Roman Villas

Roman Villas Villas were built across the south of Britain during the occupation of

the Romans. These were typically used as farms and also housing

estates but others were not. In a villa, typically, you would find

mosaic floors, hypocausts, a bath suite, a garden, fountains,

fortifications, stone walls, glass windows, courtyards, corridors, a

kitchen, farm buildings, painted walls and evidence of worshiping gods

and goddesses. In this investigation I will be comparing Chedworth

villa with other villas in Britain to discover whether or not

Chedworth villa is a typical Roman villa.

Chedworth is located west of London near the border of Wales, it is

approximately six miles away from Cirencester and was built close to

the river Coln. You can see from the image-la belled 'villa map' the

distribution of Roman villas in Britain. As you can see where

Chedworth is located it is amounts a cluster of other villas. The

other local villas were also all built near the river Coln as the

river would have been their water supply. Other villas found across

Britain were also built near a good water supply like rivers or steams

because obviously the people who lived at the villas would have needed

water to survive and also in aid for them to make trade goods. I would

think that the location of Chedworth is typical as is built by a water

supply as many others were and it was built in the part of Britain

where most other villas were built. An atypical villa would be one of

the villas built in Wales as they were built far from any other

villas.

"Arch...

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..., one place which was

unusual was Gadebridge Park which is said to be used as a commercial

spa and it has no religious element. Overall I would say that the

purpose is Atypical because the fact that it has more than one of most

rooms, I think its tried in with the purpose and I have never come

across another villa like this in my studies. Most of the factors

argue that Chedworth is a typical Roman villa and the Atypical villas

themselves e.g. Gadebridge Park being a commercial spa. The problem

with doing this sort of question is the fact that every villa

maybe the occupiers lived in a different way to another e.g. one may

make money through trade whilst another farms, thus affecting the

purpose of the villa. I believe that Chedworth is a typical villa

because there is more evidence to prove so than if it is Atypical.