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CHEDWORTH ROMAN VILLA

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The remains of a Roman villa believed to have been occupied between the early 2nd century to circa AD 410. The villa has been partially excavated on a number of occasions and included the discovery of a nymphaeum. Parts of the villa have also been subjected to geophysical survey.

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(SP 05271347) Roman Villa (GS) (1)

(See pamphlet) (2)

Chedworth Roman Villa - Bibliography
Excavation Reports (4) (5) (6) (7) Description and Plan. (3-9)

Chedworth Roman Villa remains, are as described in the National Trust
Official Guide (2). The site is maintained in excellent order, and
is, together with the Museum, open to the public for most of the year.
Resurveyed at 1:2500 on PFD.

Post Office engineers, when erecting a pole (at SP 05381345) outside
the SE corner of the property, exposed Roman walling for a depth of
several feet, probably part of the south wing (a). There are no
plans for the excavation of this wing at the present time. (10-11)

SP 052 134. Listed excavations were undertaken between 1979 and 1986 on the entrance and portico of the east side of the villa. The original structure was a single wall revetting a terraced courtyard. It was constructed in the early 2nd Century. Further terracing was executed when the portico and entrance were laid out in their latest form. The later discovery of a possible step, a sill wall and 2 layers of concrete flooring confirmed the relationship of the terrace to the secondary portico entrance. The south end of the east wall of the east portico as revealed to have been rebuilt on the wrong line in 1949. This mistake was rectified. (11-14)

Limited excavation in room 6. (see plan appended to card), which lies towards the centre of the west wing, in 1980, showed that it had formerly been larger but had been divided by an E-W wall, built to create an entrance passage at its southern end. (12)

SO 052 134. Consolidation of the stoking area of the northern bath suite in 1988 revealed it to be later than the E - W boundary wall between it and the nymphaeum to the west. Both were built on an area covered with charcoal-stained soil and stone, possibly from a nearby kiln. (12-14)

SP 052 134. Drainage work undertaken in 1982 intersected Roman walls and metalling on the line of the villa's southern ranges, in the area of the supposed outer yard. These remains lay c64m E of the most easterly room previously known in the S wing. At least 4 successive structures, dating from the 2nd to late 4th Centuries were revealed. In the final phases a building with a channelled hypocaust, apparently disused by c AD350, was demolished and replaced by a rough dry stone wall, probably also of Roman origin. (14)

Webster has advanced the theory that Chedworth Roman villa may, in fact, have been a tempelbezirk or pilgrim's hostel, and part of a larger religious complex of which temple SP 01 SE 9 also formed a component. This idea is disputed by King who argues that the plan of the building compares satisfactorily with other undisputed villa sites in Britain. (15-16)

The presented foundations and buildings covering mosaics of Chedworth villa are also visible on aerial photographs. (18)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date)

OS 6" 1924

( 2) General reference

National Trust Official Guide "Chedworth Roman Villa" 1970

( 3) General reference

Notes on the Roman Villa at Chedworth & Plan (J Buckman, R W Hall)

( 4) National Museums of Antiquities of Scotland Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland

(J Farrer) 6 Page(s)278

( 5) Journal of the British Archaeological Association

24, 1868 Page(s)129-135

( 6) Journal of the British Archaeological Association

25, 1869 Page(s)400-406

( 7) Royal Archaeological Institute The Archaeological Journal

(G E Fox) 44, 1887 Page(s)322-337

( 8) Royal Archaeological Institute The Archaeological Journal

St Clair Baddeley 78, 1921 Page(s)451-5

( 9) by R. G. Collingwood and Ian Richmond; with a chapter by B. R. Hartley on Samian ware 1969 The archaeology of Roman Britain

Methuen's handbooks of archaeology Page(s)44,145

( 10) Oral information, correspondence (not archived) or staff comments

( 11) Field Investigators Comments

F1 ASP 01-APR-77

( 12) Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society

(R Goodburn) 98, 1980 Page(s)180

( 13) Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society

R Goodburn 99, 1981 Page(s)174

( 14) Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society

(R Goodburn) 100, 1982 Page(s)260

(15) Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society

(G Webster) 101, 1983 Page(s)5-20

(16) Royal Archaeological Institute The Archaeological Journal

(A King) 145, 1988 Page(s)413-4

(17) by Eleanor Scott 1993 A gazetteer of Roman villas in Britain

Leicester archaeology monographsNo.1 (1993) - GS 22 no.1 Page(s)69

(18) Oblique aerial photograph reference number

NMR SP 0513/23 (CAP GX0020) 18-JUL-1951

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