More information : [ST 43652885] ROMAN VILLA [GS] (Site of) (1)
The Roman Villa at Low Ham was discovered in 1938 by H.Cook. It lies in a meadow about 1/2 mile E. of the church, on land formerly ploughed but now under grass. Excavations have been carried out, since 1945, by C.A. Ralegh Radford and H.S.L. Dewar when the dwelling-house was revealed to be L-shaped with two ranges set at right angles with verandahs facing N. and E. on to a courtyard, the principal appartments facing north. At the W. end was a luxurious set of reception rooms with heated mosaic floors and beyond this a bath block. The earliest pottery from the site dates from about AD 200 and the oldest house was fairly small with no mosaic floors. An extension was made in the late 3rd c., but the final reconstruction took place about AD 330 which produced the heated rooms and quality mosaics, one of which is in Taunton Castle Museum. It depicts illustrations of Book IV of the Aeneid. (2-3)
In 1955, a further range of buildings were discovered to the East, together with a well which contained among other things pottery confirming the occupation period of AD c.200-367. (4)
Siting confirmed by A/P's. (5)
(Plan: See photo. AO/64/108/8]
[ST 43552884 at 'A' In a corner of the same field stone foundation courses of a building c. 40' x18' were discovered during the autumn drought of 1947. No clue to their age was found. (6)
Mr. Cook, the original finder, confirms the O.S. siting but no surface remains exist. Nothing is visible of the building foundations at ST 43552884. The end of a knife or sword handle from this site is in Taunton Museum, Acc. No. 57 A.48, as are two 3rd - 4th c. sherds and a fragment of hypocaust tile, Acc.No. 57 A.28, donated by N.J. and L.W. Cook of Low Ham. (7)
Mr L Cook, brother of the late Mr H Cook, re-confirmed the site of the Low Ham Roman villa at ST 43652885, which is now defined in a pasture field only by ground sinkage and strong nettle growth. The site published on OS 25-inch (1974) at ST 43552884 is erroneous, being that of a building of unknown age and purpose which was located in 1947. (8)
Parchmarks of the west and north wings excavated 1946-8 and of the east wing noted in 1955 were located from the air in 1975 (see Fig showing the results of these observations combined with the earlier results). (9)
A 1:2500 scale level 3 photogrammetric survey of and area of 26 hectares to the south-east of the village of Low Ham was carried out by the Air Photography Unit of the RCHME between the 7th and 14th May 1996. The survey was carried out on behalf of the RCHME Exeter Field Office to aid further evaluation and survey. Within the survey, the site of the villa and a further range of buildings was located on two poor oblique APs taken in 1975. The site has been extensively excavated, but very little detail of the building foundations could be discerned from the AP sources. This was mainly due to the disturbance caused by the excavation activity in the past. Because of this, only a fragmented plan of the known buildings could be transcribed. To the east of the villa at ST4370 2890 is the site of a further possible range of buildings of which only faint linear crop marks could be seen. Between the two ranges of buildings are a pair of parallel linear ditches aligned NW-SE, possibly a trackway.
All features were digitally transcribed using the AERIAL 4.20 rectification software published by the University of Bradford. A 1:2500 scale plan was produced of all the archaeological features visible on available APs in the form of an overlay to the relevant OS map sheets. Copies of the resultant plans, digital files and the accompanying report are held by the RCHME. (Collection UID 1048088) (10)
SO 30 Cropmarks of this villa show buildings grouped irregularly around three sides of a courtyard c70m by 40m. (11)
|