Villa rustica (Hucclecote)

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The Villa Rustica at Hucclecote is a former Roman manor ( Villa rustica ) on the area of Hucclecote , a suburb of Gloucester in the county of Gloucestershire , in the south-west of England .

The villa is on a slope of Chosen Hill , one of the foothills of the Cotswolds . In ancient times it was in the Roman province of Britannia ( Britannia , since the fourth century Britannia prima ), about five kilometers southeast of the ancient city and Roman colony of Glevum , modern Gloucester, and 300 meters north of " Ermin Street ", an important one Roman road that connects Glevum with Corinium Dobunnorum ( Cirencester ) here.

The villa was excavated from 1910 to 1911 by Canon Bazeley, who however never published his results. In 1933 the villa was examined again by Elsie M. Clifford and William Henry Knowles and the results were this time published.

There are remains from the Bronze and Iron Ages at the site of the villa . The actual villa was inhabited from the second to the fifth century AD. Originally it consisted of a north-south oriented building with a portico on the east side . Various rooms were added over the years. Above all, the villa in the west received a bathroom. In the south, four rooms were expanded and furnished with mosaics in the fourth century . At the very end of the fourth century, the old mosaics were replaced by new ones, with a coin from Theodosius I found under one of the mosaics . The mosaic can therefore be dated with some certainty after AD 395. This is the latest datable Roman mosaic in Britain. The mosaics were all badly preserved. Only one of them has been published with a picture and shows a simple geometric pattern. Most of the coins found in the villa date from the fourth century.

literature

  • Elsie M. Clifford: The Roman Villa, Hucclecote near Gloucester , in: Trans Bristol Gloucestershire Archaeological Society , 55 (1933), pp. 323-376. PDF
  • William Henry Knowles: Roman Villa at Hucclecote near Gloucester , in: The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 14, Issue 04, October 1934, p. 429. PDF
  • Stephen R. Cosh, David S. Neal: Roman Mosaics of Britain, Volume IV, Western Britain , The Society of Antiquaries of London, London 2010, ISBN 978-0-85431-294-8 , pp. 165-166.

Coordinates: 51 ° 51 '23.2 "  N , 2 ° 10' 48.3"  W.