 1650 one Samuel Lee of London dug out a hypocaust and various relics there, including bricks stamped LEG XX.  In 1696 Edward Lhwyd visited Caerhun and saw these excavated remains and many relics preserved at Caerhun and also at Gloddaeth and at Maenan in the neighbourhood.  In 1801, the then Squire and Rector of Caerhun, the Rev. Hugh Davies Griffiths, and his friend Samuel Lysons F.S.A., completely excavated the remainder of the Bath site, as published in Archaeologia Vol XVI (1806) ; other excavations by Mr Davies Griffiths the son of the Rector, in 1824 produced much Samian pottery and other relics’
 

During the Georgian and Victorian eras ancient sites attracted the learned antiquary, usually gentry or at least, the middle classes, these men were usually school teachers, priests or even army officers.  Most of the then known Roman sites of North Wales attracted their fair share of these ‘diggers’ who often destroyed sites in the search for treasure  Caerhun and Bryn y Gefeiliau both received a fair amount of interest during these times and from their transcripts we can detect that these forts had been in much better condition 200 years ago.

At Bryn y Gefeiliau Richard Fenton in his 1804-13 Tours of Wales records ‘tiled floors upon pillars’ this was in the range of buildings in the supposed fort annex and nothing remains of these underfloor heating systems today, while Samuel Lysons records something of his digging at Caerhun bath building in his 1809 section of the Journal Archaeologica, this was called ‘Some account of Roman Antiquities discovered at Caerhun in Carnarvonshire’  Lysons account is interesting, though not for any information regarding the bath building, but he illustrates his work with an 18th century map of the fort area, this map shows the ‘twin sepulchers’ which are the then still then standing towers of the north gate.  The map also shows the north western corner of the fort to be the site of a small wood, this wood which was still extant during Baillie-Reynolds excavations 1926-9,  had badly damaged the remains.  Lysons also includes some engravings of some finds from the bath building, an oil lamp with a makers stamp ‘Fortis’, a large copper ingot with a stamp ‘Soc Romae’ varius stamped tiles bearing the mark of Legio XX valeria victrix, and a 16th century copper alloy buckler, Llandudno Museum, or small shield, which for many years was believed to be Roman.  Interestingly he actually tells us the Welsh name for the field in which the baths stand, ‘Erw y Gaer’ this name actually means ‘Castle Acre’ nobody in living memory will probably know this so we are thankful to Lysons for adding what must have seemed an unimportant point then.

Lysons records the building to be fairly upstanding, obviously this was what attracted his attention, most of the fort structures being under several feet of plough soil.  Lysons’ digging came at the end of 1801 and very soon after in the same year the vicar of Caerhun decided to get his spade out, his name was the Rev H.D Griffiths, Lysons’ account may have been sketchy but at least he bothered to write something down, the vicar left barely no record of what he found so in consequence our knowledge of the periods of the bath-house are scanty, but it only goes to prove the importance of publishing archaeological work because what Griffith did manage to record gives us a tantalizing picture of the building during the late 18th early 19th centuries.

Discussing rooms F&H in the plan Griffiths describes a pillae floor which sounded like it was still extant and undamaged

‘Pillars without end, some of them entire and in their proper places with some of the floor remaining on them’

 

So even after Lysons in 1801 we have remaining Roman floors still in place upon the hypocausts, this is amazing, what became of all these pillars? there must have been at hundreds, while now only three remain at the site, one in the graveyard which holds the sundial, and two are set up in the garden at Caerhun Hall.  These pilae had been formed from Handbridge sandstone by members of Legio XX VV, the type being used at Caerhun being identical to ones discovered at the legionary fortress bath building at Chester, this building was excavated during redevelopment and these pilae found their way into the Roman Gardens near to the Chester amphitheatre, and here they remain, propped up against a wall, countless examples.

It would seem that the building in Erw y Gaer had always been a prominent ruin, possibly down to the fact of the stout construction to combat the fire risk, and also because of the special lime mortar used by the Romans, some of which remains in the last tiny upstanding portion of the bath building remaining in situ.  The finding by Lysons of the buckler which appears to have been lost or discarded inside the bath building 200 years earlier seems to imply that during the 16th century the building was still standing in fairly recognizable condition.  The presence of the buckler is a mystery, it certainly could have been lost by a 16th century soldier, which again implies that the building could have seen some reuse, but also it is just as plausible that it could have been lost by children playing with it and not necessary in the 16th century, but either way it points to the building being in very good condition during the last 400 years, either for it to see any continued use either military or just as a place children played.

Finally Baillie-Reynolds included the bath building in his excavations, he found it much disturbed by all the random digging it had encountered for not only had Lysons and Griffith dug there but also during the 20th century a Dr Kendrick had also turned his attention to it.  Kendrick was something of an amateur archaeologist, he owned nearby Maenan Abbey, an old book about the Conwy valley records something like ‘once he had exhausted the possibilities of digging for relics at Maenan Kendrick bought the nearby Roman fort of Conovium’ the fort at this time would have been ripe for digging, but again we have no records.  Allegedly he found a large collection of Roman coins at the site, but during the 20th century it was decided that due to the hoard containing issues from mints alien to Britain’s supplies that some of the coins must have been purchased from dealers and cannot be taken seriously.

Therefore Baillie-Reynolds’ plans of the various phases are not easy to understand, the building’s many phases could not be interpreted because of all the earlier digging, and the plans are basically a mixture of all the available accounts.  Once a plan was recovered the building was curiously not backfilled and very soon became a complete ruin, why Baillie-Reynolds did this is a mystery, and as I once read ‘Caerhun bath house is a good example of why excavated building should be consolidated’.  Apparently even in the 1950’s the building was not quite the ruin it is today.  The building stood in the cutting beneath St Mary’s Church

© Kanovium Project

This view shows the cutting in which the bath building was situated, we are either looking at Roman terracing work or equally it could simply be the large hole left by 200 years of digging, though it is fairly likely to be Roman work as the hillside is fairly steep here with insufficient space to build a large structure  The area can be viewed as that above the line of the marsh, several tree stumps can be seen, the large one left contains the extant portion of Roman wall, being about 4 feet high it is remains of the furnace wall.  Above the cutting can be seen the church wall, the east gate was situated at the left end of the wall, and under which a drain is channeled.  The left end of the cutting features a stone revetment, presumably to stop the bank above the baths and beneath the fort wall from slipping down onto the baths.  A picture in the Kanovium Excavation Report (not in the final book, but in one of the reports in pamphlet form) shows the area as excavated and the walls certainly look in better shape during the 1920’s.  The building would have been about the same size as the church it is difficult to envisage such a building here today.