| Newport Roman Villa | |
|---|---|
 Museum entrance | |
  Location on the Isle of Wight | |
| General information | |
| Location | Isle of Wight, England, UK |
| Coordinates | 50°41′40″N1°17′30″W / 50.6945°N 1.2918°W |
| OS grid | SZ500885 |
Newport Roman Villa was a Romano-British farmhouse constructed in 280 AD. It is located near to Newport, Isle of Wight.
Newport Roman Villa was unearthed in 1926 when garage foundations were laid by a nearby homeowner. [1] [2] The site was excavated and the ground plan of the villa house was uncovered.
In 1926 the Mayor of Newport, Alderman John Curtis Millgate, J.P., proposed that the Newport Town Council accept the site of the Roman Villa and erect a building over the villa to preserve it. [3] After reviewing the suggestion and considering the costs involved, the Town Council (under a new Mayor), declined the offer due to the costs involved. [4]
Alderman Millgate decided to purchase the site himself and constructed a structure over the villa. [5] Following his death in 1956, the site passed into the ownership of his daughter, Grace Millgate. In 1960, when the building needed a fair amount of repair, Miss Millgate offered the site to Newport Town Council, however it was again declined. [6]
The Isle of Wight County Council agreed to accept the gift of the site from Miss Millgate in December 1960 and the deeds were handed over in April 1961. [7]
It is now a scheduled ancient monument, giving it protected status. [8]
Newport Roman Villa was constructed in about 280 AD with local stone including flint, chalk, limestone and greensand with the walls remaining almost at their original height. The building was roofed with massive slabs of Bembridge limestone which needed large roof timbers to support them. Many of these roof slabs had a distinctive shape, pierced with a single hole to take a nail, were found on the site. It is likely the building was the centre of a wealthy estate. [9]
The discovery of fragments of window glass on the site shows that the building had some glazed windows, and remains of painted wall plaster during excavation show that at least some of the rooms had brightly coloured interior walls.
It features a well-preserved Roman bath suite with hypocaust underfloor heating. [9] The furnace for heating the bath suite was outside the back wall of the villa at the end of the bath wing, and a slave would have been responsible for providing it with fuel. The hot air from the furnace passed through an arch at the base of the villa's back wall and circulated under the raised floors of the three rooms. [8]
It remains unknown when life at the villa ended. During excavation, the skull of a woman in her early thirties was found in the corner of one of the rooms. It has been suggested that she was killed during a raid in an abandoned building. However it is also viewed that the abandonment of the island's villas by the middle of the fourth century could be due to economic hardship rather than the threat of attacks by Anglo-saxon raiders. [8]
The villa has since been reconstructed based on archaeological evidence featuring a Roman kitchen and Roman garden. [10] It is now open to the public usually from around April to October. The villa regularly has over 5,000 visitors per year, with a further 1,400 school children taking part in educational visits. [8] It is located on Cypress Road in Newport on the Isle of Wight in the middle of a residential development. [11]
For 2009 the villa underwent a roof replacement project, involving essential repairs and replacement of the cover-building roof structure to protect it from further weathering. The project has been joint-funded by the Isle of Wight Council and English Heritage, which grant-aided over £40,000 towards costs. The roof has been designed to improve environmental conditions, reducing moisture levels which have contributed to a build-up of algae on the mosaics below. [12]
A hypocaust is a system of central heating in a building that produces and circulates hot air below the floor of a room, and may also warm the walls with a series of pipes through which the hot air passes. This air can warm the upper floors as well. The word derives from the Ancient Greek hypo meaning "under" and caust-, meaning "burnt". The earliest reference to such a system suggests that the temple of Ephesus in 350 BC was heated in this manner, although Vitruvius attributes its invention to Sergius Orata in c. 80 BC. Its invention improved the hygiene and living conditions of citizens, and was a forerunner of modern central heating.
The River Medina is the main river of the Isle of Wight, England, rising at St Catherine's Down near Chale, and flowing northwards through the county town Newport, towards the Solent at Cowes. The river is a navigable tidal estuary from Newport northwards, where it takes the form of a ria. This occurred because the Medina used to be a tributary of what was once the "River Solent", with a larger catchment area. As the Solent valley flooded, the river received less water and more sediment, causing it to become more tidal.
Newport is the county town of the Isle of Wight, an island county off the south coast of England. The town is slightly north of the centre of the island, and is in the civil parish of Newport and Carisbrooke. It has a quay at the head of the navigable section of the River Medina, which flows northwards to Cowes and the Solent. The 2021 census recorded a population of 25,407.
Cowes is an English seaport town and civil parish on the Isle of Wight. Cowes is located on the west bank of the estuary of the River Medina, facing the smaller town of East Cowes on the east bank. The two towns are linked by the Cowes Floating Bridge, a chain ferry.
Ventnor is a seaside resort town and civil parish established in the Victorian era on the southeast coast of the Isle of Wight, England, eleven miles (18 km) from Newport. It is situated south of St Boniface Down, and built on steep slopes leading down to the sea. The higher part is referred to as Upper Ventnor ; the lower part, where most amenities are located, is known as Ventnor. Ventnor is sometimes taken to include the nearby and older settlements of St Lawrence and Bonchurch, which are covered by its town council. The population is 5,567 according to the 2021 Census
In ancient Rome, thermae and balneae were facilities for bathing. Thermae usually refers to the large imperial bath complexes, while balneae were smaller-scale facilities, public or private, that existed in great numbers throughout Rome.
The Isle of Wight Council, known until 1995 as Isle of Wight County Council, is the unitary authority which governs the county of the Isle of Wight in South East England. The council is controlled by the Alliance Group, a coalition of Independent, Green, Independent Network, and Our Island councillors. Its headquarters is County Hall in Newport.
As a geographical entity distinct from the mainland, the Isle of Wight has always fought to have this identity recognised. The Isle of Wight is currently a ceremonial and Non-metropolitan county and local government is by unitary authority. The island is also the highest populated Westminster constituency in the country.
Whitwell is a small village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Niton and Whitwell, on the south of the Isle of Wight, England, approximately 5 kilometres north-west of Ventnor, the village's nearest town. In addition to this, it is about five minutes away from its neighbouring small villages of Godshill and Niton. According to 2001 census data, the total population of the village was 578. There is a variety of stone and thatched housing, as well as some more modern housing, the most recent of which was completed in 2006.
Southern Vectis is a bus operator on the Isle of Wight. The company was founded in 1921 as "Dodson and Campbell" and became the "Vectis Bus Company" in 1923. The company was purchased by the Southern Railway before being nationalised in 1969. In 1987, the company was re-privatised. In July 2005, it became a subsidiary of Go-Ahead Group.
Great Witcombe Roman Villa was a villa built during the Roman occupation of Britain. It is located on a hillside at Great Witcombe, near Gloucester in the English county of Gloucestershire. It has been scheduled as an ancient monument.
Rockbourne Roman Villa is a Roman courtyard villa excavated and put on public display in the village of Rockbourne in the English county of Hampshire. The villa was discovered in 1942 by a local farmer and excavated by A. T. Morley Hewitt over the next thirty years.
Brading Roman Villa was a Roman courtyard villa which has been excavated and put on public display in Brading on the Isle of Wight.
Littlecote Roman Villa is an extensive and exceptional Roman villa, with associated religious complex, at Littlecote Park just over a mile west of Hungerford, Berkshire. It has been excavated and is on display to the public in the grounds of the estate.
Gunville is a small settlement on the Isle of Wight, off the south coast of England. It largely comprises housing, although there are also a small number of shops, a couple of charity shops, some retail warehouses, a snooker hall, Methodist Church and a fishing lake. The settlement seems to date from some time after 1800, although the vast majority of the buildings currently standing in Gunville date from after 1900.
Victoria Recreation Ground is a park located on Recreation Ground Road, just off Carisbrooke Road, in Newport, on the Isle of Wight, England. It was opened in 1902.
Capo di Bove is an archaeological site on the Appian Way on the outskirts of Rome, Italy. It contains the thermal baths of a vast property owned in the 2nd century AD by Herodes Atticus and his wife Annia Regilla.
North Leigh Roman Villa was a Roman courtyard villa in the Evenlode Valley about 0.5 miles (800 m) north of the hamlet of East End in North Leigh civil parish in Oxfordshire. It is a scheduled monument in the care of English Heritage and is open to the public.
Terme Taurine, also known as the Taurine Baths, is a large elaborate ancient Roman baths complex located about 4 km east of the city of Civitavecchia.
The Carsington Roman Villa is a Roman villa at Scow Brook, Carsington near Wirksworth, Derbyshire, England.
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