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Borough Hill Roman villa is located on the north tip of
Botfield’s excavations revealed a large range of rooms which ran from north to south, part of which was a bath suite. It was deduced that the buildings were built over a period of time and that the northern rooms are later additions. The earliest parts of the villa were built in the early years of the Roman occupation.William Edgar, ''Borough Hill (Daventry) and its History'', page 44. ASIN: B001075ZNY The villa consisted of a single storey and was constructed from the local
Roman central heating: the hypocaust
Channel 4 Time Team project {{Villas in Roman Britain Roman villas in Northamptonshire Iron Age sites in England Archaeological sites in Northamptonshire West Northamptonshire District 1823 archaeological discoveries
Borough Hill
Borough Hill is a hill to the east of the town of Daventry in the English county of Northamptonshire. It is over above sea level and dominates the surrounding area.
History
Borough Hill has a history of human habitation dating into prehistor ...
, a prominent hill near the town of Daventry
Daventry ( , historically ) is a market town and civil parish in the West Northamptonshire unitary authority in Northamptonshire, England, close to the border with Warwickshire. At the 2021 Census Daventry had a population of 28,123, making ...
in Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by
two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...
.Ordnance Survey
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Explorer Map, Rugby & Daventry, 222, The villa’s remains lie within the ramparts of an Iron Age
The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...
fortress
A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...
which covers the summit
A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. The topography, topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous.
The term (mountain top) is generally used ...
of the hill. The remains of the Roman villa
A Roman villa was typically a farmhouse or country house built in the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, sometimes reaching extravagant proportions.
Typology and distribution
Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD) distinguished two kinds of villas n ...
were discovered in 1823 by the historian and archaeologist George Baker, who identified Borough Hill with the Benaventa of the Britons and Isannavaria of the Romans. The remains were not fully excavated until 1852 when local historian Beriah Botfield thoroughly excavated and recorded the site. Botfield employed an artist to make drawings of the site and these illustrations along with Botfield's notes, manuscripts and some of the antiquities found on the site are now kept at the British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
.
The excavations
Botfield’s excavations revealed a large range of rooms which ran from north to south, part of which was a bath suite. It was deduced that the buildings were built over a period of time and that the northern rooms are later additions. The earliest parts of the villa were built in the early years of the Roman occupation.William Edgar, ''Borough Hill (Daventry) and its History'', page 44. ASIN: B001075ZNY The villa consisted of a single storey and was constructed from the local marlstone
Marl is an earthy material rich in carbonate minerals, clays, and silt. When hardened into rock, this becomes marlstone. It is formed in marine or freshwater environments, often through the activities of algae.
Marl makes up the lower part ...
(sandstone), infilled with rubble. The inside walls were plastered, as may have been the exterior, although this is not certain. The building had a tiled roof, examples of which can be seen in Northampton Museum. Some specimens of fresco
Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaste ...
ed plaster were found still clinging to the remains of interior walls. It was also discovered that the villa had an elaborate heating system installed under the building. Hot air from a furnace or hypocaust
A hypocaust ( la, hypocaustum) is a system of central heating in a building that produces and circulates hot air below the floor of a room, and may also warm the walls with a series of pipes through which the hot air passes. This air can warm th ...
flowed through the building by means of flues. Some of the floors were supported upon brick or flat stone piers which supported the floor leaving a two to three foot gap in which the air flowed. Botfield also discovered a well south-west of the villa. The well was stone lined and in the upper levels of the well a skeleton was found, with bronze accoutrements as well as an iron fibula
The fibula or calf bone is a leg bone on the lateral side of the tibia, to which it is connected above and below. It is the smaller of the two bones and, in proportion to its length, the most slender of all the long bones. Its upper extremity is ...
and hook.
The site today
A walk across the site of the villa reveals nothing today. Botfield very carefully backfilled the site to its original state. The nature of the construction of this villa, being built fromsandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks.
Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...
, meant that the only way these remains would survive the ravages of the British weather was to backfill the site.
See also
*Bannaventa
Bannaventa or Benaventa was a Romano-British fortified town which was on the Roman road later called Watling Street, which today is here, as in most places, the A5 road. Bannaventa straddles the boundaries of Norton and Whilton, Northamptonsh ...
*Piddington Roman Villa
Piddington Roman Villa is the remains of a large Roman villa at Piddington, Northamptonshire, about south-east of Northampton, a county in the East Midlands of England.
Location
The villa is on the site of an earlier late Iron Age settlement ...
near Northampton
Northampton () is a market town and civil parish in the East Midlands of England, on the River Nene, north-west of London and south-east of Birmingham. The county town of Northamptonshire, Northampton is one of the largest towns in England; ...
References
External links
Roman central heating: the hypocaust
Channel 4 Time Team project {{Villas in Roman Britain Roman villas in Northamptonshire Iron Age sites in England Archaeological sites in Northamptonshire West Northamptonshire District 1823 archaeological discoveries