Buildings of many different kinds existed in the settlements at Earith. These included workshops, barns, granaries, storehouses and animal sheds as well houses for living in. We can work out the function of many of the buildings from things like their shape, size and building materials, and from the kinds of objects that are found inside the buildings.

Roman public buildings, like town halls and temples, were often built of stone and could be large and impressive to look at. The houses of the wealthy could also be grand stone or brick buildings. Ordinary houses were smaller and often made of wood.

Two major buildings were found at Langdale Hale, an aisled farmhouse and a building which we have called here the 'Scribe's House'. Both of which were fairly modest constructions, built of wood with thatched roofs. Some slightly grander buildings stood at the Camp Ground, some of which had a form of 'central heating'.

The 'Scribe's House'

As the buildings at Earith were mainly made of timber, nothing remains standing today - the wood has all decayed away. However, when wood decays it often leaves a dark 'stain' in the earth. Traces are also left in the soil by the holes dug to take the foundations of the building. When a site is excavated, the outline of the buildings can be seen from these soil marks. The picture shows an excavated timber building from Langdale Hale.

The building is rectangular, measuring 11.5 by 6 metres in size. The wall was made of upright wooden posts, with lighter timbers or wattle filling the gaps between them. The upright posts were set into the ground in the small pits that can be seen in the picture. The rectangular outline of the building can be clearly seen from the rows of excavated post-pits.

This is a typical rural house, used for living and working in. Finds from in and around the building include pottery and other everyday objects. Although the building is fairly simple, some fine glass vessels and a writing stylus may suggest that someone educated and relatively wealthy lived here.

An Aisled Farmhouse

The other major building at the Langdale Hale farm was larger, measuring 16 by 8.5 metres in size. It is a type of building known as an aisled building. This means that the roof was not held up by the walls, but by two rows of wooden posts inside the house. The holes that theses posts were set in can be seen in the photograph. This large, sturdy building could well have had two storeys.

It is not certain how this building was used. In some similar houses found on other sites, part of the building was used for living in and the other part was used as a barn or for keeping animals.

'Central Heating'

Most people in Roman Britain heated their homes with open hearths. However, some wealthier people used a type of 'central heating' called a hypocaust. The floor was supported on pillars, and a furnace heated the air beneath the floor, keeping it warm. The hot air and smoke from the furnace escaped through shafts in the walls, made from hollow rectangular tiles. These shafts were hidden within the wall by being plastered over.

Finds of these 'box flue tiles' at the Camp Ground show that some houses had 'central heating'. The broken tiles shown have a patterned, ridged outer surface. These ridges helped the wall plaster to stick to the tile.