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Withington, in the Cotswolds, Gloucestershire, sits in an officially designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is an area of rich farmland and, as Tony Robinson put it in this programme, 'very classy houses'.
It was clearly not very much different in Roman times. The landscape locally is littered with the evidence of the numerous villas that stood here during the Roman occupation of Britain – several dozen of them are known in Gloucestershire, including one at Withington itself.
Two hundred years before Time Team visited, the Withington villa was excavated by the antiquarian, Samuel Lysons, after a ploughman had discovered extensive remains in a field on which he was working. Excavations revealed some exquisite mosaics (now preserved in the British Museum) but no one was able to date the villa; and although it is a scheduled site protected by English Heritage there is no record today of exactly where it is located.
Time Team's interest in the site didn't stop with this villa. Two hundred metres below the villa field is a spring and stream (the area was formerly known as Withington-upon-Wall Well), together with an adjoining field in which large quantities of Roman tile and tesserae (mosaic pieces) have been found. Many of these finds have been brought to the surface in recent years by mole activity, and local archaeologist Roger Box (who originally drew Time Team's attention to the spectacular Turkdean villa site) called in the Team to investigate.
No one had ever excavated the lower site previously, but the proximity to the villa excavated by Samuel Lysons suggested a connection between the two. Could the lower site have been a bathhouse serving the villa or even a temple? Or was it an earlier site for the villa, which was later moved to a site on higher ground, perhaps as a result of flooding? Time Team investigated both sites in an attempt to find out.
Watched the programme, browsed the web pages? Now try our quick quiz to see how you get on.
Approximately how many Roman villas have been excavated in Britain?
Six
60
600
What were most Romano-British villas primarily built of?
Timber
Stone
Brick
Which of the following animals have not turned up archaeology on sites investigated by Time Team?
Moles
Rabbits
Badgers
What was the name of the antiquarian who first excavated the villa site at Withington?
Samuel Dyson
Samuel Lysons
Samuel Myson
Why was the extent of the trenches that Time Team was able to dig at Withington limited?
Because there weren't enough diggers
Because there weren't enough spades
Because it was a scheduled monument
Why wasn't the geophysics team able to get good readings from resistivity surveys at Withington?
Because the ground was too wet
Because the ground wasn't wet enough
Because they'd had too much to drink the night before
Answers here.
Channel 4 is not responsible for the content of third-party sites.
Withington Villa
This lies half a mile south of the village of Withington, six miles from Cheltenham. It was discovered in 1811 by Mr H C Brooke. The remains lies 150 yards from the river Colne, and consist of fifteen rooms and passages. Eight of these had tessellated pavements. One is of great size, measuring 35 feet by 20 feet, and is a very fine specimen of mosaic work, Orpheus being in the centre surrounded by various animals. The villa, like many others in the neighbourhood, appears to have been consumed by fire, as the remains of burnt timber and melted lead were found in several places. Several portions of the pavements are now in the British Museum, a very fine one containing the head of Neptune. The part of the field in which the villa was found is called the Old Town, or Withington-upon-Wall Well, from a fine spring so named which rises near it. The walls of the building were mostly 1 foot 8 inches thick, of different heights up to four feet. They were all built of local stone, plastered on the inside, and painted with stripes of different colours. The eastern part of the building contained the hypocaust, the dimensions of which were 27 feet 6 inches by 19 feet.
-- Description from the Archaeological Handbook of the County of Gloucester by George Witts, published by G Norman, Clarence Street, Cheltenham (1882?). Available online at: http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/
Gazetteer/Places/Europe/Great_Britain/
England/Gloucestershire/_Texts/WITGLO*/
Villas.html
Time Team came to Withington as a result of moles. Or at least it did so because of the fragments of Roman tile and tesserae (mosaic pieces) that mole activity was continually turning up on part of the site. Local archaeologist Roger Box called in the Team to investigate what the moles were disturbing.
There were two distinct areas of investigation: the lower site, in the area formerly known as Withington-upon-Wall Well, and the upper villa site that was originally excavated at the beginning of the 19th century by Samuel Lysons. The objectives of Time Team's visit were to find out what lay beneath the surface on the lower site; and to further investigate and identify the exact location of the Lysons villa. Since the villa is a scheduled site, excavations there were subject to a strict 'project design' and limitations on the extent of trenches.
This proved to be a difficult site, stretching Time Team's resources to the limit as the Team tried to focus on the two principal objectives in turn. The geophysics surveys on the villa site were disappointing but spectacular on the lower site, enabling Time Team geofizz expert John Gater to enjoy a moment of triumph over Phil when he correctly identified the remains that formed the centre of the excavation as those of a former bath house plunge pool. (Phil had become convinced that he was digging a quarry that had been infilled with debris containing Roman stone, tiles and tesserae.)
The Team also uncovered a number of walls, hypocaust features and mosaics still in situ – though none were as fine as those originally discovered by Samuel Lysons. All of these were reburied at the end of the dig, so that they will be preserved for future generations of archaeologists, who may have the resources to investigate this extensive and complex site in greater detail.
Identifying the precise location of the villa excavated by Samuel Lysons involved a number of approaches. These included geophysics, which proved inconclusive, and the use of floor plans, a watercolour showing part of the Lysons dig and other information from Lysons' notes. Eventually, after a number of investigative trenches had been tried, one turned up trumps, enabling the Team to match what they had uncovered on the ground with Lysons' floor plans.
The whole site had clearly been part of an extensive villa complex, with various phases of building. The latest of these dated from the mid to late fourth century AD, but early finds on the lower site suggested that there may have been Roman occupation here since the first century AD.
For this programme, series editor Michael Douglas provides another 'behind the scenes' look at Time Team. Michael has a long history with the programme and is a regular director of individual programmes. For the 2006 series he also worked as the series editor, a job that involves coordinating the Time Team season as a whole. Here he lets us in on some of his impressions of the Withington programme.
Time Team has excavated a lot of Roman villa sites now. Do you feel that you already know what to expect before you get digging?
We made a conscious decision to try to avoid villa sites this year for that very reason. But when [local archaeologist] Roger Box got in touch with us about the Withington site it was just too intriguing to ignore. Plus it had the added advantage of re-investigating, and locking down into the landscape, a villa dug almost 200 years ago.
What particular part of this site and its story grabbed you?
Moles! When we first visited the site there were molehills and bits of tesserae [small squares of terracotta or stone used in Roman mosaic floors] everywhere. So that wasn't a bad beginning.
Then, once you had the landscape explained to you, you could clearly see platforms where structures had been all over the place. It was so close to the existing villa excavated by Samuel Lysons 200 years ago that you couldn't help but wonder what was going on here. Roger Box had also found hypocaust tiles [from tile stacks used to support floors in underfloor heating systems] and roof tiles all over the site. It was just begging to be dug.
Villas can be huge sites to pin down. How do you go about tackling a potentially massive site with regards to getting a tight story together in just three days of digging?
We basically had two targets: this fantastic field of mole-redistributed tiles and the other villa originally excavated by Samuel Lysons. So once again, as at Glendon, we split our resources to investigate both sites at the same time. The geophysics team played a blinder in the mole field and I think their final results are spectacular – and all the more impressive when you see the quality of the archaeology in the ground.
The Lysons villa was much harder to pin down and as it was scheduled we had to place our trenches very carefully. As the geophysics was less reliable in this area, that proved to be a challenge. We were determined to answer both our challenges, but with so much good archaeology coming up from the mole field we were stretched to the limit. That's when Tim Taylor [series producer of Time Team] and the site supervisor and Roman specialist, Neil Holbrook, came into their own and worked out the best strategy.
Behind the scenes with Michael Douglas at Glendon, Northants.
Fishbourne Roman Palace by Barry Cunliffe (Tempus Publishing, 1988)
Historical look at the biggest single Roman building ever found in Britain, discovered in 1960 by a workman and covering an area the size of Buckingham Palace.
The Landscape of Roman Britain by Ken and Petra Dark (Sutton, 1998)
The authors analyse and interpret archaeological evidence of rural life in Roman Britain and provide an overview of Romano-British agriculture, the impact of Roman towns and that of human and industrial activity on the landscape.
Roman Villas and the Countryside by Guy de la Bédoyère (B T Batsford, 1993)
Looks at the evidence for life in the countryside in Roman Britain through buildings, objects and the undeniable impact of the Roman army. The author also examines how rural life changed through the 400 years of Roman rule.
Vitruvius: On architecture translated by Frank Granger (Harvard University Press, 1996) hardback £12.95
Studied by architects from the Renaissance to the present, Vitruvius's book is an incredible DIY handbook ranging from recipes for plaster and paint to the aesthetic use of marble and the construction of siege engines. An invaluable reference for Time Team cameos and a guide to the styles and means of construction of Roman buildings that survive today.
Ancient Mosaics by Roger Ling (British Museum, 1998) paperback £12.99
Traces the history of mosaics and their regional variations from Hellenistic to early Christian times, including mosaic techniques and their relationship to ancient interior design.
Geometric Patterns from Roman Mosaics by Robert Field (Tarquin Publications, 1988) paperback £2.95
A compact and interesting guide.
Romano-British Mosaics by Alan McWhirr (Shire Publications, 1995) paperback £10
Illustrated guide to Roman-British mosaics in the popular Shire Archaeology series.
Roman Mosaics of Britain by David S Neal and Stephen R Cosh
Volume I: Northern England, including the Midlands and East Anglia (Society of Antiquaries, 2002) hardback £160
Volume II: South-west Britain (Society of Antiquaries, forthcoming 2006)
This comprehensive record of all the Roman mosaics ever found in Britain is being published by the Society of Antiquaries in four volumes. Volume 1, covering Northern Britain, was published in 2002; Volume II is due for publication in 2006; and the remaining two volumes are due to be published in the next few years.
Mosaic
Annual journal of the Association for the Study and Preservation of Roman Mosaics. Vol 27 includes the article 'Recreating the mosaic from Basildon Roman villa' by Steve Cosh. The recreation was carried out for Time Team as part of the excavation of a Roman villa at Lower Basildon for the 2001 series.
Channel 4 is not responsible for the content of third-party sites.
The Moles that discovered a Roman Villa
www.bbc.co.uk/gloucestershire/
content/articles/2006/01/04/
time_team_withington_feature.shtml
These BBC Gloucestershire web pages include an article on Time Team's visit to Withington, together with Behind the Scenes photos and an interview with Laurence Vulliamy, the programme director (requires RealPlayer).
The Roman countryside in Britain
Farming and agriculture – the Romans in Britain
www.romans-in-britain.org.uk/mis_frame_page.htm
Looks at how the Romans changed farming practices in Britain and the innovations they introduced to farming methods.
Rural prosperity
http://www.btinternet.com/~ron.wilcox/
onlinetexts/onlinetexts-chap16.htm
Online learning course that offers an excellent summary of how the Roman occupation changed the British countryside and created rural prosperity.
Mosaics
Association for the Study and Preservation of Roman Mosaics (ASPROM)
www.asprom.org/index.html
The Association for the Study and Preservation of Roman Mosaics website offers a wide variety of materials relating to mosaics in Britain, including their design, construction and the buildings in which they have been discovered. There is a catalogue of every Roman mosaic discovered in Britain, as well as articles providing an insight into the relationship between mosaics and art, architecture, religion and history. ASPROM is supporting former English Heritage chief illustrator David Neal and Steve Cosh's project to catalogue and publish details of every Roman mosaic in Britain, further details of which can be found on its website.
The best and worst Roman mosaics in Britain
www.cix.co.uk/~archaeology/timeline/
roman/mosaics/mosaics.htm
Mosaics expert and illustrator David Neal has been working with Steve Cosh to produce a four-volume account of all the known mosaics in the country. Here they choose four of their best – and worst – Roman mosaics in Britain. This illustrated web page is an abridged version of an article that appeared in Current Archaeology 157, published in May 1998.
Recording Roman mosaics
www.asprom.org/publications/recording.html
How can Roman mosaics best be illustrated? Many mosaics are known only from photos (usually black and white), but they are difficult to photograph even under good conditions. Because of their size and situation, often only an oblique view is possible, and rarely can the entire mosaic be captured. Thus to get an overall idea of what an ancient mosaic looked like, the best solution is a painting to scale, together with photographic evidence, and this is the solution adopted in the forthcoming corpus of Romano-British mosaics by David Neal and Steve Cosh. This illustrated article gives a detailed account of the background to their work and the history of recording Roman mosaics in Britain.
The Romans in Britain: Roman mosaics
www.romans-in-britain.org.uk/
arc_roman_mosaics.htm
Good basic introduction to Roman mosaics, their design, construction, peculiarities and mistakes.
Roman mosaics gallery
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/
romans/mosaics_gallery.shtml
Online gallery of mosaics from Fishbourne Roman Palace and Bignor Roman villa.
Piazza Armerina, Sicily
www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/
armerina/armerina.html
A large, early 4th-century Roman villa and estate in Sicily, the Piazza Armerina has many well-preserved mosaics that feature on this website.
Pyrrha's Roman pages
www.pyrrha.demon.co.uk/index.html
This website provides information on how a couple with classical enthusiasms made a Roman mosaic and garden. The site also contains an introduction to the Latin language, poetry and how to read Latin inscriptions.
Mosaic Workshop
www.mosaicworkshop.com/
acatalog/index.html
Shop: 1a Princeton Street
London WC1R 4AX
Tel: 020 7831 0889
Workshop: Unit B
443-449 Holloway Road
London N7 6LJ
Tel: 020 7263 2997
The Mosaic Workshop supplies materials and organises courses on mosaic-making.
For links to other websites, either on archaeology generally or specific to the periods and subjects raised in the programme, see our extensive section on Archaeology websites. In particular, see the section on the Roman era.
Approximately how many Roman villas have been excavated in Britain? 600
What were most Romano-British villas primarily built of?
Timber
Which of the following animals have not turned up archaeology on sites investigated by Time Team?
Badgers
What was the name of the antiquarian who first excavated the villa site at Withington?
Samuel Lysons
Why was the extent of the trenches that Time Team was able to dig at Withington limited?
Because it was a scheduled monument
Why wasn't the geophysics team able to get good readings from resistivity surveys at Withington?
Because the ground wasn't wet enough