Caerleon and Tintern 2007

Would you believe it...a sunny day!! Having dealt with rain and snow during the last couple of years, it was a positive delight to have the sun on our backs as we set off towards Wales or, as Miss Mann would have said, ‘God’s own land’.

Caerleon was still largely asleep when we arrived - a peace soon to be shattered by about a hundred chattering Cliftonians - and basking in the glow of the spring sunshine. The river Usk continued to meander, as it has done for nearly 2000 years, around the remains of the ancient Roman fort and the banks of the amphitheatre could just be made out above the line of the trees. After all these years of coming here, it's still a magical sight.

We then divided ourselves into three groups, lead by Mr Higgins, Mr Langley and Mrs Barrett (all appropriately Welsh), and went off to our separate destinations.

The Museum was the special reserve of Mr Royston and here we looked around the huge range of exhibits and tried to fill in the Questionaire we had been given. Jewels, funeral urns, ancient tools, mosaics, statues of Roman soldiers in their armour and bear skins, they were all there...along with the joys of the shop!

Above the Museum was the Capricorn Centre, a group of rooms where such things as a Roman hospital, a Roman classroom, a kitchen and a legionary barrack room have all been recreated. Here we were allowed to dress up in Roman chain mail, galea and lorica and wield imitation weapons, as well as lying on their bunk beds and examining their manicure sets (ear and nose cleaners, etc!). We also had a guide, dressed in a Roman tunica, who explained about the camp, the classroom and the other features of the Centre.

Having had our packed lunches there, we pressed on to the Baths, where we were greeted by Mr Milligan. He showed us a video all about the Bath complex that had once been the heart of life in Isca - the Roman name for Caerleon - and then took us on a guided tour of the part that has been dug up. We saw bits of the apodyterium and tepidarium, not to mention the hypocaust and main drain (where many of the jewels in the Museum had been found) and listened to the audio machines that were dotted around the site.

After that, we wandered down the Via Principalis (Main Road to you!) and met Mr Siddall, who showed us around the barracks (two room ‘apartments’ where the platoons or contubernia slept), the defences (fossa, vallum, towers and perimeter road), the centurion’s quarters...and the loo. Having been told about the dreaded vinegar and brush and discovered the original meaning of ‘getting the wrong end of the stick’, we went on down to the amphitheatre where Mr Siddall told us about the gladiatorial games that had once taken place there. It was a very atmospheric place (so much so the people of medieval England thought that it was the site of King Arthur’s fabled Round Table) but sitting in the special gladiators’ room reminded us of the terrible things that happened here and the poor people who had suffered and died for the ‘pleasure’ of others.

Pupils enjoy running around the Ampitheatre

Having exhausted the site (and ourselves), we then got back on the buses which took us first to Tintern - where we made a quick tour of the Abbey and remembered what we have learnt about Monasteries in the Medieval period and their destruction at the hands of Thomas Cromwell and the Reformation - and then back to school. It had been a long day, but filled with all sorts of experiences and sights and so well worth the effort. It was good to get out and about and to see the Romans in the flesh - even if the ‘flesh’ is now in ruins – and we look forward to the next adventure. Let’s hope the weather is as good!