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Inside the new Visitor Centre
Bradford as seen through the eyes of an artist
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Bradford's newly discovered Roman Villa
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The Roman Villa - most significant find in the West in decades
| Excavation of Bradford's Roman villa started last year. It resulted in the discovery of a near perfect mosaic around 4 metres square the centre of which is pictured below |  |
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Details demonstrate the intricacy of the pattern
| It is regarded as a particularly fine example of workmanship as can be seen from details of the corner decoration |  |
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2nd year's dig reveals even more exciting finds
Mark Corney, who heads the archaeological dig on the playing fields of St. Laurence School, has now completed his second season devoted to uncovering the secrets of the Roman Villa. New revelations this year lead him to believe that this is one of the most important finds in the South West of England for many decades.
His team set out this year to re-open last year’s find of an almost complete mosaic of the 5th century AD and to extend the dig southwards where he expected to find a second room complete with a similar mosaic floor. His knowledge of the layout of villas such as this indicated that there was a high probability of such a find. In this he was not disappointed but the mosaic the team discovered was only intact around the periphery of the room. The centre had disappeared leaving a shallow depression surrounded by fallen masonry from what appears to have been a circular stone built structure built on top of the mosaic. Far from being disappointed with this latest discovery, Mark Corney is excited by what appears to be evidence of an early Christian Baptistry. If this is the case, then the disappearance of the centre of the new mosaic might mean that further excavation next season could well reveal the existence of an immersion tank used for baptisms in the early Christian period. Such baptistries have been found in the eastern part of the country but to date no such discovery has been made in the west.
The view below is looking southwards across the "2002" mosaic to the new mosaic and what may prove to be an early Christian baptistry.
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Could this have been the home of an early Christian bishop ?
The size and grandeur of the villa indicates that it was owned by an important romanised briton and such a person may well have had ambitious towards a bishopric when Christianity reached the area. If that were so it would not have been unusual to sacrifice one of the main rooms of the villa in order to construct upon it a baptistery. Whilst much of the recent publicity has centred around the glamour associated with the discovery last season of an almost intact mosaic floor, its importance may be overshadowed this season if Mark Corney’s suggestion of an early Christian baptistery proves to be correct.
A closer view of the "baptistry" shows part of the new mosaic and some of the debris from the collapsed superstructure.
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New revelations at the site of the "bath house" also !
Further exploration has continued on the site to the west where a large hypocaust was uncovered last year.
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Was this not a bath house but a smokehouse ?
The existence of the hypocaust seemed at the time to indicate the existence of a large bath house. Examination this year of remaining tiling from the floor over the hypocaust is now leading to a modification of this theory. The floor seems to have unexplained gaps in the tiling as if deliberately to let smoke from the hypocaust system to penetrate into the chamber. This would not fit well with the belief that the building had been a bath house and it is leading Bill Moffat, another archaeologist working on the site, to the conclusion that this was in fact a smokehouse which would have been important for the preservation of perishable food for consumption during the winter months. Here is a close-up view of the hypocaust
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Why has the site remained so completely intact ?
The location of the villa on a hilltop has been an important reason why the site has continued largely untouched for over 1400 years with apparently no buildings being erected over the top of it. Early settlements tended to be on hilltops where cultivation of the land was simpler. Later settlements were in river valleys where drainage and timber felling were a prerequisite of successful agriculture. Once cleared these sites, being environmentally more friendly, continued to be used after the roman influence had ceased and new constructions were carried out over the rubble of ancient buildings.
This may mean that as with the Saxon Church the topography of Bradford may again have been responsible for preserving yet another historic building from later alteration by developers – something that will please the Preservation Trust.
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We are archiving these pictures & many more
Bradford on Avon Preservation Trust is proud to have been not only associated with the discovery of the roman villa but in its small way with financial assistance towards the excavation. The photographs on this page were presented to the Trust by Imageworks of 24 Silver Street, Bradford on Avon and are now in the Trust’s archives.
We look forward to next year's dig and what new information it will reveal.
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