Villa Rustica (Dicket Mead)
In the Villa Rustica of Dicket Mead is the remains of a Roman estate , which was excavated from 1960 to 1974 in some cases. The name Dick Mead is an old hallway name. The remains are now a little north of Welwyn Garden City and are partially preserved and can be viewed.
Excavations have partially uncovered four buildings. In the east there is a roughly 6 × 27 large building, which was partly built in stone. It had a central hall, which was probably once divided into various rooms by wooden walls. There were hypocausts in the south . The long sides were each flanked by a veranda. Another similar building was on the west side of the complex. Here, too, there was a central hall and a veranda on each of the long sides. In the south there was a bath with a tepidarium , a caldarium and a frigidarium . The rooms had hypocausts, and there was a small room where the fire for the hypocausts was. The bathing complex was preserved and can be visited today. It is located in a specially made tube, which in turn is located under the A1 road , a motorway.
A third building is roughly in the middle of the two systems discussed. Only a bathing complex with hypocausts and apses has been excavated here. The fourth building is a simple square, the function of which is unknown. The buildings of the facilities were partly decorated with wall paintings. The villa was probably built around 200 and was inhabited until the middle of the fourth century.
The Villa Rustica from Lockleys located nearby.
literature
- Tony Rook: The Roman Villa Site at Dicket Mead, Lockleys, Welwyn , in Hertfordshire Archeology , 9 (1987), pp. 79-175
Web links
Coordinates: 51 ° 49 ′ 39.7 " N , 0 ° 12 ′ 29.2" W.