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A Waltham Villa
Gloucestershire
28 January 2001
Waltham field, in the village of Whittington, five miles from Cheltenham. Alerted by Gloucester County Archaeology, the Team have come in search of a Roman villa. The last time this happened, at Turkdean, also in Gloucestershire, the site turned out to be so good that Time Team couldn't resist returning for a second look. What would happen this time?
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Stumbling over a villa
A limited excavation was carried out in Waltham field in 1977 by local archaeologist Wilf Cox. This was after the tenant farmer's daughter had literally stumbled over evidence of a villa in the area while out helping her father in the field. Her collection of finds from that time – including the piece of Roman pot that she tripped over – includes two types of Roman roof tile, flooring tesserae (small, square mosaic pieces) and a spread of pottery from the late first to third centuries, most of it quite early. Wilf Cox found the bottom layers of a Roman wall and sufficient other finds to persuade the Team that it was worth returning to try to track down the likely villa.
Trench 1, under Phil's supervision, was positioned to follow up Wilf Cox's dig – 'two metres from hedge line, 59 metres from field gate on north side,' as Cox's excavation notes recorded it. It was a pretty accurate measurement – the diggers were able to uncover Cox's trench again in a matter of minutes.
Trench 2, with Carenza in charge, was positioned to investigate what appeared to be a building line showing up on the 'geofizz' – the geophysics survey results. Trench 3 was put in nearby to get a further idea of the layout of the buildings that once stood here.
Phil's trench was later extended when a Roman floor was discovered going under the hedge into the adjacent field. The trench turned up a number of finds suggesting that this was not only a high-status site but also an exceptionally early one for a Roman villa in Britain. Judging by the dates of finds, the villa seems to have been occupied within about 20 years of the arrival of the Roman legions in 43 AD – long before the golden age of the Romano–British villa in the second and third centuries.
A piece of high quality terra nigra tableware
The piece in position
Reconstructed terra nigra bowl
How it might have been made
The Roman good life
Among the finds marking this off as a high-status villa was a shard of window glass – recognisably Roman with one side smooth and the other with a matt finish. This was not the sort of thing that would be found in a peasant dwelling, or indeed in most Roman dwellings in Britain at the time.
There was also a piece of high-quality terra nigra tableware – impressed with the stamp of the potter who made it. This was identified as belonging to someone copying the style of a master Roman potter. It would have been imported from what is now north-eastern France around 50–70 AD.
Another indication of the quality of life enjoyed by these early Roman villa dwellers can be gauged from the amphorae fragments found at the site. These would have been used to transport oil or wine to the villa from the Mediterranean. Whoever was living here at the time was certainly enjoying the Roman good life.
Amphora fragment
Amphora reconstruction
Over the hedge
After the first day, most of the activity was concentrated in the second field – over the hedge from the first. The geophysics surveys, which covered a huge area, revealed an apparent wall extending for 40 metres beyond the hedge and a range of other features, including other wall lines, ditches, a Roman road crossing the site, a large building range and a big curving earthwork. This second field, not where Wilf Cox had first dug, was where the main villa complex turned out to be located.
Trench 4 was dug by Phil to investigate a semi-circular, apse-like feature in what became known as the 'red room' because of the red-coloured wall plaster that was found here. An early oven or kiln was also excavated under the floor layer.
Trench 5 excavated the large curving earthwork, identifying it as an Iron-Age ditch. There was at most only a brief gap between the ditch being in use and the construction of the villa. Could the local British tribal leaders have moved into the villa, as happened at Fishbourne Palace in Sussex, where the Romans built a new palace for the native British leader? Here in the Cotswolds, as at Fishbourne, the local tribe was pro-Roman, so this was a possibility.
Trench 6, excavated by Carenza, was put in to look for evidence of the extent of the villa buildings in a high-resistance area identified by geofizz. A jumble of walls, built at different times, were found here. This was also the source of a Roman brooch dating from the early 1st century AD. It would have been one of a pair used to hold up a tunic.
Roman brooch clip
Roman brooch reconstruction
How it was worn
The discovery of a small portable altar also gave us a glimpse of the personal lives of the people who once lived here. This would have been carried by the householder or his family on trips away from the villa to enable them to pray or carry out ceremonies to the household gods.
Portable altar
Portable altar reconstruction
The Waltham villa
Other trenches were put in towards the end of the dig to try to map out the full villa plan. It is not necessary to dig up an entire site to do this. From our knowledge of other villa structures in Britain – where more than 600 have been excavated altogether – it is possible to reconstruct the layout using information obtained from a small number of well-positioned trenches.
The main Waltham villa complex was found to consist of two long buildings. One – including Phil's 'red room', which may have been a dining room – would probably have provided the family's living quarters. Another, a long-aisled building, would have contained the kitchen and other rooms or workshops dedicated to the 'business' side of the villa (it would have been a working farm and possibly incorporated 'industrial' activities such as pottery and metalworking as well). A further long-aisled building, set aside from the main villa complex in the first field, may have provided accommodation for servants, slaves and cattle.
One of the questions Time Team tried to answer about this villa was why it was so close to others in the area – only 600 metres away from one to its south east and less than a kilometre from another to its north west. Time Team landscape expert Stewart Ainsworth provided the answer from a study of the local topography.
 The villa is in fact situated on a narrow ridge, which more or less dictates its location. The site provides ready access to fertile, well-drained (and watered) land, upland pasture for the animals, and wooded valley slopes for timber, charcoal and firewood. In effect, the three working villas locally were dividing up the area in the way the landscape dictated.
The dates of finds at the Waltham villa suggest that it had been occupied soon after the Roman legions arrived in Britain and abandoned at some point in the 3rd century – perhaps because its owners moved to a new, even grander villa instead.
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