More information : (SU 69150726) Roman Villa (GS) (Site of) (1)
Roman villa site south-west of Littlepark Wood, found in 1925. Excavated by Mr Smith, school master of Purbrook, and the "innominates of Portsmouth" (2). Foundations of walls, apse and furnace, coloured wall plaster, stamped tiles. Pottery includes Samian (stamp IVLIANI M - late 2nd cent) and coarse ware from late 1st to early 4th century; some of the latter bore pre-firing inscriptions, probably numbers (3). See O G S Crawford's air photos which show excavations open. (2-5)
The site of the villa is in a pasture field on the brow of a dry re-entrant valley. Tiny tile or brick fragments occur in the bare patches amongst the grass over a considerable area, but there are no other surface indications of its presence. (6)
No change; nothing survives above ground. (7)
The building had two structural phases and the wall footings of both phases were of flint, as is usual with villas in this region. The plan suggests that the building extends west from the excavated area. A small area of tessellated flooring survived in room 11, over which were found tiles and nails, evidence of the collapsed roof. The southwestern part of the building consisted of a number of small rooms (1-6) and it was suggested that these were the remains of a bath suite. Perhaps the furnace and flue, in rooms 5 and 6 are the evidence for this. Associated with this were large amounts of blackened building debris including nails, tiles and wall plaster which was coloured red; some of these tiles bore comb marks (hypocaust?). The midden or refuse pit produced large quantities of pottery and other finds. The date of the first building can be assigned to circa 150-200 AD; little of the plan of this phase was recovered. The second building in its final stages was a simple corridor type house dating circa 250-300 AD. (8)
Aerial photography in 1976 showed that the villa lay at the north west corner of a rectangular walled yard, 125.0m (north - south) by 53.0m which extended to within 35.0m of the Chichester - Bitterne road (RR 421). There were traces of another building on the west side of the yard. (9)
HA 45 Listed as the site of a Roman villa. (10)
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