Roman settlement NW of Ryden Farm

Summary

Villa and Roman remains 900m west of the church of St. John.

Reasons for Designation

Romano-British villas were extensive rural estates at the focus of which were groups of domestic, agricultural and occasionally industrial buildings. The term "villa" is now commonly used to describe either the estate or the buildings themselves. The buildings usually include a well-appointed dwelling house, the design of which varies considerably according to the needs, taste and prosperity of the occupier. The house was usually accompanied by a range of buildings providing accommodation for farm labourers, workshops and storage for agricultural produce. These were arranged around or alongside a courtyard and were surrounded by a complex of paddocks, pens, yards and features such as vegetable plots, granaries, threshing floors, wells and hearths, all approached by tracks leading from the surrounding fields. Villa buildings were constructed throughout the period of Roman occupation, from the first to the fourth centuries AD. They are usually complex structures occupied over several hundred years and continually remodelled to fit changing circumstances. They could serve a wide variety of uses alongside agricultural activities, including administrative, recreational and craft functions, and this is reflected in the considerable diversity in their plan. The least elaborate villas served as simple farmhouses whilst, for the most complex, the term "palace" is not inappropriate. Villa owners tended to be drawn from a limited elite section of Romano-British society. Although some villas belonged to immigrant Roman officials or entrepreneurs, the majority seem to have been in the hands of wealthy natives with a more-or-less Romanised lifestyle, and some were built directly on the sites of Iron Age farmsteads. Minor villas are found throughout lowland Britain and occasionally beyond. Roman villas provide a valuable index of the rate, extent and degree to which native British society became Romanised, as well as indicating the sources of inspiration behind changes of taste and custom. In addition, they serve to illustrate the agrarian and economic history of the Roman province, allowing comparisons over wide areas both within and beyond Britain. As a very diverse and often long-lived type of monument, a significant proportion of the known population are identified as nationally important. Despite ploughing, the erection of electricity poles and a post and wire fence, the villa and Roman remains 900m west of the Church of St. John survive comparatively well. The archaeological remains survive exclusively as buried features or remains. The settlement is of considerable significance and forms part of a wider archaeological landscape of prehistoric and Roman settlements on both sides of the River Avon. The layout of the settlement makes it different to the other archaeological remains in the vicinity. The enclosures, linear features, pits and ring ditch will have potential for remaining layers and deposits that will contain important archaeological information relating to the use, construction and occupation of the monument in addition to providing environmental evidence.

History

See Details.

Details

This record was the subject of a minor enhancement on 21 May 2015. This record has been generated from an "old county number" (OCN) scheduling record. These are monuments that were not reviewed under the Monuments Protection Programme and are some of our oldest designation records. As such they do not yet have the full descriptions of their modernised counterparts available. Please contact us if you would like further information.

This monument includes a villa and Roman settlement located on a plateau at the northern end of a ridge, south of the River Avon. The monument is known from cropmarks visible on aerial photographs and survives as a minor rectangular villa, a rectangular enclosure, smaller enclosures, pits and a ring ditch. The minor Roman villa is rectangular in plan with annexes. A rectangular enclosure situated next to the villa has one side inturned with an entrance and internal divisions. Smaller enclosures are situated in the vicinity of the villa with linear features, pits and a ring ditch.

Further enclosures and archaeological features survive to the east of the monument, but are not currently protected because they have not been formally assessed.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

WT 202

Legacy System:

RSM - OCN

Sources

Other
Pastscape Monument No:- 328319

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.

Print the official list entry