Crofton Roman Villa in
Crofton,
Orpington
Orpington is a town and area in south east London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is 13.4 miles (21.6 km) south east of Charing Cross.
On the south-eastern edge of the Greater London Built-up Area, it is south of St Ma ...
, in the
London Borough of Bromley
The London Borough of Bromley () is the southeasternmost of the London boroughs that make up Greater London, bordering the ceremonial county of Kent, which most of Bromley was part of before 1965. The borough's population is an estimated 332,3 ...
, is a
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 ...
which was inhabited between approximately 140 and 400 AD. It was the centre of a farming estate of about , with farm buildings nearby, surrounded by fields, meadows and woods. The house was altered several times during its 260 years of occupation, and at its largest it probably had at least 20 rooms.
The remains of ten rooms can be seen today. Two rooms contain the remains of "
opus signinum
''Opus signinum'' ('cocciopesto' in modern Italian) is a building material used in ancient Rome. It is made of tiles broken up into very small pieces, mixed with mortar, and then beaten down with a rammer. Pliny the Elder in his '' Natural Histor ...
" floors, and three have evidence of tiled, or "tessellated", floors. Details of an underfloor central heating
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 ...
can also be seen, featuring both channelled and pillared systems, as can small finds from the site.
The villa is adjacent to
Orpington railway station
Orpington railway station is on the South Eastern Main Line, serving the town of Orpington in the London Borough of Bromley, south-east London. It is down the line from London Charing Cross and is situated between and stations. It is in Tr ...
, and is not far from
Lullingstone Roman Villa
Lullingstone Roman Villa is a villa built during the Roman occupation of Britain, situated in Lullingstone near the village of Eynsford in Kent, south-eastern England. The villa is located in the Darent Valley, along with six others, including ...
, near
Eynsford,
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
.
Discovery
The site was discovered in 1926, when workmen were preparing a driveway for some new council offices, and unearthed some Roman artefacts. Preliminary archaeological investigations at the time established the existence of the villa, but the site was not fully investigated until 1988, when further work was carried out by the Kent Archaeological Rescue Unit (KARU). Details of their findings were published in a book in 1996.
[Brian Philp: ''The Roman villa site at Orpington, Kent.'' Kent Archaeological Rescue Unit, Dover 1996, .] The site is protected within a modern building.
Gallery
File:Crofton Roman Villa.jpg,
File:Hypocaust at Crofton Roman Villa.jpg, Hypocaust
File:Internal View of Crofton Roman Villa.jpg
File:Villa crofton floor.jpg, Floor
File:Villa crofton room 14.jpg
References
External links
Crofton Roman Villa website Local council website
{{authority control
Houses completed in the 2nd century
Archaeological sites in London
Former buildings and structures in the London Borough of Bromley
Museums of ancient Rome in the United Kingdom
Archaeological museums in England
Museums in the London Borough of Bromley
Orpington
2nd-century establishments in Roman Britain
5th-century disestablishments in Roman Britain
Roman villas in Kent