More information : Roman villa site. (1)
(TL 7335 4035) Site of villa. (2)
Discovered in April 1794, although Roman coins, tiles etc. and wall footings had been found previously. The villa was planned by Thos. Walford while workmen were digging for stone for road repairing. It was situated "44 rods (approx. 221.0m) above the Roman road, in a field called Great Ashley". The footings of about a dozen rooms were found, one of them a semi-circular apse-like room; a pavement of coarse red tesserae along the outside of the S. wall of the main wing - about 60ft. long - in which were set at 7-foot intervals six 3ft squares of brick, five of which were perfect. These were apparently footings for columns; fragments of a coloured pavement of small tesserae were found but the original pavement appeared to have been ploughed out. Some of the rooms had painted wall plaster and "most of them had stucco floors". Many fragments of paterae and pots of different kinds of earthenware were found, some dark or white and some Samian ware, several pieces of which were embossed. Many fragments of window glass 1/4" thick, one piece perfectly flat with a round edge, formed to fit a groove. Various pieces of combed and stamped box-flue tile confirmed reports by workmen 50 years earlier that they had found a room at the E. end of the villa supported by pilae. Finds included fibulae and coins of Nero, Vespasian, Domitian, Trajan, Carausius, Constantine the Great, Constantine Jnr., Theodosius, Arcadius and Otacilia Severa, and a small British coin. It would seem that there was another building, as Walford mentions footings found between the villa site and the river. (3)
The field Great Ashley was under crop when visited, which prevented an extensive search. Fragments of Roman building material were noticed on the surface in the area noticed in Archaeologia, but very few were seen around the site shown on the 1924 OS 6". (4)
In the field adjoining Great Ashley on the west a pavement of stone flags has been noticed. (5)
No trace of a pavement seen in this field during investigation. (Field named Great Ashleys centred at TL 7330 4030 (a)). (6)
(TL 7329 4018) Supposed site of Roman Villa (R) (7)
The 'supposed site of Roman Villa (7) lying as it does between the remains of the villa referred to in (3) and the river, is probably the site of the 'other villa` also mentioned. (8)
ES 59 Listed as the site of a Roman villa. (9) |