Romano-British villa at Mount Pleasant Farm

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. Most of the houses were partly or wholly stone-built, many with a timber-framed superstructure on masonry footings. Roofs were generally tiled and the house could feature tiled or mosaic floors, underfloor heating, wall plaster, glazed windows and cellars. Many had integral or separate suites of heated baths. 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. Roman villa buildings are widespread, with between 400 and 1000 examples recorded nationally. The majority of these are classified as `minor' villas to distinguish them from `major' villas. The latter were a very small group of extremely substantial and opulent villas built by the very wealthiest members of Romano-British society. 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.

Evidence indicates that the villa site at Mount Pleasant Farm still survives in good condition, complete with foundation walls and tessellated pavements. Finds of Roman artefacts on the site during ploughing confirm the importance of this site, which will retain significant architectural features and archaeological information relating to the Romano-British period in Britain.

Details

The monument includes the remains of a Romano-British villa, situated in two fields to the east of Mount Pleasant Farm, North Cliff Road, Kirton in Lindsey. The site was first discovered in August 1964, during the ploughing of a field which had been under pasture for many years. This disclosed a scatter of building debris including many faced stones, tesserae, wall plaster and opus signinum (a flooring material similar to concrete) fragments, tiles and a variety of samian, greyware, shell-gritted and colour coated pottery types. The nature of these remains confirm that a Romano-British villa once stood here. Part of a tessellated pavement was later exposed in the corner of the orchard, in 1975. Other surface finds discovered during subsequent ploughing include a bronze penannular brooch, loom weights, a small, votive bronze axe head, and several deliberately cut deer antlers. All modern fencing and animal feed and water dispensers are excluded from the scheduling. The paved surface of the private access road which leads from the main highway to the farm is also excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath all these features is included.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract. It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features, considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

26521

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Other
Mnt Pleasant Farm Owners, (1994)
Humberside SMR, Sites and Monuments Records Sheet, (1994)
Walker, J., AM107, (1983)

End of official list entry

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