More information : Remains of a Roman Burial Vault, bath, coins etc. found. (AD 1810 and 1827) [NAT] (1)
On the 6" map the villa is marked to the West of Beaconsfield but in the published account (a) it is stated to lie 'in the Stockyard immediately to the North of the farm'. There is nothing to be seen on the ground and I am unable to resolve these conflicting accounts. (2)
The Great Tew Roman Villa.
In August 1951 trial trenches were dug on part of the R Villa, as it was felt that excavation was justified in view of the large amount of painted wall plaster recovered in 1950, when a barn was being erected west of the main farm buildings. Finds included: Walls representing two periods; pottery 3rd - 4th century; hypocaust system; cement floors with traces of tesselated pavements, and under these an earlier system of walls: 4000 fragments of painted wall plaster (fruit & flower motif), coin of Magnentius [350-353 AD]. A 19th century Wine bottle in rubble spill probably representing the 1810 excavation of the 'Burial Vault'. [Sited by description]. (3)
[Corr. symbol at SP 40502748]. Roman pot, with structure or traces thereof. (4)
[SP 405275]. The Roman villa at Beaconsfield Farm which had been known to exist since the seventeenth century, was revealed again during the construction of a barn. Mr E M Jope dug some trial trenches for two days in September [1950], and was able to plan a small portion of the site where there was a tessellated pavement with a hypocaust beneath in a room which had had painted plaster on the walls. (5)
Mr N Thomas excavated at the site in 1951, when he located four parallel walls, representing at least two periods, which had been badly damaged by debris from the previous excavations in the early 19th century, and a mosaic floor on which lay large quantities of painted wall-plaster. The pottery was mainly 3rd to 4th century AD, but datable material from beneath the walls suggested that occupation may have started in the late 2nd century. (5-6)
The two buildings which stand on the site of the 1951 excavations are centred at SP 40592748. Fragments of Roman building material and oyster shells are abundant in the field immediately to the W. (7)
SP 405275: Beaconsfield Farm Roman Villa, Scheduled. (8)
It is possible that there is a temple tomb at Great Tew. Remains found in 1810 consisted of a mosaic floor decorated with "urns and serpentine lines" above inhumations. A Roman Bath representing the villa lay "on the north of the temple". (9)
OX 27 Listed as the site of a Roman villa. (10) |