On Saturday 15th of February, twenty-four Third Form students and three teachers set off for a weekend of exploration of Roman Britain in the West Country. We began with a tour of the Roman Baths, where the students learned more about one of the only naturally occurring geothermal springs in the UK.
They were intrigued to learn how this site led to the syncretism of a local British deity with that of the invading Romans to form the worship of Sulis Minerva, with the temple’s pedimental sculpture of a Gorgon’s head a particular highlight.
In the afternoon, we travelled to Cirencester, the ancient town of Corinium, where we had just enough time to visit the Abbey grounds to see some of the original Roman walls, with a gateway whose road would have travelled all the way to St Albans! A very well-deserved dinner at Pizza Express was followed by a hotly anticipated quiz run by Mr Husbands back in our hostel. After a nerve-jangling twenty questions, three teams finished in equal first place, with a tie-break question needed to decide the overall champions.
On Sunday we were out early to visit the outstanding remains of a Roman villa in Chedworth. The students braved the bracing winds as two very knowledgeable tour guides showed us around the site, making clear the delineation between the original Roman remains and the Victorian reconstructions. The students particularly enjoyed learning about outdoor Roman toilets, as well as seeing the stunning mosaics in the villa’s dining-room and corridors.
Finally, we headed back to Cirencester for a quick visit to the 8,000-capacity amphitheatre, as well as the Corinium Museum, which housed a number of the artefacts from the local area. We were once again wowed by the collection of mosaics, particularly the portrayals of the seasons alongside the myth of the death of Actaeon. We were very lucky to discover that there was an extra exhibition at the museum of recent dinosaur finds from the area, including mammoth teeth and tusks which featured in the BBC documentary “Attenborough and the Mammoth Graveyard”.
My huge thanks go to all of the students for their company and especially to Mr Husbands, Ms Binji and Ms Elliott for their invaluable support in running the trip.
Mr M Bull
