Villa Rustica (Northchurch)

The Villa Rustica of Northchurch is the remains of a Roman manor , which was largely excavated in 1973. Northchurch is a village in Hertfordshire . The villa was inhabited from the 1st to the 4th century AD. Five settlement phases could be distinguished.

The villa was excavated within four weeks in 1973 before the remains were leveled for rebuilding.

No architectural remnants have survived from the first settlement phase. Above all, ceramic on site indicates, however, that a villa or a village stood here as early as the first century AD. The second phase of the villa dates from the second century. Your plan can only be partially reconstructed. It was probably a long building with four rooms of about the same size. On the east side there was a veranda and also a small room in front of it. The villa was expanded around 140 AD. Two more rooms were added to the north and the villa was given a second room at the front, creating a typical villa with corner risers . It seems that the villa was completely abandoned around 170.

A new settlement did not begin again until the third century. In a further construction phase, more rooms, especially at the rear, were added. At this stage the villa also received a bathroom. Three rooms in the southern part of the building were given hypocausts . In a final construction phase in the fourth century, additional rooms were added. Some rooms in the house received mosaics, but only individual stones were preserved. There were also remains of wall paintings.

The examination of the animal bones showed that mainly sheep were kept here in the 2nd century, while they hardly appeared in the 4th century.

literature

• David S. Neal: Northchurch, Boxmoor, and Hemel Hempstead Station: The Excavation of Three Roman Buildings in the Bulbourne Valley , in: Hertfordshire Archeology 4 (1974), 1-135, especially 1-53

Coordinates: 51 ° 46 ′ 24.1 "  N , 0 ° 35 ′ 28.3"  W.