More information : [SU 37484006] Roman Villa [GS] (Site of) (1)
A corridor villa discovered alongside the railway at Fullerton. It had been constructed entirely of wood (or wattle and daub) as the impressions of the baulks of timber, used as foundations, remained clearly visible in the soil. The main rooms were eighteen feet square; three of them and the corridor had been tessellated but only the pavement of the central room escaped very serious damage. No hypocaust was discovered. The mosaics were removed to the Manor House where for preservation, they were relaid as parts of the floor. That from the central room consists of seven medallions, the central, a nude figure of Valour, in a style which suggests a date in the reign of Carausius. The medallion above contains a dancing child; that below is missing; the other four contain full-length figures each holding an implement like a bill-hook. The other mosaics were repetitive patterns. Mentioned. (2-5)
Excavated in 1904. (6)
SU 37494006 - The site of that part of the villa from which the pavements were removed is fenced off from the rest of the field. It is covered with underwood and the ground is still disturbed. A number of large flints and a few fragments of stone roofing-tiles were eastern slope, at the edge of the flood-plain of the river Ann. [For a possibly associated field-system see Hants 32 NW 12]. (7)
Further excavation at the villa, which was originally discovered by Shaw of Andover and reported to Roach Smith in a letter dated 26th July 1872 (In the Fisher Collection, Exeter Museum) (1), carried out by Mr. and Mrs. D. B. Whitehouse for the M.O.W. from 1964 - 66, has revealed that the villa was built in the late 3rd - early 4th c. A.D. and comprised a main block with double corridor and projecting wings at either end. A shallow channel, up to 25ft. wide and 4ft. deep, was traced for 450 ft. to a point where two narrow leats chocked with rubble, together with fragments of at least two millstones, indicated the position of a mill. The villa was found to overlay a Neolithic site with wooden structures. (8-10)
The site has now been filled and there are no structures visible. (11)
HA 101 Listed as the site of a Roman villa. (12) |