Richard Woods, The Sunday Times, September 23, 2007

A ROMAN bath house with remains of plunge pools, steam rooms and clothes lockers is for sale in the town of Battle, East Sussex. Built for officers of the Roman navy in about AD90, the baths are on the market for a modest £300,000.

Although the property is hardly in a fit state for a toga party, it contains remains that rarely come up for sale. “The level of preservation in the baths is particularly high,” said Paul Roberts, ancient monuments inspector at English Heritage. “They were buried by a landslide so, although the building is ruinous, we have all the material in pieces.”

The baths were excavated in 1970 by Gerald Brodribb, an amateur archeologist who identified the remains with divining rods and set about digging with a team of 40 enthusiasts.

Brodribb found remnants of two steam rooms, three plunge pools and two changing rooms with lockers.

There is even evidence of painted plaster walls, decorated roof tiles and an underfloor heating system, or hypocaust.

Colin Henshaw, the owner, admitted he had entertained ideas of reenacting imperial Roman luxury, saying: “I did probe the idea of using the baths again, but my information was that would be an impossible dream.”

The baths are part of a scheduled archeological site, which imposes strict rules on conservation. “There will be restrictions on the new owner ? they can’t just dig or slap on an extra bit of wall wherever they feel like it,” said Henshaw. “This has the same status as Stonehenge and a heritage site exerts strong building controls.”

Any plans for construction at the site, which is being sold through Freeman Forman, the estate agents, would have to be vetted by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Henshaw hopes to sell the site to a keen historian who could work with English Heritage to open the baths to the public.