Woodchester

WOODCHESTER

(11 miles W. of Cirencester)

A silver spoon in the Ashmolean Museum was recovered from West Park (SO 8101) in 1850. (fn. 1) A coin of Germanicus and Romano-British pottery found in 1863 in the long barrow on Bown Hill, at SO 82300180, was taken to Cheltenham College Museum. (fn. 2) The alleged site (fn. 3) of the 'Roman brickyard' serving the villa (1), about ¾ mile distant from it, is perhaps to be equated with the supposed kiln at Little Britain, noted on p. 81, S.V. Minchinhampton.

(1) Roman Villa (SO 83970311), under and adjacent to a former church, now in ruins (map, p. 81, s.v. Minchinhampton), was excavated by Samuel Lysons in 1793–6 (Plate 31); it has been almost entirely reburied. A century before Lysons the graveyard was 'famous for its tesseraick work' (Gibson, Camden's Britannia (1695), col. 247). Evidence of sequence of construction is limited, but exploratory excavations conducted for the Department of the Environment by Mr. Giles Clarke in 1973 exposed successive room levels in the W. range of court A. The double W. wall of room 10 also probably represents succession. The villa had attained magnificence early in the 4th century, but considerable recent finds of samian pottery in the area of the outer court support previous indications of 2nd-century antecedents. Repairs indicate a period of decadence. A late Roman buckle has been found.

A sinking about 50 ft. square in the churchyard marks the site of room 1, with the most important of the known mosaic floors; it is uncovered from time to time for display to the public. Traces of platforms in the rough pasture field S. of the churchyard, known as The Parks, indicate the position of former structures around court B. Buildings have recently been found on the E. of the outer court. To S.E. of the rough scarp which marks the N. edge of the outer court, water, now uncontrolled, flowing from the pond (p in Plate 31), produces marshy conditions adjacent to the newly discovered walls.

Earthwork banks marking the Roman walls were noted by Lysons before he began his excavations. The site, limited to part of a natural shelf in the Great Oolite, is bounded on the E. by the river valley and on N. and S. by re-entrant gulleys; on the W. the rather broken ground of a former orchard rises gently to the foot of a steep N.-S. ridge. Springs just above the villa site feed the pond (p). Levels in the churchyard and in The Parks have been considerably altered and in places (e.g. in the range E. of court B) Lysons noted that floors had been entirely removed and that only the foundations of the walls were left.

The villa extended over at least 2 acres. Lysons excavated some 64 rooms in three courts, but he showed that the structure continued northwards, and also probably westwards. Substantial walls and part of a mosaic lay under the chancel of the old church, demolished in 1862, and a mosaic floor was reported to Lysons some 50 ft. N.W. of room 1, at the point marked 'a' on Plate 31; but it was not seen by him. A cement floor extended S.W. from the double wall flanking room 10. Court A was partly cemented and the rooms around it, mostly heated, had a remarkable series of mosaics (Plates 17–23); some of these are known only from fragments or loose tesserae. Room 22 has limestone pillars under its floor. Room 1, whose 'Orpheus and the Beasts' mosaic with an estimated 1½ million tesserae is the largest and finest known in Britain, has a channelled hypocaust. The walls of the room were over 3 ft. thick; the roof was supported in part by four shafts, the stone base for one of which remains in situ. Room I was entered from corridors on N.E. and S.W.; the evidence on the other two sides is lost. A corridor or gallery 10 ft. wide surrounded three sides of court A, and large rooms lay on the S.E. side; two at least had mosaic floors and contained marble statuary. Court B, said to be coarsely cemented, was flanked on the S.W. by a range without mosaic floors and on the N.E. by an aisled structure. The latter was buttressed above the slope on the E. and Lysons thought it had a bath block at the N. end, room 39 being the hot room; a recent suggestion, however, has made of it a brewery with adjacent granary. Lysons found marble statue fragments in this block. Foundations at q, on the S. of court B, were of a furnace where coal had been burned. Of the outermost court, not necessarily enclosed on its S. side, there is little information; walls and debris along the E. have recently been excavated.

Structural details include arches and bonding courses of tile in walls mainly of Oolite. Lysons often found that the walls were almost robbed away, but in places they stood 5 ft. high above the foundations. There was extensive use of plaster externally and internally, much of it painted; the recent investigations have revealed red, purple and marbled fragments in room 1. Other decorations include marble opus sectile. Some of the fine 'Corinian School' pavements were eventually patched, as in corridor 2, or they were abandoned and overlaid with cement, as was the pavement of room 10, inscribed BONUM EVENTUM (Plate 19). Mosaics varied in quality from those with very small and specially shaped tesserae to others with cubes larger than 1 inch. Small stone column bases and capitals were found in room 26. Pieces of larger columns were found near the building, possibly a gatehouse, on the S. of court B, but no footings for them were identified. The surviving stone base (one of four) in room 1 has a circular socket, probably to receive a wooden shaft (Plate 20). Hexagonal roof tiles were found.

Fragments of two small marble statues featuring 'Luna' and animals came from room 25. A marble group of Cupid and Psyche came from the 'gatehouse' at the centre of the S. wall of court B, and further remains of a marble statue came from corridor 43.

Finds include coins ranging from Hadrian to Valens, with numerous small brass coins of the 'lower empire' (Tetricus to Valens) found in various parts of the site. Among the pottery was decorated samian ware. There were fragments of green glass vessels and a blue glass tube; a small pedestal of 'oriental alabaster' came from room 25. Iron objects include an arrowhead and a dagger; two prick spurs from the range E. of court A are of mediaeval type (Ant J, XXXIX (1959), 69). A degenerate form of late Roman zoomorphic buckle has recently been found. Other bronze objects include a sword scabbard chape with a knob finial, brooches and a miniature votive axe. A circular stone weight of some 13½ lb. came from room 41 and an amphora came from room 45. Shale lathe cores were found. Most of the surviving finds, including the statuary, are in B.M.; other finds are in Stroud Museum, and a hypocaust tile with hobnail marks is in Gloucester City Museum.

S. Lysons, Account of Roman Antiquities Discovered at Woodchester (London, 1797). TBGAS, V (1880–1), 142–7; XLVII (1926), 75–96; 74 (1955), 172–5; 86 (1967), 102–6. Toynbee (1964) passim. Smith (1965), 105–11. RVB, passim. Agrarian History of England, I, pt. 2 (S. Applebaum), passim.