Scheduled Monument: ROMAN VILLA 200M NORTH OF CHURCH (1007466)
Authority | |
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Date assigned | 23 February 1989 |
Date last amended | 11 October 1995 |
Description
The monument includes a Roman villa and associated remains situated on the west bank of the River Medway. The villa includes a number of buildings which survive as buried foundations and other below ground features. These include the main villa building which comprises at least three ranges set around a central courtyard and is aligned north east to south west. Remains of the bath house and a free-standing aisled hall have also been identified. The north west facing range of the main villa building includes two square rooms with massive foundations linked by three parallel walls. The south western range has a series of narrow rooms terminating in an open fronted shed or lean-to, while the north eastern range includes a small bath building. To the south and west of the south western range is a chalk rubble surface, while further south of this are the foundations of an ancillary building. This takes the form of an aisled hall which may have served as accommodation for farm workers. The site was first noted in 1844 and various materials and artefacts have been recovered over the years, including several stone coffins in 1933-35. The site was then partially excavated in the 1960s and 1980s when the plan of the main part of the villa buildings was revealed. The site is believed to have its origins in the Late Iron Age and was occupied until the fourth century AD. Excluded from the scheduling are all structures and buildings constructed in this area, although the ground beneath them is included.
Romano-British villas were extensive rural estates at the focus of which were groups of domestic, agricultural and occasionally industrial buildings. The term "villa" is now commonly used to describe either the estate or the buildings themselves. The buildings usually include a well-appointed dwelling house, the design of which varies considerably according to the needs, taste and prosperity of the occupier. Most of the houses were partly or wholly stone-built, many with a timber-framed superstructure on masonry footings. Roofs were generally tiled and the house could feature tiled or mosaic floors, underfloor heating, wall plaster, glazed windows and cellars. Many had integral or separate suites of heated baths. The house was usually accompanied by a range of buildings providing accommodation for farm labourers, workshops and storage for agricultural produce. These were arranged around or alongside a courtyard and were surrounded by a complex of paddocks, pens, yards and features such as vegetable plots, granaries, threshing floors, wells and hearths, all approached by tracks leading from the surrounding fields. Villa buildings were constructed throughout the period of Roman occupation, from the first to the fourth centuries AD. They are usually complex structures occupied over several hundred years and continually remodelled to fit changing circumstances. They could serve a wide variety of uses alongside agricultural activities, including administrative, recreational and craft functions, and this is reflected in the considerable diversity in their plan. The least elaborate villas served as simple farmhouses whilst, for the most complex, the term "palace" is not inappropriate. Villa owners tended to be drawn from a limited elite section of Romano-British society. Although some villas belonged to immigrant Roman officials or entrepreneurs, the majority seem to have been in the hands of wealthy natives with a more-or-less Romanised lifestyle, and some were built directly on the sites of Iron Age farmsteads. Roman villa buildings are widespread, with between 400 and 1000 examples recorded nationally. The majority of these are classified as `minor' villas to distinguish them from `major' villas. The latter were a very small group of extremely substantial and opulent villas built by the very wealthiest members of Romano-British society. Minor villas are found throughout lowland Britain and occasionally beyond. Roman villas provide a valuable index of the rate, extent and degree to which native British society became Romanised, as well as indicating the sources of inspiration behind changes of taste and custom. In addition, they serve to illustrate the agrarian and economic history of the Roman province, allowing comparisons over wide areas both within and beyond Britain. As a very diverse and often long-lived type of monument, a significant proportion of the known population are identified as nationally important.
Despite damage caused by industrial development, the Roman villa 200m north of the church at Snodland survives comparatively well. Partial excavation has demonstrated the survival of remains of both the main villa building as well as ancillary buildings and other associated archaeological remains and environmental evidence. It is one of a group of Kent villas which overlie Iron Age predecessors and which developed early in the Roman period. The site can therefore give an insight into the development of rural estates from the Iron Age into the Roman period.
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Location
Grid reference | Centred TQ 7075 6201 (103m by 89m) |
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Map sheet | TQ76SW |
County | KENT |
District | TONBRIDGE AND MALLING, KENT |
Civil Parish | SNODLAND, TONBRIDGE AND MALLING, KENT |
Related Monuments/Buildings (1)
Record last edited
Apr 12 2011 10:07AM