Building 1, which was the principal dwelling of the villa complex at Minster, was excavated over multiple seasons. It consisted of a 'winged-corridor' house of well-known Romano-British type. It stood on a gentle slope at an elevation of 16-17m OD and was constructed on an east-west axis, facing downhill to the south. This arrangement would have provided its residents with panoramic views across the nearby Wantsum Channel, with the Kentish mainland beyond. it was first identified on aerial photographs of the area in 1979. Subsequent excavations demonstrated that the structure had been largely robbed after its abandonment and damaged by recent ploughing. No floors, occupation levels or associated stratification survived anywhere outside the basemented rooms. All the main walls of the building had been removed to foundation level with some sections totally- destroyed. Little structural detail beyond the ground plan thus remained in situ.

As originally constructed. Building 1 consisted of a substantial, winged villa containing eleven rooms. A row of seven unheated rooms (Rooms 1, 5, 8, 9, 12, 13 and 14) constituted the Central Range. The middle three (Rooms 8, 9 and 12) were large, rectangular and of broadly similar sizes. They were flanked on either side by a narrow cross-passage or stairwell (Rooms 5 and 13). Beyond, the end-room at the east (Room 1) was of roughly similar size to the three middle rooms, whilst that at the west (Room 14) was slightly smaller and square in plan. Its smaller size is accounted for by the presence of a correspondingly larger room in the adjacent West Wing. A significant number of additions and modifications were identified within the surviving fabric, implying that the final building was the product of a quite complex structural history. At its most extensive, Building 1 measured some 43 m (E-W) by 33m (N-S) and contained over 20 separate rooms and corridors. Unlike many comparable villas where they were later additions, it is clear that Minster was designed with projecting wings from the first, although the enclosing corridors appear to have been subsequent additions. A centrally placed entrance porch (Room 30) extended from the south side of the Central Range and eventually a boundary wall constructed between the ends of the wings created a small private courtyard immediately in front of the house. There was a projecting apsidal room centrally placed along the north side, with another at the end of the West Wing (Room 28). Both were hypocausted and both seem to have been later additions to the original structure.
(information summarised from report) (1)

<1> K. Parfitt, D. Perkins, E Boast and G Moody, 2008, The Roman villa at Minster in Thanet. Part 5 The main house building 1 (Article in serial). SKE51654.