More information : (SP 07011174) Roman Building (R) (Site of) (NAT) (1)
The Roman villa at Listercombe Bottom was discovered about 1760,
when a hypocaust constructed of bricks marked ARVARI was found during
ditch-digging. In 1930 C E Kay, with Cheltenham Grammar School
boys, excavated a small portion of the villa and found part of a
tesselated pavement, a 90ft long wall, a flagged corridor, and the
hypocaust discovered earlier, bricks from which are in Cirencester
Museum. (2-3)
Fifty yards to the west the corner of another Roman room was
discovered in an area where earthen platforms survive.
Finds in Cheltenham Museum include six coins (untraced) one of
them allegedly "Constantinian"; also pottery including Oxfordshire colour-coated 4th century mortarium and calcite-gritted wares, iron
strapping and nails, and a stone cosmetic palette. (4-6)
There is nothing to be seen at the OS siting, at the bottom of a
coomb , except for a light scatter of stone in the pasture and a
few fragments of Roman brick. But along the NW side of the field
wall, 15.0m to the west, are mounds of limestone boulders and
broken limestone extending for 20.0m, probably the line of the
1930 excavation.
Fifty metres to the west, below and half-way along a lynchet, is
a stone-filled hollow, the site of the second building. Other
'platform' like features are natural ground folds.
The finds and plan could not be located in Cheltenham Museum, and
there are no finds from this site on display in Cirencester Museum. (7)
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