Wymondley Roman Villa

Wymondley Roman Villa is a ruined Roman villa near Hitchin, Hertfordshire, England. It is also known as Ninesprings Roman Villa. It is situated in the valley of the River Purwell in the parish of Great Wymondley. ^{[1] [2]} In Roman times, as now, the villa would have been above a wetland. This natural feature is protected as the Purwell Ninesprings nature reserve.

Wymondley in Roman times

East of the villa there is an agricultural landscape extending towards a Roman road at Graveley. Wymondley is believed to preserve a field system of Roman origin; this early date for the field boundaries was posited by Frederic Seebohm in the late 19th century (around the time the villa was excavated), ^[3] and his theory is largely accepted by later scholars. ^[4]

There is evidence of other Roman buildings at Great Wymondley, near the villa and in the centre of the modern village. We do not know on basis the Romans allotted land at Wymondley. Applebaum speculates that some of the land was farmed by tenants of the villa's owners. ^[5] The people who lived at the villa may have been descendants of the pre-Roman British warrior aristocracy, because at some places the Romans returned the land to its original inhabitants. However, at other places the Romans are known to have formed what they called colonia by distributing land to their army veterans.

On the evidence of the continuity in field boundaries, the Anglo-Saxon settlement did not make a big change in the way the land was managed. In this respect, the medieval manor perhaps had a similar function to the Roman villa. However, excavations of the villa found evidence of "squatter hearths" at the villa itself. ^[1] These features indicate activity, probably in the post-Roman period, by people who had no use for the luxurious installations at Wymondley such as heating by hypocaust and mosaic flooring.

Excavation and access

The site was partly excavated in 1884, ^[6] revealing the remains of several rooms. Three of the rooms were heated by hypocaust. While the remains have traditionally been described as a villa, this may be a misnomer. The rooms have been interpreted as an integral bath suite belonging to a villa, or alternatively a separate bathhouse. ^[7]

The site, which is now under farmland, can be accessed via the Hitchin outer orbital path (HOOP). ^[8]

Finds

Finds at the site include Roman mosaic, ^[9] and Roman currency including a coin hoard, believed to have been deposited in the 3rd century, ^[10] which consisted of radiates. ^[11] On the evidence of coins found at the site, the villa may have been established shortly after 200 with occupation continuing until the 4th century. ^[6]

References

1. Historic England. "Monument No. 365078". Research records (formerly PastScape).
2. "Roman villa (site of)". ancientmonuments.UK.
3. The English Village Community. Seebohm, F. 1883. (scan)
4. Domesday: A Search for the Roots of England (1986). Michael Wood. (Book accompanying a TV series presented by Wood).
5. Applebaum, S. "The Pattern of Settlement in Roman Britain." The Agricultural History Review 11, no. 1 (1963): 1-14. Accessed via JSTOR 4 September 2021 (subscription required).
6. Fitzpatrick-Matthews, Keith (2020). "The Archaeology of the Wymondleys".
7. Derrick, Maya (September 2021). "Calls for extra hands to help uncover history-defining Roman bathhouse". The Comet . Retrieved 2021-12-07.
8. "HOOP photo gallery".
9. "Roman mosaic fragment". northhertsmuseum.org.
10. "Monument Number 1302773".
11. Hill, Philip. "Barbarous Radiates": Imitations of Third-Century Roman Coins. Numismatic Notes and Monographs, no. 112 (1949): Iii-44. Accessed via JSTOR September 5, 2021 (subscription required).

51°56′52.85″N0°14′39.54″W / 51.9480139°N 0.2443167°W / 51.9480139; -0.2443167