History and Exploration of Villas

History and Exploration of Villas Villa is the Latin word for farm, and can also mean 'a large country

or suburban house'. They ranged from luxurious mansions to small

working farms. Some villas, like Woodchester Roman Villa in

Gloucestershire compare with eighteenth-century stately homes. They

sported lavish mosaic floors, wall paintings, marble statuary, columns

and balustrades. But few Romano-British villas were as posh as this.

The majority were considerably smaller and included houses, like

Sparsholt, farmhouses with outbuildings where owners could only afford

one mosaic. A villa wasn't just a building. The term villa includes

all outbuildings, for example, baths, shrines and barns. Most villas

were used as farms, however it has been suggested that Chedworth Villa

had other uses, for example a pilgrimage site. Most villas were

located in the south, in the 'low-land zone' of Britain. Most villas

were situated with a maximum of a ten mile distance from the nearest

town. Because typical villas were farms, they relied on roads and

towns to transport and sell their produce at the towns market. In this

question I will find out whether Chedworth was a typical Roman Villa,

by comparing it to other villas in the area and around Britain.

Many villas were built around the second century AD. Chedworth villa

is one of them. Chedworth villa was built in AD120 and lies in what

had once been the advance zone of the frontier in a countryside, which

was thickly dotted with 22 villa sites. This shows that this was an

intensely farmed, yet prosperous piece of land. Th...

... middle of paper ...

...gnor and North Leigh villa also had hypocausts fitted, which shows

it was a common addition in villas at this time. Chedworth had a very

well established bathhouse. It contained hot, cold and warm baths,

changing rooms, and a furnace running all year round, which reflects

the typical Roman lifestyle of this time. Lullingstone also had bath

suites, and North Leigh villa had three. Chedworth was quite unique

compared to other villas, as generally most villas would only have one

bath. Chedworth could have had more inhabitants, or been richer than

other villas and this could explain why they had more than this.

Chedworth had a shrine in the top left-hand corner. It was a shrine to

Roman gods and goddesses. In comparison, Lullingstone and Bignor also

had shrines, but they were different to Chedworth, as they were

Christian.