Sprung from the earth

The reconstruction of a Romano-British villa at The Newt, Somerset, has prompted a wonderful experiment in living archaeology. Bronwen Riley steps into the past

- Bronwen Riley

Villa Ventorum The property of a Romano-British gentleman and his family, AD351

VILLA VENTORUM or ‘the villa of the winds’ lies quietly in the rolling countryside of Britannia Prima, a province extending across south-west England and a good chunk of Wales. It sits at the heart of a modest estate, which includes a park, arable land and pasture, a great many sheep and a newly planted vineyard. Built on the site of an Iron Age settlement, the villa mostly dates from the mid-3rd century to the year in which we now find our- selves, AD351, although it probably evolved from a more modest 2nd-century house.

It is one of at least 69 villas in the vicinity of the local civitas, or tribal capital, at Lindinis (Ilchester), 12 Roman miles away. It is not in the grandest category of houses—those palatial complexes of 40–70 rooms built around courtyards that are currently reaching their apogee in the province, especially in the Cotswolds, near the provincial capital Corinium (Cirencester) and outside the fashionable spa town Aquae Sulis (Bath).

Villa Ventorum’s domestic rooms are, by contrast, laid out in a single range orientated north to south, with detached out-buildings nearby. Its owners have clearly lavished much recent money and attention on it, embellishing it with baths, mosaics, wall paintings and heating systems, all the hallmarks of Roman civilisation.