This Friday our history teacher and school bus driver, Mr. Ray, picked us up and we headed just down the road to Binchester Roman Fort. Mr. Ray had told us about this amazing place before and we had attempted to visit however, they are closed during the winter months and just reopened.
Binchester was once the largest Roman fort in County Durham. Part of the fort including the Roman Bath House have been excavated. However, a large portion still remains to be uncovered. The buried remains of the fort and settlement are slowing and carefully being unearthed as part of the Durham University Archeology department. Can you imagine studying archeology at a University just a few miles from a Roman fort dating back to the first century?
Binchester Fort dates to the second half of the first century AD. At this time the Roman army was asserting its power in the North East of England. The large Roman baths have been completely unearthed and are now enclosed in a building to protect them. The baths at Binchester are a wonderfully preserved example of the construction of a Roman bathhouse.
Meg and Joshua were quite excited about seeing an active archaeological dig. Binchester has a shed with a myriad of children’s classroom activities and actual artefacts to practice unearthing. We learned some techniques to lift out fragile relics and did quite a bit of practicing. Mr. Ray and I had to drag them out of there when it was time to go. That was positively Meg and Joshua’s favourite part.
Upon leaving Binchester we decided to head to near by Bishop Auckland to see the home of the Prince Bishops of Durham. I will fill you in on that part of our adventure tomorrow. Until then.
For more information on visiting this wonderful fort and archeology dig site visit the County website: