Bristol's Kings Weston Roman Villa

Villa Open Days

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An in-depth guide to King's Weston Roman Villa

Kings Weston Villa was discovered during the construction of Lawrence Weston housing estate and named after the house on whose land it was sited. In 1947 work began on Long Cross, a road subsequently found to run straight through the Villa and which partially destroyed it in the process. Two buildings were revealed but only one, the Eastern Building, was fully excavated (1948-50)*. Finds from the site (items of domestic and everyday use including pottery, iron tools, bronze fittings and coins, and of personal adornment such as rings, pins and bracelets) are on display and in store at the City Museum, Bristol.

Please remember when viewing the remains that they do not represent the complete building - it is likely that the main body of the house lay under what is now the road.

Generally, a villa is thought of as a country house and estate, which was often, but not necessarily, associated with farming. The main building, with several rooms under one roof, was usually constructed of stone, brick, or at least had stone foundations. Decorated walls, mosaic floors, heated living rooms and bath suites in various combinations gave an air of luxury, comfort and relaxation. The remains at Kings Weston include examples of all these features.

Excavation revealed an almost symmetrical plan (see overleaf) which developed in several phases: the bath suite, (Rooms 3, 4, and 5) and Room 13 were later additions as were the furnace chamber and hypocaust in Room 11.

For the most part the sandstone-built walls are now little higher than the foundations - we have no way of telling how tall they were but we do know they were originally covered on the outside with pink or white stucco. We cannot tell if there was an upper level or the shape of any windows although fragments of window glass were found. The main entrance faced towards the hill (9) - the threshold stone and a quantity of large broad-headed nails suggest a large double door, probably made of heavily studded oak and flanked by columns (see below). We also know that the roof was mainly covered with large hexagonal slabs of grey sandstone.

Rooms 1 - 5: The Bath Suite

Bathing was an essential part of Roman life and the baths themselves were often a major social venue.

A simple Roman bath-suite generally consisted of three rooms, the frigidarium or cold room, the tepidarium or warm room and the caldarium or hot room, each with a plunge-bath heated accordingly. The idea, as with modern Turkish baths, was to induce sweating. The bather moved through each room from cold through to hot and then in reverse: sweat and dirt were removed using an oiled skin-scraper or strigil. A furnace provided both hot water for the baths and hot air to circulate under the floors via the hypocaust system.

Rooms 1 and 2 were part of the original building and represent the caldarium and tepidarium: both had mosaic floors supported on piles of stone slabs (some can still be seen) under which hot air circulated. A furnace was situated to the north of Room 1 (the hottest room) but is now destroyed. Tufa may have been used to create a half-domed ceiling in Room 1.

The suite was extended twice. Rooms 3 and 4 were added first and represent the frigidarium and apodyterium, or dressing room. Room 5 was begun at an even later date but appears never to have been finished - it may simply have been a porch. Room 3 contains the remains of a cold plunge bath, lined with concrete and painted red, the sides of which may have been built up above floor level to make it deeper. A drain for the bath can now be seen at its base. Two iron collars, which connected wooden pipes, were found outside Room 3 and may be the remains of the water supply. Both rooms were furnished with mosaic floors and Room 4 may have had a bench and a large pot for use as a latrine - a hoard of six Constantinian coins (c. AD 330-335) was found here.

Rooms 6 and 7: West Wing

Rooms 6 and 7 may have been designed as one large living room which could be divided with a partition if necessary: both rooms had mosaic floors though only one, in Room 7, was fit for preservation. Excavation showed the floors to have been laid on poor foundations: as a result almost all that survived in 6 was a rough border although in 7 the floor was virtually complete. The remaining design consists of geometric patterns except for one panel, which portrays a large wine-bowl with spiral scrolls on either side - it is possible that the area was used as a dining room or triclinium. The white, blue, yellow and green cubes or tesserae are made of local stone and the red of clay tile: debris suggests that many tesserae were shaped on site. Fragments of wall-plaster revealed a vivid colour scheme consisting of a pink dado, speckled with white and dark red (perhaps imitating marble), with pink or white panels above (outlined in dark red) containing designs in red green, yellow and blue. The windows in Room 7 were thin blue-green glass (coloured by impurities) which would have let through a blue-tinted light.

Rooms 8, 9, 10: Porticus, Porch and Gravelled Court

Originally two square stone bases (just over a metre in front of the main entrance) supported a pair of Bath stone columns, one on either side of the porch (9). Sometime later shorter columns were set on pedestals just outside the doorway as well as two more just inside. On either side of the doorstep are slots for stone doorjambs whilst in the centre are two boltholes, one for each door (as above): the ridge along the outside edge acted as a stop.

The porticus (8) was a covered way with a flagged floor. At first six free-standing columns were used to support the roof along the courtyard side but were subsequently replaced (probably due to subsidence) by two pedestals carrying pairs of shorter columns, with four small stone archways on either side. The remains of a hearth used during the construction period were found towards the western end whilst a stone platform by Room 11 appears to be connected with a later e-occupation. The skeleton of a lamb was found buried to the left of the main entrance and may have been a sacrificial foundation-deposit.

The gravelled court (10) allowed extra light and air into the villa and may have contained a formal garden.

Rooms 11, 12 and 13: East Wing

Room 11 contains the remains of a hypocaust system which was not original but added later: a space for stone pillars which supported a mosaic floor was dug below the old floor level and channels were cut into the walls to house flue-tiles. Slabs used to span the pillars can still be seen in one corner. The end of Room 12 was used to house a small furnace and the heat generated could be considerable - experiments have shown that 23 degrees Centigrade was possible simply by burning charcoal and household rubbish. Whatever the temperature the occupants were intent on keeping it in. Uneven wear on the doorstep suggests that at least one of the two doors was always kept closed. Squatters may have used this room after the Villa was abandoned. The skeleton of a middle-aged man with two sword-cuts to the skull was found mingled with but on top of most of the rubble: his identity, his connection, if any, with the villa and the reason for his death will always be unknown.

Room 13 appears to have been an addition to the plan and possibly constructed at about the same time as the hypocaust in Room 11. With regard to the overall appearance of the building, Room 13 also appears to balance the extended bath-suite on the west side.

Date

It is impossible to say exactly when the Villa was built although we know from coin evidence that it was probably towards the end of the third century AD. The earliest coin (found in an original wall) is of Emperor Claudius II (AD 268-70), whilst the latest belong to the House of Valentinian I (AD 364-83). Coins tend to stay in circulation for many years so we can only use them to give a rough estimate of how long the Villa was in occupation - in this case for about a hundred years. The reason for its abandonment is unknown: there is some evidence for a fire in the West wing although the East Wing appears to have been occupied for at least a short time after. The owner may have left because of raids: as Roman rule diminished there was an increase in pirate attacks around the coasts of Britain (especially c. AD 367-8) which resulted in the sacking of several villas in this area.

Glossary

Hypocaust - the Roman equivalent of central heating - floors supported on pillars of tile or stone allowed hot air from a furnace to circulate below. Walls were warmed as the air passed up them via tile-lined flues.

Stucco - a plaster used for covering walls, ceilings and floors

Strigil - a hollow metal scraper used for removing oils and dirt from the skin during bathing

Tufa - a light porous limey material laid down by hard-water springs which is very strong and easily sawn into shape

Bibliography

* For the full excavation report see:

Boon, G.C., 1950, The Roman Villa in Kings Weston Park (Lawrence Weston Estate, Gloucestershire.) in Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, LXIX, pp.5-58

Boon G.C., 1967, Kings Weston Roman Villa (Bristol City Museum Art Gallery)

Branigan K., 1976,The Roman Villa in South-West England

Collingwood R.G., p; Richmond I., 1969, The Archaeology of Roman Britain

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