Roman barn conversion with lavish baths found at Rutland villa complex

If you thought barn conversions were a relatively recent development for the property-owning classes, you would be wrong - probably by 16 or 17 centuries.

- Harriet Sherwood

Archaeologists at the site of a Roman villa complex in the east Midlands have discovered that its wealthy owners converted an agricultural timber barn into a dwelling featuring a bathing suite with a hot steam room, a warm room and a cold plunge pool.

Fresh evidence of the villa owners' lavish lifestyle comes two years after a family found fragments of ancient pottery on a ramble through farmland in Rutland. Archaeologists from the University of Leicestershire, in partnership with Historic England and Rutland county council, later unearthed a rare mosaic depicting Homer's Iliad.

The finding-now protected by the government - was described as "the most exciting Roman mosaic discovery in the UK in the last century".

Now the same team has unveiled further discoveries at the site, including the conversion of a barn the size of a small church.