Study facility

In order to facilitate study appointments safely, appointments are extremely restricted at this time. Please contact [email protected] to discuss your options for research enquiries.

Study facilities allow you to look in depth at particular objects and areas of Roman history.

Our collections include:

Prehistoric material, including the Bronze Age Monkswood hoard and Mesolithic flints from the King’s Spring.
Roman objects from the Temple of Sulis Minerva, the baths, and all discoveries within Bath.
Archaeological material and related archives of all periods from Bath and North East Somerset excavated by archaeological units. We also have Bath Archaeological Trust’s archives dating from the 1960s.
Spa equipment from the Treatment Centre in Bath (which closed in 1976) and other bathing sites in the City, as well as an oral history archive about the Spa.
Coins, tokens and medals, including items from Bath’s Saxon Mint and Georgian Bath.
Social history items from Bath.
A photographic collection: specifically pictures of the site, archaeological record photographs and early views of Somerset, mainly Bath.
Antique furniture including furniture in Heritage Services buildings and the Thomas Tompion clock in the Pump Room.
A small collection of Mediterranean material (mainly pottery) donated by local people.

Study Collection

The Roman Baths collections include thousands of items that have been dug up during archaeological excavations and many of the pieces of pot, bone and stone are simply not suitable to put on display. We carefully record them and store them so that people can come to look at them when they have an enquiry. We also have a range of local history objects and photographs in our stores. Click here to download the Heritage Services Research Framework document.

Appointments to see this reserve collection should be booked at least one week in advance. Please get in touch with us if you are interested in booking an appointment.

Identifications at the Roman Baths

If you find something of archaeological or local historical interest we may be able to identify it for you. However, we do not give valuations. There is no charge for this service. Please contact us in advance to make an appointment. Occasionally we do ask people to leave their object whilst we make some further enquiries, such as consulting catalogues. On these occasions we issue an official receipt and agree a collection time with you.

If you think you have found something that is covered by the Treasure Act of 1996 you have a duty to report it to the Coroner. We can advise you and the Coroner on its identification and significance.

Advice for students

We can help you in several ways:

If you have an object based dissertation or course of study we can give you access by appointment to our reserve collection which contains objects and site archives from many archaeological sites in Bath & North East Somerset.
If you have an interest in a local history topic we may have relevant objects or records.
Our staff have considerable expertise and may be able to draw your attention to relevant publications or to the existence of original sources that you are unaware of.
We may be able to direct you to other relevant museum collections or record depositories.
For travel and tourism students we can send you some basic statistical information about our site.

What we cannot do: