Crofton Roman Villa in Crofton,

Orpington Orpington is a town and area in south east London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is 13.4 miles (21.6 km) south east of Charing Cross. On the south-eastern edge of the Greater London Built-up Area, it is south of St Ma ...

, in the

London Borough of Bromley The London Borough of Bromley () is the southeasternmost of the London boroughs that make up Greater London, bordering the ceremonial county of Kent, which most of Bromley was part of before 1965. The borough's population is an estimated 332,3 ...

, is a

Roman villa A Roman villa was typically a farmhouse or country house built in the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, sometimes reaching extravagant proportions. Typology and distribution Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD) distinguished two kinds of villas n ...

which was inhabited between approximately 140 and 400 AD. It was the centre of a farming estate of about , with farm buildings nearby, surrounded by fields, meadows and woods. The house was altered several times during its 260 years of occupation, and at its largest it probably had at least 20 rooms. The remains of ten rooms can be seen today. Two rooms contain the remains of "

opus signinum ''Opus signinum'' ('cocciopesto' in modern Italian) is a building material used in ancient Rome. It is made of tiles broken up into very small pieces, mixed with mortar, and then beaten down with a rammer. Pliny the Elder in his '' Natural Histor ...

" floors, and three have evidence of tiled, or "tessellated", floors. Details of an underfloor central heating

hypocaust A hypocaust ( la, hypocaustum) 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 th ...

can also be seen, featuring both channelled and pillared systems, as can small finds from the site. The villa is adjacent to

Orpington railway station Orpington railway station is on the South Eastern Main Line, serving the town of Orpington in the London Borough of Bromley, south-east London. It is down the line from London Charing Cross and is situated between and stations. It is in Tr ...

, and is not far from

Lullingstone Roman Villa Lullingstone Roman Villa is a villa built during the Roman occupation of Britain, situated in Lullingstone near the village of Eynsford in Kent, south-eastern England. The villa is located in the Darent Valley, along with six others, including ...

, near Eynsford,

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

Discovery

The site was discovered in 1926, when workmen were preparing a driveway for some new council offices, and unearthed some Roman artefacts. Preliminary archaeological investigations at the time established the existence of the villa, but the site was not fully investigated until 1988, when further work was carried out by the Kent Archaeological Rescue Unit (KARU). Details of their findings were published in a book in 1996.Brian Philp: ''The Roman villa site at Orpington, Kent.'' Kent Archaeological Rescue Unit, Dover 1996, . The site is protected within a modern building.

Gallery

File:Crofton Roman Villa.jpg, File:Hypocaust at Crofton Roman Villa.jpg, Hypocaust File:Internal View of Crofton Roman Villa.jpg File:Villa crofton floor.jpg, Floor File:Villa crofton room 14.jpg

References

External links

Crofton Roman Villa website Local council website
{{authority control Houses completed in the 2nd century Archaeological sites in London Former buildings and structures in the London Borough of Bromley Museums of ancient Rome in the United Kingdom Archaeological museums in England Museums in the London Borough of Bromley Orpington 2nd-century establishments in Roman Britain 5th-century disestablishments in Roman Britain Roman villas in Kent