More information : (SU 41463010) Roman Villa (R) (site of) (1)
Authorisation of published siting. (2)
In 1890 and 1895 trial excavations, by W H Jacobs, T W Shore and N C Nisbett, revealed part of the plan of the villa. Coins of Phillipus and Victorinus were found. (3-4)
Excavations by the Ministry of Works, under the direction of Mr D E Johnston from 1965 to 1968, revealed a large farm villa, comprising a courtyard measuring some 254 ft from N-S and 182 ft from E-W with a substantial corridor villa on the west side and various domestic buildings, including a bath-house, on the other sides. A large crater, 35ft in diameter, in the NE corner of the courtyard is thought to have been a well. The building is thought to have been occupied during the 3rd and 4th centuries. A fine geometric mosaic floor in the central room of the main western building is to be transferred to Winchester Museum. Excavations are still in progress at the site and were temporarily covered when visited. The geometric mosaic is partly visible at SU 41473010 and the crater is at SU 41513015.
Attached 25" cut-out shows plan from Authority 5 in correct topographic position. (5-6)
Published 1/2500 revised. (7)
Excavations of the site continued until 1972. The earliest foundations were those of a rectangular building 30ft wide and 60ft long with a fine three-roomed bath suite and with wall plaster painted to represent a mosaic. This building was replaced, probably in the late second century, by an aisled building 45ft wide with flint walls, also with a bath suite. The main house, of ten rooms, appears to have been constructed in the early 4th century and at the same time the barn and courtyard wall were added. "The Sparsholt villa seems to illustrate the cliche that the Dark Ages began during the Roman occupation". The last structure to be built was a timbered hall, outside the courtyard. This incorporated material plundered from the earlier buildings, but nothing distinctively post-Roman or early Saxon has been found on the site. To the west of the villa was located an Iron Age ditched enclosure of 1st century BC date. (8-9)
Excavation of the Iron Age ditch in 1972 revealed the fragmentary skeleton of an adult buried in a recut section (probably Iron Age date). (10)
Excavations on the villa site in 1985 located two superimposed ovens and an Iron Age pit. A revised building sequence was formulated, but the phases have yet to be dated. Full report. (11)
HA 93 Villa believed to be occupied in the third and fourth centuries. Various domestic and agricultural buildings grouped around a yard. An aisled farmhouse was the first building here. (12)
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