More information : (SY 31499281) ROMAN VILLA (R) (Site of) (NAT) (1)
The Roman villa at Holcombe, first partly excavated in 1850 (a) and again in 1870 (b) was fully excavated in 1969-71, revealing a continuity of occupation from late Iron Age right through the Roman period except for a short interval at the time of the Conquest. The earliest settlement consisted of two circular huts (1 and 2, plan) 25 feet in diameter with double walls. These were succeeded by a rectangular enclosure in which two more huts (3 & 4) were sited. On the east, an outer enclosure was bounded by a comparatively shallow ditch which could have been a palisade trench. Only two contemporary pits were identified, one of which contained the magnificent Holcombe bronze mirror. A considerable amount of pottery, including Durotrigian Cat.1 black-burnished wares was recovered from both inner and outer enclosure ditches. A date of about 20-44 AD is indicated for the Iron Age occupation of the site. After the Roman conquest the site was probably not re-occupied until about 70 AD, the date of the earliest Samian ware found. For about the next hundred years habitation was still within the Iron Age enclosure and four rectangular timber-framed houses (phase I: a,b,c,d) were built two of which succeeded each other on the same piece of ground. About 180/200 AD an aisled house (phase IIa) was built and from then until the latter half of the 4th century considerable re-building and extending was carried out including an octagonal bath-house (phase Va). Third and fourth century middens contained a wide range of pottery including Durotrigian black-burnished wares and fine wares from Lezoux, Oxford and the New Forest. The latest coins found were two Valentinian issues (AD 375) but some of the fine wares had a date range extending into the fifth century. Evidence of iron working was found on the site throughout the occupation. There was considerable evidence of post-villa activity in the form of small cooking hearths and iron-working furnaces built among the piles of building debris from the villa. (2)
It is suggested that the four estates that comprised Lyme in 1086 may have been derived from a single Roman salt-producing estate based on Holcombe Villa. (3)
DE 19 Listed as the site of a Roman villa. The pre-Roman settlement consisted of two circular huts inside a V-shaped ditched enclosure. (4) |