| Summary : The site of a large courtyard villa of Roman date, first excavated in 1795. Reports refer to more than 40 rooms, many tesselated pavements, plus numerous finds including fibulae and coins. Around 20 inhumations, some lying on the wall foundations, some in stone coffins, were discovered in two rooms in the west wing. Further excavation occurred in 1973 in advance of road works on the southern part of the site. Examination of air photographs by RCHME in 1996 noted probable parts of the villa as fragmentary cropmarks, as well as traces of enclosures. The site is scheduled as an ancient monument. |
More information : [SK 9549 7851] Roman Villa [G.S.] (Site of). (1)
Large courtyard villa, excavated in 1795, revealed more than 40 rooms, many tessellated pavements, pottery, fibulae, and coins, including some of Constantine. Twenty skeletons, some lying on the foundation walls, some enclosed in stone coffins, were discovered in two of the rooms of the west wing. All were orientated E-W, and point to Saxon or later Christian burials. [See SK 97 N.E. 1 for St. Pancras' chapel in existence here in the 12th century] In addition, the skeleton of a woman with a Roman bronze ring on one of the finger bones was found. Roman villa site scheduled.
Coin of Philip I found nearby (SK 957 785) was Romano-British coarse pottery (SK 9594 7833).
In Lincoln Museum are two coins of Crispus from Scampton. [? from this site]. (2-6)
The published villa site is under plough, and the indicated pottery / site under crop.
No finds were made during perambulation, and no recent ones are known locally; none of the recorded finds can be identified in Lincoln Museum. (7)
The plan (a) shows a large group of buildings, including a bath house, extending over an area 200 feet square and arranged round two courtyards. The main entrance was in the middle of the west side. This was obviously a very large establishment, not all of which was traced in excavation, as the plan shows walls extending beyond the excavated area. (8)
Probable parts of the Roman villa, referred to by the previous
authorities, were seen as cropmarks and mapped from poor quality air photographs. Fragments of a possible enclosure, defined by two ditches, 10 metres apart, are visible centred at SK 9552 7847. Adjacent to this is an incomplete circular enclosure, 5 metres in diameter, centred at SK 9548 7852. To the east of these features is another incomplete, much larger, enclosure defined by double ditches, 30 metres apart, up to 450 metres long. Within this is a, possibly unrelated, large circular enclosure (see SK 97 NE 40). Eight closely grouped amorphous shaped pits are centred at SK 9580 7844. Two sides, on average 50 metres long, of another double ditched enclosure are, adjacent to the south east corner of the large enclosure, centred at SK 9591 7833. (Morph No. LI.636.3.1-6, 4.1)
This description is based on data from the RCHME MORPH2 database. (9) |