Gadebridge Roman Villa, alternatively known as Gadebridge Park Roman Villa, is a ruined

Roman villa A Roman villa was typically a farmhouse or country house in the territory of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, sometimes reaching extravagant proportions. Nevertheless, the term "Roman villa" generally covers buildings with the common ...

Hemel Hempstead Hemel Hempstead () is a town in the Dacorum district in Hertfordshire, England. It is located north-west of London; nearby towns and cities include Watford, St Albans and Berkhamsted. The population at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 cens ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

Excavation

A chance discovery in 1962, it was excavated in 1963-68 under the direction of David S. Neal. A second excavation took place in 2000, also under the direction of Dr Neal.

History

The site may have begun as a pre Roman farm, but after the Roman invasion of AD 43 its proximity to the Roman city of Verulamium seems to have precipitated its development into a sort of spa and resort. From the Antonine Period, c. 138 AD, stone buildings were added, and around 300 AD a large swimming pool, the biggest in Roman Britain after the one at

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

were built. The site may have been leveled around AD 350 possibly because of its owner's support for the usurper emperor

Magnentius Magnus Magnentius ( 303 – 10 August 353) was a Roman general and usurper against Constantius II. Of Germanic descent, Magnentius served with distinction in Gaul, where the army chose him as a replacement for the unpopular emperor Constans. Ac ...

. It returned to agricultural use and was used for cattle pens.

Conservation

The villa is situated in Gadebridge Park. Since the excavations the site has been scheduled and is under grassland. Artefacts from the villa are held by the Dacorum Heritage Trust.

References

Sources

Gadebridge Roman Villa
Dacorum Heritage Trust, Accessed March 2012
Gadebridge Roman Villa
St Albans Museums, Accessed March 2012 *Neal, David S. (1974). ''The excavation of the Roman villa in Gadebridge Park, Hemel Hempstead, 1963-8'' (Reports of the Research Committee of the Society of Antiquaries of London, 31) *
Discover how Dacorum's largest Roman villa evolved
'Our Dacorum', Herts Memories Network. Accessed March 2012 {{Villas in Roman Britain Roman villas in Hertfordshire Dacorum Scheduled monuments in Hertfordshire 4th-century disestablishments in Roman Britain