Sparsholt Roman Villa was a
Roman villa near the village of
Sparsholt, Hampshire, England. It was constructed in phases from the 2nd to the 5th century, and then abandoned. It was excavated in 1965–72. Nothing is visible at the site today, but finds from the excavations are on display in
Winchester City Museum, and one wing of the villa has been reconstructed at
Butser Ancient Farm
Butser Ancient Farm is an archaeological open-air museum and experimental archaeology site located near Petersfield, Hampshire, Petersfield in Hampshire, southern England. Butser features experimental reconstructions of prehistoric, Romano-Britis ...
.
History
The earliest known house uncovered at Sparsholt was a single-aisled farmhouse probably built in the 2nd century.
[Dominic Perring, (2002), ''The Roman House in Britain'', pages 53–4. Routledge] It may initially have been undivided internally, but by 200 AD it had been replaced by an aisled house with living rooms and a bath suite at one end.
[Richard Hingley, (1989), ''Rural settlement in Roman Britain'', page 69. Seaby] In the early 4th century a separate winged-corridor house was constructed at right-angles to the aisled house, and both buildings formed two sides of a rectangular enclosure.
A barn-like structure was added on the third side of the enclosure.
[Guy De la Bédoyère, (1993), ''Book of Roman villas and the countryside'', page 63. English Heritage] The fourth side contained the entrance to the enclosure which was opposite the winged-corridor house.
Tessellated pavements and mosaics were added to both houses.
The last structure to be built, perhaps during the
post-Roman period, was a timbered hall, outside the courtyard.
[Monument No. 231909](_blank)
Pastscape This incorporated material plundered from the earlier buildings, but nothing distinctively post-Roman or early
Saxon
The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic
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peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...
has been found on the site.
Excavation and display
The villa is located in West Wood, just west of the village of
Sparsholt, Hampshire. Trial excavations were conducted in 1890 and 1895 which revealed part of the plan of the villa.
Excavations, which were led by David E. Johnston, were conducted from 1965–72.
[David E. Johnston, (2002), ''Discovering Roman Britain'', pages 61–2. Osprey] Nothing is visible on the ground today.
On display in
Winchester City Museum is a near-intact 4th-century geometric mosaic taken from the aisled building.
[Roger John Anthony Wilson, (2002), ''A guide to the Roman remains in Britain'', page 113. Constable] Also on display in the museum is a
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 ...
containing a female portrait within a
tondo, which may show the mistress of the house.
Another fresco is a painted version of a
guilloché – a type of pattern common in mosaics but extremely rare in Roman frescos.
At
Butser Ancient Farm
Butser Ancient Farm is an archaeological open-air museum and experimental archaeology site located near Petersfield, Hampshire, Petersfield in Hampshire, southern England. Butser features experimental reconstructions of prehistoric, Romano-Britis ...
near
Petersfield is a reconstruction of the aisled villa building.
The building was constructed by volunteers and includes a functioning
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 ...
system.
References
Further reading
*David E. Johnston, (1973), ''The Sparsholt Roman villa: summary of excavations, 1965–1972''
{{Roman visitor sites in the UK
Roman villas in Hampshire
2nd-century establishments in Roman Britain
5th-century disestablishments in Roman Britain