A Survey of Tile from the Roman Bath House at Beauport Park, Battle, E. Sussex

Abstract

One of the reasons for the Roman invasion of Britain was the hope of exploiting the natural resources of the country. It was not long before there was considerable iron-working in the Weald, especially in the area round Battle, East Sussex. Iron slag is to be seen at several sites, but little excavation of these has taken place. The best evidence for iron-working comes from Beauport Park, where a vast slag heap was discovered in 1862: much of this was removed during the 1870s for road-making, and there was no excavation of the site until the writer began work in 1967, and after three years' search found a building that proved to be a bath-house (FIG. 1).