Woodchester Roman Villa
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Woodchester Roman Villa was situated at
Woodchester Woodchester is a Gloucestershire village in the Nailsworth (or Woodchester) Valley, a valley in the South Cotswolds in England, running southwards from Stroud along the A46 road to Nailsworth. The parish population taken at the 2011 census was ...
near
Stroud Stroud is a market town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It is the main town in Stroud District. The town's population was 13,500 in 2021. Below the western escarpment of the Cotswold Hills, at the meeting point of the Five ...
in the
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
county of
Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...
. It is one of many
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 ...
s discovered in Gloucestershire and was occupied between the early 2nd and late 4th centuries AD. There is now nothing visible of the villa above ground and the site is occupied by a later churchyard. The villa's most famous feature is the
Orpheus mosaic Orpheus mosaics are found throughout the Roman Empire, normally in large Roman villas. The scene normally shown is Orpheus playing his lyre, and attracting birds and animals of many species to gather around him. Orpheus was a popular subject in ...
, the second largest of its kind in Europe and one of the most intricate. It dates to c. AD 325 and was re-discovered by Gloucestershire-born
antiquarian An antiquarian or antiquary () is an fan (person), aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artifact (archaeology), artifac ...
Samuel Lysons Samuel Lysons (1763 – June 1819) was an English antiquarian and engraver who, together with his elder brother Daniel Lysons (1762–1834), published several works on antiquarian topics. He was one of the first archaeologists to investigate ...
in 1793. It has been uncovered seven times since 1880, the last time in 1973, but there are no plans to reveal it again. It depicts Orpheus charming all forms of life with his lyre and has been praised for its accuracy and beauty. A replica mosaic, made of more than one-and-a-half million pieces of stone, was created by brothers John and Bob Woodward, who were inspired after seeing the original pavement. The replica was displayed at
Prinknash Abbey Prinknash Abbey (pronounced locally variously as "Prinidge/Prinnish") (International Phonetic Alphabet, IPA: ) is a Catholic Church in England and Wales, Roman Catholic monastery in the Vale of Gloucester in the Diocese of Clifton, near the villa ...
in Gloucester, England before being auctioned in June 2010 for £75,000.


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The Romans at Woodchester
{{coord, 51.7266, -2.2336, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Houses completed in the 2nd century Roman villas in Gloucestershire 2nd-century establishments in Roman Britain 4th-century disestablishments in Roman Britain Villa rustica