Coberley, Gloucestershire
First screened 3 February 2008

Coberley – Background

Over a number of years the Roman site at Coberley in Gloucestershire has produced a large number of coins, roof tiles and fragments of pottery. The 20-acre site consists of a platform area surrounded by rolling countryside. It is flanked on the west by a small river and on the east by the main north-south road between Cirencester and Cheltenham.

When an unusual mosaic was uncovered in 2003 the site became protected under the countryside stewardship scheme and investigated through a small excavation and a limited 'geophys' survey. Survey results showed a complex of buildings with a series of strange, inter-cutting linear features surrounding them.

In many respects, it looked like a typical Cotswold villa, a number of which Time Team has excavated in the past. But several aspects of the location and a number of the features revealed by the survey were difficult to interpret. Why did the buildings appear to face up a hill slope? What, if any, was the significance of the springs nearby?

As well as investigating a likely villa estate, therefore, Time Team was also keeping an open mind about the possibility that there might be some form of temple or a bath complex on the site.

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