Chedworth Roman Villa

Coordinates: 51°49′12″N 1°55′28″W / 51.8201°N 1.9245°W / 51.8201; -1.9245

Chedworth Roman Villa
Chedworth Roman Villa. The Victorian lodge contains the site museum.
Chedworth Roman Villa  Chedworth Roman Villa shown within Gloucestershire
OS grid reference	SP053135
List of places: UK • England • Gloucestershire

Chedworth Roman Villa is a Roman villa located at Chedworth, Gloucestershire, England. It is one of the largest Roman villas in Britain.

Siting

Among the many villas in this area ,^[1] it is unusual in that it faces east and stands in a sheltered, but shady, position overlooking the River Coln. The apsidal shrine with a spring-fed pool in the northwest angle of the villa complex may have dictated the siting, for in it was found a crudely carved figure of Mars Lenus, incised [L]en(o) M[arti] (Adams 2003).

Phases

Detail of one of the mosaics

The ranges of rooms are arranged around a courtyard, with a luxuriously heated and furnished west wing, a south wing where the discovery of numerous coins has suggested a use for issuing payments (Adams 2003); the modestly equipped west and south wings do not open directly into the peristyle and seem to have been habitations of lower status. The phases of building range from the early 2nd century to the 4th century, with the early 4th century construction transforming an unpretentious workaday structure into an elite dwelling, completely enclosing the courtyard, which offered increased security, and adding porticos round the perimeter to create a peristyle. A triclinium or dining room with a fine mosaic floor was also added. Unusually, a feature of the 4th-century building project was a dry-heat sauna that was added to the complex, which already was provided with the usual Roman bath. The floors of at least eleven rooms were decorated with fine mosaics, of which five, of varying quality, remain. Later structural changes punched holes in the mosaics.

Temple

A stone relief in the museum at Chedworth Roman Villa

Foundations of a Romano-Celtic temple of mid-2nd century date have been excavated about 800 meters south-east of the villa complex, on a hillside near the Coln River. The temple was square in plan, surrounded by a portico which featured stone capitals to its pillars, a luxurious, thoroughly Romanized feature. An Iron Age votive pit producing human remains and the bones of a red deer show that the site had been sacred since pre-Roman times. A stone relief of a hunter with a dog and stag was one of the most notable finds from the site.

Discovery and display

The villa was accidentally discovered in 1864 by a gamekeeper digging for a ferret^[2] in a wooded valley in the Cotswolds. The former owner, Lord Eldon, built a small picturesque museum near the site to house recovered objects. It has been administered since 1924 by the National Trust.

Notes

1. ^ The area was heavily developed by the Romans, with a higher than normal distribution of villas, as a result of its suitability for the traditional intensive Roman farming methods and its proximity to the important Roman towns of Glevum (Gloucester) and Corinium Dobunnorum (Cirencester).
2. ^ BBC/OU Open2.net - History - Locations - Chedworth

References

• Dr. Phillip Bethell, Chedworth Roman Villa (Gloucestershire) (National Trust Guidebooks)

External links

• Chedworth Roman Villa information at the National Trust
• Chedworth Roman Villa Information and photos of Chedworth Roman Villa
• Roman Villa - Cotswold page
• Heritage Trail page